Religious Studies: War and Peace

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Why do people go to war?

  • To defend their country against an attack
  • To defend an ally or protect a weaker country that was unfairly attacked
  • To gain or regain territory lost in a previous war
  • To depose a dictator
  • To defendtheir beliefs, freedom and way of life
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Consequences of War

Positives 

  • Freedom from an occupying power (a foregin country that had been taken overby the government)
  • A replacement of the country's corrupt governement with something better that can bring benefits to the people of that country 

Negatives

  • Diseases and famine can spread when fresh water supplies have been contaminated 
  • Homeless refugees forced to live in camps in squalid conditions
  • The destruction of the countrt's economy 
  • Deaths and injuries among the armed forces and the innocent civillians
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Peace and Justice

Peace: The absence of conflict which leads to harmony and happiness 

Peace also involves a feeling of wellbeing. Through times of conflict, many find inner peace, happiness and security through their religious faith. This sense of peace is a constant presence in their lives, which they may encourage through prayer and meditation. 

Justice: Is bringingabout what isright, fair and according to the law or making up for what has been done wrong

Some say without justice there can never be peace. Real peace only exists when people are able to live in freedom with full human rights, inclduing the right to follow a religion without fear or threats from others.

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Sanctity of Life

Sanctity: The idea that life is sacred because it is God-given.

The idea that all human life is precious and should not be destroyed, this is the basis for religious attitudes towards war. If life is God-given and sacred, and it is not up to humans to take it away, how can religious believers justify killing people in a war?

However in some situations-

  • Some believers accept war as a lesser way of an evil than doing nothing and the only way of establishing peace.
  • The sanctity of the enemies' lives is less important than establsihing peace for all
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Pacifism

Pacifism: The belief of people who refuse to take part inwar and any other form of violence

Pacifists think war can never be justified, known as "Conscientious objectors", which means killing is against their conscience.

Pacifists Beliefs

  • The Sanctity of life is important
  • Killing goes against sacred teachings
  • War causes sufffering, bitterness, hatred, prejudice and greed
  • Using violence to achieve freedom or other postive goals is sinking to the same level as the oppressor

Matthew 5:38- Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

  • Many would follow the example of Jesus who did not resist arrest and allowed himself to be crucified
  • Jesus taught his followers to live and work for peace
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Religion and Peace

Buddhism

  • Peace and non-violence are central to them
  • They follow the first moral precept 'I will not harm any living thing'
  • Many would say it is better to be killed than to kill
  • They believe all compassion for all life makes war unacceptable

Islam

  • The root of 'Islam' means peace and Muslims say 'Salaam' which means 'peace unto you'
  • The Qur'an teaches that peace and reconcillation are better than fighting 
  • Muslims should not seek revenge as it is wrong to return evil with evil

Hinduism

  • Believe good karma is built up by pursuing non-violence and by working peace to the world
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Holy and Just wars

Just war: A war that the Christian church defines as acceptable and must fit certain criteria.

  • Have a just cause
  • Be lawfully decalred by proper authority
  • Have good intention (such as promote good and avoid evil)
  • Have a reasonable chance of success
  • Only occur if the good acheived will outweigh the evil that led to the war
  • Be a last resort after all other way have been tried first
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Religions and war

Hinduism

  • Most think war is justifiable if their country is invaded or if the lawful government has been overthrown
  • War should be a last resort and have a just cause, be controlled and not cause unecessary suffering
  • Unarmed civillians and those who surrender should not be killed
  • Protection of the innocent is the duty of the Kshatriyas 
  • Killing is fair in self defence or to protect women and priests

Islam

Believe in the Jihad or 'Just War' in which it must:

  • have been started and controlled by a religious leader
  • have a just cause
  • keep suffering of inncoent civilians to a minimum
  • aim to restore peace and freedom
  • Those killed in a Jihad are seen as martyrs who will enter paradise.
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Victims of War

Refugees: are people who flee from their homes seeking safety elsewhere

- they may be forced to live in refugee camps with poor conditions

- if the neighbouring country is poor, they refugees may be provided with little help

The Red Cross

Red cross: A humanitarian agency that helps people suffering from war or other diasters

  • their aims are to protect and ensure respect for human life and health
  • they prevent and alleviate suffering without any discrimination based on religion, nationality, race and class
  • was founded in Geneva in 1863, they organise medical care for wounded soldiers, searches for missing people and protect civillians
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The Dalai Lama

Was a religious believer who worked for peace. Name- Tenzin Gyatso, born in Tibet

Chinese occuptation of Tibet

  • 1950, Chinese army invaded Tibet and treated the people badly
  • When the Chinese army crushed the Tibetan National Uprsining, over 80,000 Tibetans fled their country.
  • The Dalai Lama escaped to India as leader of the Tibetan government in exile

Peaceful Protest

  • As a buddhist the Dalai Lama refused to consider violence to win back his country, he encouraged refugees to save the Tibetan culture and way of life
  • As a result over 200 monasteries were esatblished in India, taching refugee children Tibetan culture, history and langauge, religion
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The United Nations

The UN: an organisation set up at the end of WW2 to prevent war discussing problems between countries

Its aims are to:

  • to help countries cooperate with each other through international law and security
  • economic development
  • social progress
  • the protection of human rights
  • to establish world peace

With Conflict

  • sometimes they intervene directily in a conflict 
  • - more often they send peacekeeping forces, with troops supplied by each member nations
  • - they do their best to protect civillians and ensure aid is gvien where it is needed.
  • - they also try to keep peace after the conflict has ended
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NATO

NATO: The North Alantic Treaty Organsation,an alliance formed to prevent war in Europe

If a NATO country was attacked, the other NATO members saw it as an attack on their own nations

Terrorism

  • The unlawful use of extreme violence, usually against innocent civillains to achieve political goal.
  • Some terrorists target the government of a country that they balme for injustice or oppression but innocent people are ususally victims 
  • Terrorists who are motivated by religion believe God will reward them for doing what they see as his will

Most people think terrorism can never be justified because it harms innocent people and promotes fear.

Others believe that on the very rare occasions violence may be the only way to get the world to take notice when all other means have failed.

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Weapons of Mass Destruction

They are weapons that can kill large numbers of people and/or cause great damage. 

Biological

  • have bacteria, viruses or other infective material in them that can lead to disease of death
  • if it enters the food chains, water supplies or pollute the atmopshere it would lead to death and illness on a massive scale

Chemical

  • lthey can cause choking
  • burning paralysis
  • destruction of the environment
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Holy Wars

Holy war: Is a war fought for a religious cause or God probably controlled by a religious leader

  • Some find a Holy war a contradiction, killing thousands seems far from holy
  • In the Old Testament, there are many accounts of battles fought under God's protection
  • The Crusades, which was seen as a Holy war both by Chrisitians and Muslims, defending places sacred to their faith

- holy wars have religious aims or goals

- they are authorised by a religious leader or God

- those who take part believe they will gain a spiritual reward

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Nuclear Weapons

For Nuclear Weapons

  • some countries say they act as a detterent: the possesion of one by that country prevents that country from being attacked
  • they may agree in a reduction of nuclear weapons but believe by deposing of them altogether would make that country vulnerable

Against Nuclear Weapons

  • The campaign against this was set up to protest against nuclear weapons (CND), tehy beleuve nuclear weapons pose an unacceptable risk to hummanity
  • The proliferation of nuclear weapons makes the chances greater that irresponsilbe governments or terrorists might obtain them
  • Thier use goes against all the principles for a 'Just War'

All religions oppose the use of nuclear weapons and support disarmament.

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