Almost all religions talk about the need to bring goodness and love. However, oddly enough, the number of religious conflicts is constantly increasing, and they themselves are taking on an extremely fierce form.
Religious conflicts and their forms
Religious conflicts are clashes between bearers of various spiritual values, representing certain cult trends. The main reason for such clashes is considered intolerance to opposing religious views and ritual practices. At the same time, throughout the history of mankind, religious conflicts unfolded not only between completely different cult forms, but also among the same religion (the so-called "schisms").
Religious conflicts have always been characterized by violent forms of violence and murder. In the history of European civilization, the Crusades against Muslims (during which Jews were killed as well), the Roman Inquisition, as well as long-term wars between Catholics and Protestants were some of the most vivid examples of this. In Russia, despite the long-term suppression of facts, the church also actively used torture and executions against dissidents, an example of which is the persecution of pagans, and later of the Old Believers. Meanwhile, the religious idea was very actively used by politicians who sought to enlist solid support from clerical circles in maintaining their own power or waging wars.
The religious idea as an ideological weapon
A particular danger of the religious component in world conflicts is its “universality”. In other words, a religious idea serves as an extremely convenient ideological feed for the aggressive human masses. Where political or patriotic mechanisms do not work, the religious idea is best suited to mobilize society against the “enemy”. For the sake of sacred beliefs, a person is more inclined to take up arms and risk his life than, for example, for the sake of his own state. Convinced of the "sacred" nature of their struggle, people are more forgiving of the numerous victims of conflicts and are more willing to sacrifice themselves. This factor has always been used by dictatorial regimes. Suffice it to recall the Nazi soldiers, whose belts bore the inscription "Gott mit uns" ("God is with us"). Stalin used the same principle when he legalized the Orthodox Church in 1943 in order to strengthen the religious spirit of the soldiers who defended the atheistic state from Hitler.
Despite the abundance of formal justifications for the use of aggression and force against dissidents, the true cause of religious conflicts is always the same - the lack of that very love, which is so much talked about in almost every confession. However, Jesus Christ warned about this when he said: “The time is coming when everyone who kills you will think that he is serving God” (Gospel of John 16: 2). In prophetic form, the Bible describes such religions as a global system, on whose conscience “the blood of the prophets and saints and all those killed on earth” (Revelation 18:24). In contrast to the spirit of intolerance prevalent in the world, truly believers will follow the principle of respecting the right of dissidents to profess their own ideas, not considering them an encroachment on their religious beliefs.
