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> For all its many failings, I think this is one of the benefits that religion (an particularly the form of religion popular in Europe during the the last 2000
by disown 6y ago
> For all its many failings, I think this is one of the benefits that religion (an particularly the form of religion popular in Europe during the the last 2000 years) can provide.
Europe was home to the most horrific religious violence in human history. From the pogrooms of the views to the spanish inquisition to the horrors of protestant and catholic rivalry. Even nazism drew upon centuries of european religious past.
> By having a notion of some god, and a cannon, you can have a list of ideas that everyone considers good, and it makes such demagoguery a little more difficult.
Actually it makes such demagoguery much easier as it makes it easier to demonize others - infidel, unbeliever, christ killers, apostate, etc. Religion does half the work for the demogogue.
- frenchyatwork 6y ago> Europe was home to the most horrific religious violence in human history. I'm not sure this is true. There has been a lot of horrific religious violence in human history, most of it hasn't been well documented. Even if it is true, it's not a useful fact. Pre-enlightenment Europe had more religious violence than post-enlightenment Europe because all official violence in per-enlightenment Europe had to be religious. I'm not a historian, but I'm pretty sure post-enlightenment wars in Europe were significantly more violent than the per-enlightenment wars.