Many argue that such things as politics, power and material goods are the causes of a lot of wars,

where others claim that it is religion which is the main reason. Where it can be said that religion has had
a large influence on many conflicts in the past so it acts like an important global actor from those times,
it can also be argued that political issues and power struggles have had just as large an impact. While
some argue that religion is the cause of wars, it is inconclusive whether war would or wouldnt exist if
there was no such thing as religion.
Some would say The Crusades are a major example of religion causing war. From the 11
th
century to the
13
th
century Christian states in Europe launched what are sometimes called Holy Wars against Muslims
in the East. These wars centred on the city of Jerusalem which held a Holy significance in the Christian
world. However when 3000 Christians were massacred, this began the retaliation and therefore the
beginning of The Crusades to release example, religion has clearly caused The Crusades as there would
not have been any war if the city of Jerusalem didnt have Christian significance.
However, a contrary argument to these would be that it was the massacre of 3000 Christians which
caused The Crusades to begin and not because of differing religious beliefs, although it is
unquestionable that religion played a major part in the beginning of The Crusades as the massacre may
not have taken place without a religious background. As the argument for religion causing where heavily
outweighs the opposing argument, in this context it is fair to say that using this example, religion does
cause war.
On the other hand the example of wars which have been caused by religion cannot automatically
assume that all wars are caused by religion or generalize cause of one conflict to all conflicts. Following
on from this another example of a war which does not have a religious cause is The Gulf War in 1990.
The basis for war in this example was the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, along with the fact that Saddam
Hussein wanted to invade and capture more land for himself. Therefore, these example again confirms
the idea that religion is not the sole reason for war and that again, political issues are just as likely to be
the catalyst for conflict.
A final argument against, the claim that religion causes war is one which is based on opinion and also
has large quantities of evidence back up the point, that war would occur anyway even if religion did not
exist. One view point is that it is human nature to always want more and this, more that religion, can
cause conflict with other which may lead to war. The evidence to support this point comes from the
large number of wars and conflicts which do not have religion causes.
To sum up, it is unfair to suggest that there would be no war if religion did not exist as it is probable that
human beings would use other motives for war or find other things to fight over. However, having said
that it would also be unfair to declare that religion does not cause war as The Crusades, World War II
and The War in Afghanistan to name just few, defy that notion. Following on from this, some wars do
have religious causes but consequently it is false to suggest that religion causes war in general as there
are other hugely significant causes such as political issues, power struggles and the greed of humanity
for more material possessions which are just as likely causes for war as religion.