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SvennoJ on 06 December 2024
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Tober said:
SvennoJ said:

Religion, root cause of all evil?


US senator introduces bill to refer to West Bank as Judea and Samaria

Tom Cotton, a staunchly pro-Israel Republican, has put forward a measure that would ban the federal government from referring to the occupied West Bank by its name.

The bill, which is unlikely to pass in the final weeks of the outgoing Congress, would require the government to call the Palestinian territory by a biblical name that the Israelis use – Judea and Samaria.

“The US should stop using the politically charged term West Bank to refer to the biblical heartland of Israel,” Cotton said in a statement.

“The Israeli people have an undeniable and indisputable historical and legal claim over Judea and Samaria, and at this critical moment in history, the United States must reaffirm this.”

There is near international consensus that the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is an illegally occupied Palestinian territory. Earlier this year, the ICJ – the UN’s top tribunal – ruled that the Israeli occupation is unlawful and demanded its end.


Navajo Nation and others have an undeniable and indisputable claim to NA and NA should from now on be referred to as Turtle Island.

I would argue that Religion is not the cause, it's a vehicle. The cause is the quest for power, influence, independence in good and bad ways. Religion is just used to rile up the masses. At least that's what it was during the European wars in the 16/17th century and we see the same today still in the middle east.

True, religion is abused to control the masses. Just like the media nowadays. However religious zealots often have a symbiotic relationship with those in power, even support/appoint those in power. Khamenei being one of them.

I respect the community aspect that religion offers, but at some point you got to ask, is it all worth the destruction and oppression religion has caused and continues to cause. Would people be better off without the crutch of a supreme leader.

Religion is indeed a vehicle, however it's a vehicle that's continuously on a course of oppression. But sure, countries where religion has lost it's grip on society still continue to find ways to oppress people. The Netherlands being one of them. (just mentioning that country since I grew up there and know a bit more of what's going on there)

Btw, the European wars are still ongoing, Ukraine and Eastern Russia are part of Europe after all. And not too long ago Yugoslavia had a war involving religious factions: The Yugoslav wars of the 1990s were fought along ethno-religious lines, with the main religions being Orthodox Christianity, Catholicism, and Islam.

I might have to revise my statement, Europe is the root of all evil. Crusades, Colonialism, Slavery, Apartheid, WW1, WW2, all came from Europe...