ROBERT PARHAM

You wrote, "Violence is the byproduct of religion plus politics, not religion alone.", actually it is a byproduct of the fact that we have free will, religion and politics are just two of the myriad of reasons that people use to justify their actions.

Then you wrote, " Even if one could imagine a world without religion, one can hardly imagine a world without politics.", considering that the bible says that "true religion" is taking care of widows and orphans which simply means we should all look out for each other, try imagining that kind of world, one without at least some "true religion".

Then you wrote, " The striving for power surely deserves as much credit for the recent riots in Jos, Nigeria, as does the dogma of competing faith groups.", two sides of the same coin isn't it?

Then you wrote, " We forget too easily the theological truth about the universality of human sinfulness, and brand our faith as the one without fault, the one that "didn't start it.", we have free will, what we do with it is each and every individual's choice.

Then you wrote, "Next time we hear news reports citing religion as the source of a fight, let's immediately ask: What are the other untold factors?", Jesus said something very interesting that pertains to this: "To be child-like", there is a world of difference between being childish and child-like.

Most if not all children are both child-like and childish in varying degrees but sometimes the most "mature" adults seem to act the most childish, something to think about.

Take care, be ready.

Sincerely, Thomas Paul Moses Baum.

It is Isaac fighting against Ishmael, from the ancient times of the history of the Bible. In fact, the real representation of Isaac religiouly speaking is the Jewish people, but Christians derived from them. Religion in general is more to politics than to God as well. Just because all kinds of religion are created by very intelligent leaders, making use of their awareness to create rules, with the aim of controlling the masses, legitimating those rules with the idea that a certain god gave them these rules. The subordinated people will never question these rules because they are said to be given by a supernatural being able to destroy each individual and the planet itself! So, religions become dogmas that must not be broken or dismissed. The most powerful and intelligently created religion in the World in terms of the power to control the masses is Judaism. The second one is Islamism, and the third is Christianism. But certainly Judaism is the mother of the others. These religions are the triangle of the most dangerous religions in the World, too. But the root of every evil is Judaism alone. Wars of great meaning in general are politically and religiouly linked to these religions nowadays. And the World is afraid of the power Judaism imposed to it, by the concept that the Jews are God's chosen people and the registers of "powerful meracles and destruction made by their God." I think religion is inevitable because its power is over every single individual and because there is a claim from the inside to look for a cause for existence. Government in general is created by the linking of politics and religion as well and this is a dangerous thing. It is the war of good against evil. The World is lost without any chance to grow free from religion, and religion is a bad thing. It is a disaster! Just because, to admire Nature, the Creator and the Divine is not necessarily to be done religiously. Religion, as well as politics, makes the rethoric of governments, creates boundaries, individualism, puritanism, selfishness and WAR.

They key words here are "band of fertile and hotly contested land". This fight is all about resources. Religion just gives people more reason to fight. People fought over land when they were worshipping the Orishas, and they're doing it now that they're worshipping Jesus and Allah.