[test54]

Flight, it is indeed just one year. Although throughout history Religion is a major cause of wars an hatred. Obviously Communist countries were looked at as Atheist so they would be fighting for other reasons (nationalism being a main reason). However go through the history of the Middle East, India, Africa, Southern Europe (Spain) Eastern Europe (Kosovo & Turkey) and you will find centuries of religious warfare. I know there are other things involved but if the justification for war is religion then it is indeed the cause. just my two cents.

[Flight714]

I'm not saying that religion isn't at the center of any conflicts; it certainly has been for millenia. But of the centuries of conflict, warfare, and genocide, atheism has only enjoyed popularity for a small amount of that time. Many of the secular governments in the world sprang up sometime after the turn of the 20th century. It's like saying that humans haven't had a large effect on the earth overall simply because we've only been around for a tiny fraction of the 4.3 billion years, give or take. Don't get me wrong, I don't think that secular governments are bad, I'm just saying it's hard to compare their short history to that of faith-based rule.
Does it really even matter though? What I was saying before was that religion is the justification. The real cause of conflicts, especially when you go that far back in history, is always up for speculation. Sure, religion could be the cause, but I personally think it's usually just a tool used by those in power. I don't think it'd be fair to say that 9/11 was the cause of the current Iraq war; it was the justification for it. My point is that if there is no dominant religion, then those in charge will find another way to justify their wars and genocide to the people, which is what they did when secular governments became more prominent.
There many cases where religion is the cause of the problem, sure. I just think the wording and oversimplification of the numbers in this article indicates a bias. It's just not that simple.
That said, I'd rather live in a secular nation than a religious one.

[mriff]

Originally Posted by JSanders

Interesting to note the "most violent" of the map above, and to compare with the maps I am inserting below of what is know as the "10-40" window of evangelical opportunity, of the least Christianized nations on earth.

I'd like to know if Luis Bush had a statistician on board. I'd like to know if a statistician would find correlation between the main factors identified in his report, much less causality. From what little I have read, I doubt it. I suspect that there are far too many confounding factors to correctly conclude a link between the factors he has chosen to study.

[djm2]

I doubt that a statistician was on board. The number of potentially confounding variables is huge. A simple examination of the CIA world fact book illustrates that.

[DacyJ]

Wirelessly posted (My name is Bubbles)

Religion scares the crap out of me. I'm not kidding, I have my beliefs but I see religion as cults... I have gone to church and my grandmother is a church going woman but man religion is the one thing that over powers Nascar and it seriously scares the crap out of me.

[CoDudette]

being in a religious-centric nation, you have to understand how our countries work.

india, is by and large very cosmopolitan, especially now, with the increase in expats living and settling here.

we are very tolerant of all religions, and yes, there are fanatics, and extremists.

our enemity with pakistan has been with us for years on end.

post independence, post border issues with kashmir, the enemity has been reaching, or has reached it's boiling point.

you are all aware of 26/11 and the terrorist attacks in india. the terrorists were from pakistan, however, we have strongly stated 'terrorists have no religion'. that doesn't mean we are going to be super fond of our pakistani counterparts.

in a nation where religion is number one priority, you are going to have many battles, many controversies, many inter-religious fights. the pakistani extremists will attack the hindu extremists and so on and so forth. political parties.. such as Shiv Sena who are very hinducentric. however, they have been very tolerant of the muslims in India, but do not condone pakistani activities.

religion unfortunately, makes us a very volatile nation. you do not know when hindu/pakistani people will attack next.

another very famous religious crime:
Babri Mosque - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Which led to:
Bombay Riots - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

so you can see how volatile our nations are. and somehow we still manage to live peacefully. that's not saying that we won't erupt any second. both nations are ticking timebombs, which have already exploded multiple times.