Hello guys this is my first post and I would like to talk about and debate about some of my thoughts about the wards in the name of religion. Starting of I would really want to talk about the ancient years and gradually advancing to the modern ones (I will try to be quick about I can analyze any point you want in the comment section). Ancient Greece was one of the greatest earths civiliazation that we know of and have records. In ancient Greece religion was formed around nature and every single one of the 12 gods (13 if we consider some older books) represented some really important human value or natural phenomenon. Aris was the god of war and on this one we are going to focus here. Greek communities adored Aris as he represented all the war heros and was believed to give might and strenght to his followers (many philosophers like the great Socrates never believed in this gods and were claiming that there could only be one God in this world and as was expected he was killed for his blasphemy and all other people who had the same thoughts). Leaders and strategists not always had the same thoughts with the common people so when they wanted to find soldiers to fight their wars, they would raid on every village and farm and would claim that Aris reached them through a sorcerer ( or Mantis) as they claimed that he gave them his blessing to fight a war. Of course nothing is for free. They always promised land and titles to the war heroes. Long story short this would happen for more than 300 years in Greece and many civil wars and wars againist foreigner would take place always carrying Aris' blessing. They used the word of Aris to encourage the slaves and common people to fight without real earning. Now here comes the interesting part. In the later years when Christianity was introduced and Greeks heard about this peaceful God (they we under the Roman empire at that momment) and his wonderkid (Jesus) they started believing on that new a convinient thing (of course they were minorities who believed in the old gods and they still do). Christianity was planted inside the Roman Empire and it became stronger and stronger over the years. Then the Christians spread it all over the world, making every western country Chritians really fast. Many peace truces were made because both sides of the war were Christian and thanks to the religion the Roman Empire could grow really strong but then the barbaric countries came around. Wild people who did not believe in God started raiding the northern parts of the RE. The pope quickly transferred the world to every part of the Empire that they were Satans minions ( I am not kidding if you are interested I can find you the sources). Many troops rallied to the northern borders to face the "beasts" trying to defend their beliefs and lands. After many years and many wars that followed this one people were getting tired and showed no real will to fight so they were given lands at the borders of the country so they were forced to defend them. That thing really worked, but people couldn't do that forever. So they started losing lands and they tried to reclaim them (from the east). But who would like to fight the fierce Arabs in order the Romans reclam some lost lands. The great crusader army. They were mainly parted from people who didn't know what war really ment. Pope gave their king a title (King under the word of god) and he rallied huge masses of people had the will to reclaim those lands. Now lets take a break here and look into the events better. A strong Muslim army was able to reach spain through africa and Greece through todays Turkey. They were a vengeful army with a cause that was created mainly by their religion. They were fighting while having the divine reward in their minds. They knew that no matter the result what matters is the fight. So Pope came with the "reclaiming the holy lands" plan. But the aim was to make sure Constantinopole (Instabul) was safe. So crusader had a safe passage through Greece and fight alongside Romans until Instabul was safe. Then they continued their journey alone (which was a huge fail as they died without even reaching close to Israel). Why would a same religion army not follow them to the end. Even though they were commanded from a different person if the eastern empire commander really cared he would stop that suicide mission. Appearantly it worked for them. 5 more crusader armies were made. A hundred thousands of dead from both sides, and the board was back to the Christians. Then the original a new Turkish race appeared (sorry for the spelling) Seltzuki Turks. Then demolished the eastern empire and a huge part of their legacy changing the identity of the biggest church in Instabul from Orthodox to a Muslim. For many people this was their greatest achievment. My theory suggests that every side of the wars were using the "divine" element to make their armies perform better in the battlefield while passing general rules in their everyday lives. It is a win-win situation for the empire leaders. Sorry for the long post but I have one last point. This concerns some WW2 events. People claim that Hitler was a religious person and that helped him a lot to gain power in Germany. I want to remind you that Pope of the Western Roman Empire was a Christians but never even gave a damn about sending thousands of crusaders to suicide missions just to solve overpopulation problems ( along with the king) and even earlier when Greeks would fight civil wars while arguing which side is more favored by gods. My point is that NO WAR HAS EVER HAPPENED IN THE NAME OF RELIGION. Lets stop saying that because this is not the truth. Theists believe that because they think that devine spirits told these people to fight wars and it is a good argument for ous to use for the exact same reason. But the truth is in front of us. Leaders never cared about human lives. They were heartless idols to the common and uneducated people. Religion was always a sidekick (maybe even a motive) to the wars ,not the reason. Saying that the crusaders died in the name of God is mistaken. They died in the name of Pope and the King reigning at that period. If religion was managed correctly these wars would never happen and religion would still be a great defensive and unity tool. No religion talks about sacred wars (except the Jihad kaboom one). So this is pretty much it, sorry for the long posts even though it is vastly incomplete. If you want to talk about sth more specific feel free to ask me, correct me and add things. I will try to answer every comment with as much detail as I can because it really doesn't feel right writing such a detail-empty text.