this post was submitted on 31 Oct 2023
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I think that religion is the reason that's often used to mask simpler motives; people want other people's stuff--their land, their wealth, their resources--without having to expend work to get it themselves. Or perhaps they can't get what they want/need without taking it from their neighbors. For instance, Japan is a very small country, and seriously lacks natural resources; in order to compete internationally, they needed to become an expansionist empire in the late 1800s/early 1900s, which led to them bombing Pearl Harbor in order to attempt to stop our imperial ambitions in the Pacific. Sure, Japan made claims about the emperor being divine, but it was fundamentally about resources.
Of course you can find examples of conflicts not motivated by religion. But do you think that for example Balkans would be such a shit show if all the nations involved had the same religion? They have the same ethnicity and similar language. What's the divisive factor there? The rest of the Soviet Union managed to transition peacefully. Why is that? And what about the crusades? Was the motivation really the land? Or simply religion? What about missionaries and all the harm they have caused? Did any polytheistic religion had missionaries? I don't think so.
And before you start listing other wars and crimes not motivated by religion I'm obviously not saying that without monotheism the world would be perfect. I'm just saying it would be better.