“Everything Poisons Religion” « The Dish

Interesting discussion on Karen Armstrong’s book, Fields of Blood: Religion and the History of Violence, and the links between religion and imperial power and the degree that religion can be separate from economics, social issues and politics:

The conversion of Constantine also meant the conscription of Christianity. It was not long before Augustine of Hippo was developing the convenient theory of the ‘just war’. Similarly the ahadith, the later reports of the Prophet’s sayings, confer a spiritual dimension on warfare which it doesn’t have in the Koran. Militant Sikhs today prefer to quote the martial teachings of the Tenth Guru rather than those of their founder Guru Nanak, who taught that only ‘he who regards all men as equals is religious’.

“Everything Poisons Religion” « The Dish.