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Re: poptarts with a twist of lennon

On Tue, 13 Aug 2002, The Mattrix wrote:

> > My hunch is religion didn't become a primary cause for warfare until
> > the rise of evangelistic religions like Christianity, which were not
> > necessarily tied to any specific nation.
>
> Please insert [perceived as] between "become" and "a" in the above,
> Peter, shall we?   ;-)

No, no insertion is necessary.

> > Before the advent of such religions, my hunch is that nations were
> > more interested in *dominating* other nations than they were in
> > *converting* them to their own faiths.
>
> Sure, but they still were afterwards.  Nothing changed, except that they
> now had a religion that provided an excuse for their actions.

But look at, say, the rise of Islam.  This was a religion which explicitly
encouraged the conquering of the world in the name of Allah.  It went to
war for the specific purpose of spreading an idea, not simply for the sake
of economics or political advantage or whatever, and within a few
centuries of its founding, it had conquered the Middle East and North
Africa and made incursions into Europe and India, etc.

> Did the Romans likely tell themselves, "I'm here to rape and pillage and
> take what isn't mine", or rather, "I'm hear to fullfill my sworn duty to
> Ceaser and God."  What would you tell yourself?  The latter?

Well, I'm not an ancient Roman, and I can't say I've ever studied the
psychology of warfare from their point of view.  But I think there *have*
been people who believed in brute strength -- and who, of course, told
stories about the gods that confirmed this brute-strength ideal.  In such
cases, I would say the god-language is invoked as a justification for
conflicts that were started for entirely different reasons.

--- Peter T. Chattaway --------------------------- peter at chattaway_com ---
 If true love never did exist how could we know its name? -- Sam Phillips
          Happiness happens but I want joy. -- Marjorie Cardwell

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