Dear JP,

In general you may agree that it is better not to go to war than to go to war. There have been many religious wars based on different religious interpretations. This is not restricted to different interpretations of God since some religions have nothing to do with God or have a multiplicity of gods. The recent conflict between the Buddhist government of Sri Lanka against the Hindu Tamils is an example of that. Buddhism does not recognise the existence of a God, and Hindus recognise many gods. Buddhist clergy encouraged the slaughter. The Wars of the Reformation had two Christian groups killing each other and others in the vicinity of the conflict because of different interpretations of God. The Crusades pitted one group of theists against another group of theists. The Holocaust was in part the result of centuries of Christian hatred for Jews. Atheists are human with the propensity for violence that apparently all humans have. However, I have never heard of atheists slaughtering each other because of a difference of opinion concerning the God they don't believe in.

Christianity has some wisdom that Christians largely ignore. Matthew 7:20 (KJV) Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Considering the encouragement of violence in many different religions one fruit of religion is slaughter. Abandoning religion would remove one cause of war and conflict.

I would rather muddle along in my confused atheistic state which doesn't offer certainty than to have the certainty of righteousness which the religious employ to justify their mayhem. Atheism doesn't offer certainty. It offers something better. We realise we may be wrong and usually cannot feel righteous enough to go out and slaughter fellow humans because they have the wrong idea. We may question authority when it tries to set us at each other's throat. Onward, Christian soldiers. We atheists realise that we only have this life and are less eager to lose it or deprive others of their lives than are the believers.

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/making/warprayer.html is a satire by a great writer on the encouragement of violence by religion.

Dear David,

<<Considering the encouragement of violence in many different religions one fruit of religion is slaughter. Abandoning religion would remove one cause of war and conflict.>>

Your conclusion as if wars and violence perpetrated by organisations that profess to be "religious", is a result of their religion (which they don't truly have) - is illogical.

More likely, that violence and conflict is a result of those groups' abandonment of religion, while retaining it in name only.

Dear Yuyutsu,

I think you fail to recognise what religion is. Religion has very little to do with non-violence. You seem like a decent person who does not wish to harm others or to exercise violence. However, I really don't think you are a religious person. You are too decent. You make god and religion in the image of yourself. I wish it were, but it isn't.

david/..<<..too decent...You make god and religion
in the image of yourself>>

as usual..direct/to..the heart..of the matter.

but its god who makes us..
and we made religion

<<.....I wish it were,>>[us who make good]
and so it is as we recognise all good is of god.
[why call ye me good?..there is but one good [him..wholly spirit/the grace and mercy that sustains god beast and men..to live[ye can blaspheme jesus/the jews/even god himself..but not the holy spirit[OR RATHER VISA VERSA;}

<<..but it isn't.>>no the holy spirit..lives intimatly at the level where majic happens [change of state]..osmosis..that expansion as ice freezes..change of state,that changes the condition of the sun to radiate..emit..'light'..sustaining life..that life in the light decide to live in kove/not envey fear nor spite

no i agree its just not so..and yet every life the creator/holy spirit]sustains to live has its life lessons..that collectivly summate as the works made seen of the great unseen/revealed by his sign.

we each are but a neuron..in the big bio computer of energy changing state/as the one without peer..makes endless self recognition and self repair...take care[some excelent sumations]..no reply from auther?

Dear David,

<<Religion has very little to do with non-violence>>

Non-violence (Ahimsa) is the very first and foremost religious injunction, or restraint (Yama) of Hinduism and related religions. Yamas are also prescribed as the first limb, or step, of Yoga (which means linking with or uniting with God, same as the Latin 'Religare'), without following which, one is unable to progress on their spiritual path.

As I explained above, by mistreating others, one reinforces the illusion of being separate from them, hence separate from the common substratum which unites us all - God.

Religion is not defined by its injunctions. It is defined by what its practitioners do. Gandhi followed the injunction. However, the Hindu who murdered him acted as most Hindus do. By their fruits shall we know them. I know about the injunction of ahimsa. However, the injunction does not define the behaviour. Matthew 7:20 has it right.

Gandhi was not a real Hindu, and Martin Luther King jr. was not a real Christian.