WHENEVER
conflict flares between groups of people who are divided by theology (often
rather obscure points of theology), commentators will say: "Of course,
it's not really about religion—the actual cause has to do with economics, or
geopolitics, or just tribal identity..."
And
the clever commentators have a point. In Northern Ireland, Protestants and
Catholics do not fight because they disagree over the pope or rosary
beads; they fight because the former mostly want to remain part of the United
Kingdom while the latter yearn (eventually, at least) to join the Irish
republic. But that doesn't mean that religion is completely irrelevant. At
least in the recent past, if Protestant firebrands wanted to whip up
anti-Catholic sentiment, it was convenient to portray their adversaries as
practitioners of an exotic and vaguely frightening cult, and their own side as
a people mandated by God to maintain the truth in a hostile land. Even if
religion is not the main cause of conflict, nothing keeps conflict on the boil like
a dose of fiery religious rhetoric.
Read
the complete article at -- http://www.economist.com/blogs/erasmus/2013/11/religious-difference-and-war
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