Decimation By Belief

Looking back through history, one can see many occasions when humans have slathered each other in large amounts. Many of these massacres if you would call them that came from a difference of belief, or religion. How can something so great lead to so many deaths? One can trace these occurrences as early as Rome when Christians were the heretic. They were placed on crosses and the crosses were burned, used to light the streets of Rome at night. But of course, with the fall of the Roman Empire, Christianity came into dominance. Now, one would think since they experienced religious persecution, they would avoid it. But, as all things do, they forgot about their past in the Roman Empire. The Crusades is truly one of the first and best examples. According to historians, more people died in the crusades than the deaths of World War I, World War II and the Black Plaque combined. Just because Muslims took over the holy land and they were no longer allowed to visit it. Now, many christians probably don't even care who own it, if they ever get to see it, or if it is even destroyed. Skipping to 1492, Columbus started probably one of the largest massacres of an entire race ever. He not only discovered that the world was round, but that there were more people to control! Of course, they sent over missionaries who originally were visiting but then decided to stay and while and clean up the Indian culture. The indians had different beliefs from the Christians, and because of this it led to the almost complete annihilation of a culture. Not to mention the snatching of any and all land that indians had every right to. Now instead of dwelling on this, I'll move on to the Salem Witch Trials. Every person that was accused of being a witch was found guilty of being a witch because of stupid tests that had a lose and lose consequence. They would put the accused into a tank of water, if she floated, she was a witch. If she sank, she drown but was deemed not a witch. The most recent and horrifying of all these events was Hitler. He practically wiped an entire race* off the earth. Just because someone was Jewish, they were sent to gas chambers, labor camps, and we're also used as guinea pigs in new experiments with new technology and killing methods. IF they survived this, they were then killed. All of their bodies were robbed of any valuable substances, gold fillings, hair, not to mention all of their clothes were taken, and any belongings. There is an easy way that this all could have been avoided though. If religion didn't exist, these events would probably never happened. Hitler's whole basis of systematic killing would be gone. Religious Prejudice, gone. The world would probably be much more open to new ideas. There would be less censorship, considering how people such as Tipper Gore, are claiming that they're just changing things to make it a better place to raise kids to be Christians. It would change government a lot too. But of course this is only wishful thinking. Human nature makes humans to where they rely on having something more to believe in. Not all, but most fall victim to this urge. But maybe someday things will change. The hope lies in today's youth. Now, I'm not saying religion is a terrible thing. It's when people force it on to others that it becomes a problem. And most humans can not help but do that. And i believe that the day that religion ends, world unity will begin.

By Sean X

*Hitler referred to the Jews as a race but they were still a religion. His reference to them as a race may have been part of his propaganda against Jewish people.