Has religion been the cause of most wars in history?

A guest post by James Garth a Fellow of ISCAST with an active interest in the relationship of Christianity to the modern world.

The rise of the so-called “Islamic State” in Iraq and Syria has re-focused attention once again on the role of religiously motivated and sanctioned violence in our world. The sheer brutality that this movement has shown in its systematic persecution of minorities and those who disagree with its precepts has resulted in understandable moral outrage.

The explicitly religious ideology of this movement has prompted some to once again express their belief that “religion has been the cause of most wars throughout history”. I suspect many of us have seen comments of this nature being put out on social media or other forums in recent times. Perhaps we have wondered whether there is any truth to this claim.

It is often overlooked that this particular claim can actually be subjected to careful historical investigation. We could, if we wanted to, sit down, scour through history and produce a careful, comprehensive listing of all wars that have occurred throughout human history, and ascertain which proportion of these wars were, in fact, religious in nature.

As it turns out, this task has already been undertaken by numerous historians. I shall quote two authoritative sources in particular which address this issue:

• The five-volume “Encyclopedia of War” edited by Gordon Martel. Using the criteria that armed conflict must involve some sort overt religious action, the encyclopedia concludes that just 6% of the wars listed throughout human history can be labelled as religious wars.

• The three-volume “Encyclopedia of Wars” compiled by Charles Phillips and Alan Axelrod. This source chronicles 1763 wars overall, of which 123 (7%) are classified by the authors as being religious wars.

I’d like to be clear here about the parameters of my argument. I am not arguing that religiously sanctioned violence is not a problem in today’s world. Nor am I arguing that some religions may actively interfere with the fullness of human flourishing. Nor do I wish to dispute that once a conflict gets going, religious identity can be a fault line upon which societies may fracture, along with ethnicity, skin colour, language and political affiliation.

Nor am I even suggesting that those who assert, contra the historical record, that religions cause most wars deserve to be ignored or silenced. No, by voicing these opinions, people are expressing their fundamental rights of freedom of thought, freedom of speech and expression and, indeed, freedom of religion. It is a vital feature of contemporary Western culture that people should be free to follow any religion or none, and free to criticize any religion if they choose to. And this is exactly how it should be.

I am simply noting that the claim “religion has been the cause of most wars throughout history” does not stand up to historical scrutiny. And this fact ought to be accepted by both the secular humanist and the religious person as we work together for a more stable and more humane world.

If we truly care about understanding present conflicts and preventing future ones, instead of looking for a silver bullet like condemning a broad, monolithic concept of “religion”, we ought to look deeper to ascertain the real root causes of human conflict, as complex as they may be. In the modern context, we should look at poor governance, inequality, systemic corruption, access to and control over resources, arms flows, environmental factors, the role of ethnicity, tribe, language, political affiliation – and yes, religion – in communities, and the complex interaction of all of these factors. Progress in preventing wars may possible, but only if we can adopt an approach which acknowledges these complexities and incorporates them into an honest, evidence-based analysis.

Image courtesy of nuchylee at FreeDigitalPhotos.net