Is religion the biggest influence on history?

>>11316
Religion has been mainly a tool. For example it has worked as a way to calm the masses and give them peace and has been used as a justifaction for conquest. So no, money, power and other "real" values have had the biggest influence on history, religion probably has been one of the best tools in acquiring them along with the gun.

>>11316
Absolutely. It has shifted masses, culture, war and land from one point to another and has always been a part of human civilization. Nothing moves humans like religion.

>>11469
You've got a good point, but there have also been major events caused by ideas present in religion, like, I don't know, the Holocaust?

>>11316
This brings to light a more important question.

Which is better, that religion plays a positive influence on history or that history plays a positive influence on religion?

One would think the latter, that religion should be a consequence of events rather than a means to an end.

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>>11316
The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Christ for the salvation of souls

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>>11316
>Is religion the biggest influence on history?
That's not how you spell class struggle, familia

No. The font of history is class conflict.

>>11316
Religion is one of the worst influences in the world. We have to get rid of all of it. One step closer to a perfect world

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>>11316
It sure is up there, at least in pre-industrial societies.

>>11738
The Holocaust was as much religious as it was political. Nazi Germany wanted Jews dead not because of their religious beliefs but because they were viewed as a subversive element in larger society and a subculture.

You see something similar in Stalin's internment of Russian Jews

And this isn't even going into the monetary factors/greed.


>>11832
Based Bishop Sheen. He's an amazing orator.

>>11978
>>12144
Explain how Genghis Khan burning down half of the civilised world was a product of class struggle.

>>11316
Our lord and savior Jesus Christ is the biggest influence on history, yes.

>>11755
Here's what I mean:

>I became a Christian once I discovered that everything Christ says about life is true.

>I became a Christian because that gives me a basis to denounce things I dislike and attempt to shape the world as I see fit.

One became a Christian as a consequence. The other became a Christian as a means.

Protip: /pol/ is full of the latter.

>>12399
tensions between a weakening feudalism and a rising mercantile capitalism enabled the meteoric rise of the mongol empire. The mongols eventually lost their tribal nomadic culture in order to become feudal overlords, this eventually brought on their downfall, as they were no longer a disruptive factor in the world-system but an integral part of it.

>>12659
Honestly, I don't remember much about Jesus' philosophy being about encouraging his followers to tell other people how to live their lives.

I think the point he was trying to make is that anyone who understands what he's saying will genuinely follow him because they want to, not because they should.

The philosophers control the Gods.

Aristotle and Plato had more influence on Christianity than Jesus Christ. That's not a hyperbole. Even the way in which we perceive Jesus is decided by them.

>>12659
but why Jesus? His claims about life are shallow and banal compared to what the Buddha, the Greeks or the Taoists said centuries earlier. You can be a Stoicist or a Buddhist without accepting any supernatural claims, but Christianity, its whole philosophy and sense of morality, depends on accepting Jesus as the son of God who died for our sins and rose from the dead

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No. War is. Religion, like other social constructs, merely serves to influence how war is waged, and by whom.

>>13413
>Christianity, its whole philosophy and sense of morality, depends on accepting Jesus as the son of God who died for our sins and rose from the dead

That's the philosophy of the church.

Jesus was more like, "Watch this. If I keep telling these guys to stop being dicks, they'll just nail me to a tree. Think about that."

>>13618
And the church is lagging a bit behind on figuring that part out.

yes and its the greatest conspiracy theory. not saying its right or wrong, just that there are so fucking many accounts and most of them are likely straight up bull-netch shit

>>11469
Ah yes, all religion is is just a chain :\

At the time of Jesus, or Mohammed, couldn't someone at least document that these people are attempting to create a fad? one that would last thousands of years.

If I was sent back in time, I would