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All about are wars and rumours of war. Already we are embroiled with religious fighters but also we are allied with religious fighters. The US army has been taken over to a large extent by religious zealots (as we learned during US conquest of Iraq).
To quote Lt. Gen. William G. "Jerry" Boykin:
This is true and has been true for all history and is why religions and religious cultures have been able to dominate and thrive. In a way, all wars are religious. Belief in something is required beyond the belief in what wars are really about - resources. Knowing that you are simply killing people to take stuff that the elites in your society want to get their hands on tends to make sending sons and daughters off to war a hard sell. But, for God and a happy life after death? Well, that's something people can get behind - and religion makes it possible.
And as more armies get more religion more wars can be expected. If it were only armies killing each other, the happy outcome would be that the zealots would decimate each other but collateral damage isn't just unacceptably high in wars, it's policy.
To quote Lt. Gen. William G. "Jerry" Boykin:
The Muslims, we already believe, fight for their religious reasons and now it is becoming clear that the Israeli army is becoming dominated by religion. As the young man in the video in this article points out near the end, religion makes them better fighters because it gives them a "reason" to fight.I knew my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol.
This is true and has been true for all history and is why religions and religious cultures have been able to dominate and thrive. In a way, all wars are religious. Belief in something is required beyond the belief in what wars are really about - resources. Knowing that you are simply killing people to take stuff that the elites in your society want to get their hands on tends to make sending sons and daughters off to war a hard sell. But, for God and a happy life after death? Well, that's something people can get behind - and religion makes it possible.
And as more armies get more religion more wars can be expected. If it were only armies killing each other, the happy outcome would be that the zealots would decimate each other but collateral damage isn't just unacceptably high in wars, it's policy.