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Originally Posted by asaris
Perhaps this discussion would help if you could provide an example of where you believe you should use violence to defend your beliefs. I'm fairly certain that would help me out, at least.
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Originally Posted by zen_tom
I don't accept that conflict based on belief is ever justified. Defence yes, I do accept that. Protection of what one loves yes, absolutely - given no other alternatives. But how can someone threaten a *belief* such that violence is justified?
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The classic example would be genocide; suppose a political party (Nazis) decided to kill off an ethnic group (Jews) because... well, just because. Lets also assume that you don't personally know or are related to any Jews from there. Do you still believe that it is wrong? If you do, do you think violence in defense of your belief about the issue is justified?
Please understand that I am not arguing for an immediate violent conclusion to every conflict; that is a straw man that is often attempted in such discussions. I am all for a logical and peaceful conclusion to
all conflics, but to profess that such solutions are the only moral way of doing things is not only naive but deeply insulting to those taking care of the failures you choose to ignore. Almost every soldier would prefer peace but they recognize that there are some people who cannot be persuaded or reasoned with; people who may not even allow an alternate viewpoint to be expressed. In the real world this failure is going to be encountered eventually and my point is how that should be resolved.