Does religion cause war?

Kali Zimmerman

Over the past centuries humans have fought was to protect what was theirs or to take what
wasnt. Some people blame religion while other blame society and poverty. A war is an organized
conflict. This can be between two or more individuals, countries, societies and even tribes. The
focus of my essay is on religion. To me its just an excuse for getting what you want. Religion does
not cause war but resources and people are, just look at the Korean War.

When there is a limited supply of resources such as oil, water, land ECT. People fight to
take what is needed or wanted. A circumstance that sadly to say isnt uncommon is when two
groups of people want the same land for a resource that is limited in their vicinity. Oil for example
is fought over time after time. To me this is the cause of war and religion is just a concept that
people dont take lightly.

Religion is based on faith, but faith can be twisted into fanaticism. Ideas on religion have
consequences. For example religion can be used by terrorists who say they are just doing what the
bible tells them is right. To me this is another way an interpretation can be misunderstood. People
cause war by putting what is written to a higher degree. Some people think their opinion is the only
one that matters. Peoples interpretations on the bible have caused war before.

North Korea has been in a war for more than six decades for this very reason. In North
Korea a war on Christianity has been engaged in ever since 1945 when the Japanese were forced
off of the peninsula. The Kim dynasty has abolished and killed thousands of families. When Kim
Il-Sung became a supreme leader he made it known that Christianity was an evident threat to his
ideology of race-based nationalism. He was determined to make sure the pure Korean race
would not get contaminated by foreign religions. During the Korean War in 1951 a myriad of the
Christians fled the country making Kim Il-Sung believe followers of Christ were spies and traders
for America. The entire war was based on what one dynasty believed. Although Christianity is a
religion it is not the cause of the war.

Religion is an aspect on life that can be misread by peoples of the world. I have given you
an example of how one dynasty can affect an entire countrys aspect on Christianity. I have
explained that people are the real reason for conflict and why they start it. I conclude that Religion
as a concept does not cause fighting; Peoples intake and value of what the religion says are the
leading cause of war.