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If beliefs did not exist, would war?

Rayray100 4 Aug 1
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The word 'beliefs ' extends to far more than religious beliefs which seem to me ot have a sort of frame all around them thta has nothing to do with day to day living - and I would have to at some point have a belief in my own ability to change what I am able to change (not talking about anyhting religious here just day to day stuff like overcoming fears learning how to change a tyre or how to deal with sensitive /insensitive people. I am not sure war will ever be eradicated because it isnt a learning more of a wanting for destruction and it seems that many of us are hard wired to enjoying warring.

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Wars at the highest level are economic in nature. The strategic level leaders only use beliefs to justify their greed and convince their underlings to order their subordinates to fight.

JimG Level 8 Aug 2, 2018
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I have beliefs and have never consider a war so no.

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There is no such thing as a world free of beliefs, or even one human life free of beliefs.

You must mean specific beliefs, perhaps religious ones?? I think there would tend to be less war without those particular beliefs, but really, war is about tribalism, and without religion you would still have other things to be tribal around like race, clan, political ideology, etc.

Why do you say, "no such thing as a world without beliefs"?
I am asking hypothetically. Also I don't have beliefs, everything I know is based off of knowledge and facts.

@Rayray100 Then you hold the belief (a reasonable and justified belief, BTW) that accurate apprehension of knowledge and facts matter.

Perhaps you are trying to define belief out of the equation by limiting it to religious faith. I don't think that is accurate, tempting though it may be. Beliefs can also be based on known facts and present understanding without religious faith being in the mix at all -- or with nothing but scientific and secular philosophical illumination.

I think there's also a danger in saying, "I know things based on knowledge and facts, as opposed to my current beliefs are based on currently available knowledge, facts, and my present understanding thereof. It implies (to some people, anyway) that once you determine that you know any thing "X", then your inquiries are complete and no further review or observation is needed. In point of fact, our database of facts and our understanding of them and how to integrate them into coherent and useful systems is always changing (hopefully, mostly, improving), and so you current awareness and comprehension may need to be updated at any time. Indeed, our needs of the moment are constantly changing, such that an understanding that works today may stop working or being relevant tomorrow.

@mordant well that was well put and I can't disagree since I do live by the standard of being objective to any and all ideas. As long as it is able to go through the scientific method of course. Thank you for your insight.

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Non- religious ppl seem to generally tend to see the beliefs of religious ppl as absurd and they / we are right about this IMO .
What justifies this opinion , we think , is the obviousness of the conflicts and contradictions between what their deities say ' the good ' and what they do ' the bad ' !
But .
It seems obvious to me that this not a condition reserved only to religious believers .
It has a similar power over the non- religious population as they fail to see the same kind of obvious conflicts and contradictions in what their human-form political deities say versus what they do .
So . yeah...as long as we're that kinda stupid whether we're religious or not , there will be war !

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Yes

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I'm sure it would.

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Yes, before there was religion, various tribes fought for resources.

Some of the worst massacres were committed by people without religion, such as in Cambodia,
and Stalin killed 12 million of his own people.

All people need for war is to want what another group of people have. Land, water, food, anything.

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You betcha. As @AnneWimsey pointed out land and resources are the big hitters. Religion is helpful since it often serves as a tool to control the masses and get them to fight.

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If war didn’t exist we could believe in so many things.

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Land & resources have been traditional war reasons, not just religion....religion may have even provided an excuse, but as always, follow the money!

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Yes, because people would still be sneaky and greedy.

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