Ran into this semi-interesting article while searching for stuff on War and Religion

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0524-07.htm

I’m 100% opposed to the mixing of state and religion, as the founders of the US were, however Bush & Co. seem to think it’s not a problem to throw us back into the middle ages. I would have thought that over the past few thousand years humankind would have learned the lessons of history that religion and government don’t mix.

So, this gets us to the main topic covered in the article: whether the current war in Iraq is religious. I think that it is, but only partially. When Bush says he prayed and his god told him he should attack Iraq, that’s definitely religious. It’s unclear whether he thinks his god told him that because the people who live there are not christians. I’ve given up trying to decypher what’s going on in Bushs head, as I’m usually torn between fanatic self-righteousness and stupidity.

But this also leads me to a question for which I’d really like to get an answer: How can someone claiming to be religious (christian in this case) claim to be in favour of any war? I’ve posed this question before, but haven’t gotten an answer. Maybe this time will be different.

What does a religious person, who thinks it’s OK to go invade a country and kill tens of thousands of people, think that their god would think about that? If their god loves all of it’s children, wouldn’t it be pretty mad that you just killed a bunch of them? The fact that they’re not christian aside, they’re still “gods children” and could potentially still convert to christianity. Jesus was supposed to be all-forgiving, so wouldn’t he forgive those people for their “sins”?

The only logical answer that I can think could be put forward is that the christian god is OK with killing “sometimes.” This sounds pretty vengeful, not-all-forgiving, and calous of a “higher being.” This is also one of the main reasons I find the religion so disturbing, although to be fair it’s not the religion saying it’s OK to kill, it’s the misguided people misinterpreting it.

Anyways, I hope some people will post some insight, and if I’m missing something in my interpretation of the teachings of the bible, let me know.