Seeker4 -
This looks like it may be an interesting thread. I hope it doesn’t dgenerate into a flame game…lol.
I think this thread may cover a great number of areas, i.e, theory, philosophy, political, etc.
To open discussion on just one area, you comment:[quote]While I do not have that answer (and likely no one knows exactly), I offer something that may help answer it. James Haught (“Holy Horrors”) has estimated that throughout recorded history, over 100 million people have been killed in some type of religiously-motivated conflict. I did some research on this number. While I couldn’t reach it exactly, it did seem plausable, all things considered. Additionally, this number does not take into account individual incidents of hate crimes, nor the countless acts of discrimination linked to religion every day in every country on the planet. [/quote] and later[quote]As to the death and destruction mentioned above, it is interesting to note by way of comparison that, in all American wars total from the Revolutionary War up through the Gulf War, just over one million Americans were killed ( infoplease.com/ipa/A0004615.html ). Surely, this is not an “apples to apples” comparison. However, it is still staggering to me to think that religious conflict has killed 100 times more people that all of the U.S. wars have within my own country. [/quote]
Here are some figures from a gentleman who has published extensively in this are.
hawaii.edu/powerkills/WARS.GIF
hawaii.edu/powerkills/PRE-20TH.GIF
hawaii.edu/powerkills/DBG.TAB1.2.1.GIF
hawaii.edu/powerkills/DBG.TAB11.1.1.GIF
A most fascinating professor at the Univ of Hawaii, Dr. R.J. Rummel. Some charts from his website - hawaii.edu/powerkills/welcome.html
It is a very extensive sight.
His stance is the research shows that the number of people killed by Governments through history fsar exceeds those killed in “religious” contexts.
Pretty good arguments he presents. His website is very extensive.