can religion be blamed for war?

[stof]

Samus Aran said:

stof said:
Wars aren't fought for, but in the name of God. Of course there are other reasons, but few rationales can approach religion in it's capacity to make the slaughter of other human beings acceptable.

And yes binary solo, there would have been a hell of a lot less war without the fundamental belief that your side is comprised of chosen people who will ascend to a glorious afterlife, and the other side is a race of hethen heretics bent on destroying the world your god made for you.

I'm very anti-clerical as I've said before, but I do think religion has meant some great things for this world and our advancement. When new and bigger structures started to come up like empires that comprised people of different culture and different ethnic groups they needed something to bind those people, so the empire would remain stable for a decent period of time. Religion was the best way to do that. 

Braudel has written some interesting stuff about what civilizations are. Religion(culture) was the most important aspect of a civilization. Take that away and the empire/civilization collapses. 

If you don't know Braudel's theory I could always explain it, or you could just google it.

I don't deny that religion has aided in the cohesion of empires, but an Empire is hardly a good example of how religion HASN'T been a source of warfare. If anything,  that's one of the reason's it has been such an effective tool of War. I would also say that empiric cohesion is far different from societal advancement. There's a name for a civilization that is experiencing it's religions zenith: The Dark Ages. 

If we're to believe that religion isn't a catalyst, if not cause of war, we have to answer this question.

Would 19 people hijack planes and fly them in to buildings if they didn't believe they would go to a wonderful afterlife as a result of their horrific, suicidal slaughter?