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Comment by stogot | Hacker News Reader

The idea that religion causes more deaths than non-religion is absurd in the 21st history (hitler, Stalin, mao) and is a myth when you take in full world history.

An index of all known wars in history indicated 93% of wars were not religious.

https://apholt.com/2023/01/03/the-myth-of-religion-as-the-ca...

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Never said that religion was responsible for all or even most wars. But you can't deny it plays negative role in many wars. It wouldn't have to be for theological reasons, since it seems the article would only count these cases as religious wars. Religion is often used to segregate humans into opposing tribes, where without religion they could be a single nation, or even same ethnicity.

What kind of logic is that? Exactly the opposite could be said as well and still hold true.

If you mean by "the opposite" that everybody believes the same thing, then theoretically yes. However, that is very unlikely and I assume there will always be people with different views/opinions.

The more you put people into "separate boxes", the more you segregate them. And I agree with the previous reply that religion is one of those things that puts you in a specific box.

I think they mean that people in large groups segregate themselves into smaller ones, by whatever characteristics available. If they had the same religion they’d be separated into orthodox and progressive versions of it, or people who had come off well out of the last great flood vs people who got screwed by it. And then they’d create a religion as explanation for the flood and why it was from god/the devil.

> And then they’d create a religion as explanation for the flood and why it was from god/the devil.

.. as opposed to climate change which is self-evident.

It's a multiplier. The strength of faith it brings will unite people in single mindedness, for good or bad ends.

Religion as taught in schools or many (most?) churches is indeed mostly indoctrination. I've gone the full spectrum, from practicing Christian with a real fear of God as I was taught since I was a kid until 13 then atheist until 25 then slowly getting back my faith by learning a lot about it from different sources.

Now I say I'm as sure that "God" exists as I am of gravity. Too many synchronicities have happened to me for it to just be coincidence. However I still believe that church is mostly a corrupt institution with very few exceptions.

I know Jordan Peterson is a polarizing figure but his biblical lectures are very good and seem like they were created by a different person than he currently presents himself. I'd also recommend Ram Dass and especially Alan watts talks about Christianity

> Religion is often used to segregate humans into opposing tribes

You can say that about absolutely any belief, whether religious or not

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