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Religion is not the reason that people fight, it is simply a banner.
People fight because of the exploitative and alienating methods of production of commodities and control of labour existing in pre-revolutionary societies.
In the natural state of mankind, there was no war. Or, if you like - there was no war in the garden.
War is a result of exploitation and alienation... all known wars in all human history have been made by the master class and fought by the working class. After the imminent collapse of capitalism, there will be no war.
But one thing in which Marx was wrong was his views on religion. There is no human existence that is possible without God. Not even the Brave New World. Whether or not you believe that God created man, or it is just an accident of chemical reactions - the concept of God is more central to the human condition than any other thing.
I do not say this to be insulting, but atheism is perverse, an extraordinary reaction to a society where old certainties are scattered. To question things is human. To wilfully make a decision to actively disbelieve in God is simply a form of self debasement.... like the pimp in The Deer Park, who as soon as he thought an insecurity, somehow was bound to obey it
I remember seeing Richard Dawkins debating Tony Benn about this on a UK show (Dawkins being a famous atheist who hates the Christian religion, Benn being a socialist and a Christian)... Dawkins certainly has a point to say that a lot of evil has been done under the banner of the church, of many churches... and that texts such as The Bible and The Holy Qu'ran have some pretty crazy stuf in them... he also admitted that he wanted to believe in God and still hoped that he would meet God when he died, although he could not personally sustain his faith in God and believed people should live as if there was no afterlife.
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"Do not tell lies, and do not do what you hate,
for all things are plain in the sight of Heaven. For nothing
hidden will not become manifest, and nothing covered will remain
without being uncovered."
The Gospel of Thomas
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