Wars and Religion
Wars and Religion
I would like to
claim that religion is closely related to wars. There have been many religious
wars in history. Even wars that are not directly related to religion are
sometimes indirectly related to it in the sense that strategies are chosen by
religious criteria as in the case of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. In addition, inhuman acts in wars are often overlooked because
churchmen or other moral leaders are silent about them for religious reasons as
in the case of Nazi’s Holocaust.
Take here an
example of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East opened after
WWII. It was actually a ‘cultural war’ between Japan and victorious or
Christian countries. It was obviously illegal because it applied ex-post facto
law, but there were virtually no Western churchmen or jurists who opposed it. Probably
most judges thought of delivering the Last Judgment to the Japanese ‘suspects.’ It
was a revenge show for the purpose of revealing to the world how Japanese had been
barbarous during WWII, a revenge for Japan’s challenge to colonialism. Unexpectedly,
it has revealed how Western people perpetrate evil. You can see what methods
the judges applied and what expressions they wore when perpetrating evil
because there are recorded videos of the tribunal.
The injustice
and inhumanity overlooked by churchmen and jurists indicate questionability of
religion, doctrine, and ‘specialists.’ They cannot save lives when filling their
role is most needed. What religion must do is to save all people in the world
at all times. It must confer benefits on whole society rather than a part of
it. It needs to maximize social welfare rather than individual utility. An
exclusive religion that makes only some people happy is not a good religion.
Comments
and questions are welcome.
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Kazuhiro
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