Religious Studies: War and Peace

War and Peace

 Civil War - A state of conflict between two or more groups within a country. 

Justice - A state of fairness, people are treated equally and humanely. 

Pacifism - A belief that all violence is wrong and immoral, the idea that violence will not solve anything. 

Holy War - A war that is believed to be supported by God or with a religious goal. The war is fought for a religious purpose e.g to defend believers of a religion. Christians would use it in a way that they believe that they are fighting in the name of God- to defend him. Where as, muslims believe in "jihad" which could be confused as both sides of a conflict could claim that Allah is on their side.  

Just War - War is acceptable if it meets certain points. 

All violence opposes the belief of sanctity of life. War involves the destruction of lives, some of soldiers as well as innocent civilians. 

Causes of War:

• Greed - in order for people to gain more land or resources
• Self- defence - From an attacking nation
• Ally - to protect a country that your country is "friends" with
• Religion - To protect itself from another country trying to impose their religious beliefs on it. 
• Civil War - to remove a ruling government 
• Protection of Human Rights - To defend innocent civilians who are being mistreated 

Different Types of War:

Conventional Warfare - Weapons such as planes, guns, ships and tanks are used, they are also controllable in terms of the target. 

Nuclear Warfare - Weapons of mass destruction are used, they kill indiscriminately. 

Chemical Warfare - Bombs contain chemicals which also contain indiscriminately.  For example, Vietnam Conflict, US used napalm bombs which burns skin. 

Terrorism - This is a type of war that uses fear as its main weapon. Terrorists acts (bombing or threatening to bomb) are used to try and make the government do exactly what the terrorist groups want them to do. 

Recent War: 

The "Vietnam War" is an example of a recent war in which South Vietnam refused to re-unify with North Vietnam because the political leaders were communist. The North and its other communist allies invaded South Vietnam in order to take it over. 

The war lasted for 19 years and in that time South Vietnam surrendered and was re-unified with North Korea under the communist rules. 58, 000 US Soldiers were killed and 350,000 citizens were seriously injured. 

Why might Religious Believers agree with going to war? 

• Most religious believers think that war…