Does Religion Cause Wars? The short answer is: “Yes and No”. Consider the type of person who rhetorically asks this question and who answers passionately in the affirmative. Such zealots nearly always focus on Christianity rather than religion in general, and ignore their own religion. What is meant by “Religion”? It needs careful definition.
People who claim to be Christian have caused wars. So have people of other religions, e.g. Islam, Buddhism. People who claim to have no religion have also caused wars. Is there an identifier of all the people who have caused wars? And, if there is, what can we do about it?
The real question is: What can be done to eliminate wars? Is it even possible?
Most of Geoff's statistics were obtained from the Wikipedia articleon Religious war at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_war .
Geoff Russell was a professional electrical engineer. He has a Bachelor of Engineering with Honours from the University of Adelaide, a post-graduate Diploma in Engineering & Computer Applications and an Associate in Theology from the Bible College of South Australia. Geoff now lives in Warrnambool and is now an Associate Pastor at a local Baptist Church and the Chaplain at the Warrnambool Campus of Deakin University.
,apologetics,philosophy,science,x_Kd8kW0-Qk,UCIhfOJlwarFO8rPrdktOHyA, Religion,Society, channel_UCIhfOJlwarFO8rPrdktOHyA, video_x_Kd8kW0-Qk,This presentation describes eye-witness accounts of numerous healing and other miiracles that took place in Bungoma in Kenya, as investigated by Gordon Stanger. Here is his summary:
Some doubt the authenticity of Mark 16:17, 18:
And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
However, for those who act upon these words with child-like faith, this text is validated; these, and other miracles do occur. Some extraordinary miracles occurred in a Christian children’s ministry in a remote part of Kenya, as reported in a book by Jennifer Toledo. These included practical deliverance from the evils of witchcraft, which sound bizarre from our cultural perspective. Gordon happened to be working in that part of Africa, so he made a detour to check out the reality of these miracles, the results of which are reported here. We also discuss the purpose of such miracles.
God’s extraordinary miracles aren’t confined to places ‘far away’ in different cultures. Raf has been walking close to the Lord for many years, here in Australia as well as overseas. He relates some personal testimonies of remarkable healing, words of knowledge, and other modern-day miracles.
Dr Gordon Stanger is a geologist, hydrologist, water resources specialist, and a climate-change impact analyst. He also spent significant time in Africa, where he came in contact with many people who received miraculous healing or who had other experiences of the miraculous. He is an RFA committee member and is semi-retired.
,1,At the Global Christian Forum in Accra, Ghana, 16-20 April 2024, Dr. Gina Zurlo, co-director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, pointed to the surprising statistic that today 44% of Protestant Christians reside in Africa:
“The Pentecostal Charismatic Movement, originating in the early 20th century, has become a hallmark of Global South faith, encompassing diverse manifestations within classical Pentecostalism, the Catholic Charismatic Movement, and other charismatic movements. Wherever Christianity spread, and in the 20th century, the Pentecostal charismatic movement spread with it. It appears that the future of global Christianity seems to be Pentecostal."
The Pentecostal Charismatic movement hails back to the founding of the church on the Jewish Harvest Festival Feast of Weeks, 50 days after Passover (7 weeks or 50 days Pentecostal in Greek) when Jesus died and rose again. From that time many miracles were performed by the Apostles and other members of the church. The first one was speaking the gospel in languages understood by Jews from other parts of the world gathered for the festival.
In St Paul's first recorded letter to the Corinthian church, about 55AD, he lists the charismatic gifts and places some restrictions on how they should be used in orderly church meetings.
After the completion of the recognized New Testament books recordings of miraculous signs seemed to lapse until just over 100 years ago when they burst out at the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles in 1906.
Since then, the Pentecostal Charismatic movement has spread widely particularly in Africa and Latin America, as well as in Australia and the USA.
R.T. Kendall, former minister at Westminster Chapel in London, has said that the Word Churches and Spirit Churches have much to learn from each other, and both recent Popes have encouraged their flock to encourage the Charismatic movement in the Catholic church.
,1,Biblical prophecy demonstrates a truth about God and the future. It reveals that God is not defined or limited by time as we know it.
God said to Isaiah that he would declare “the end” from “the beginning”. Many biblical prophets were not welcomed by the populace in their lifetime, but their writings are found in the Scriptures because their truth was vindicated.
Trevor will discuss the following questions:
What does it mean that “The Spirit of prophecy is the testimony of Jesus”? (Rev 19:10)
What is the evidence and probability that these prophecies were fulfilled?
How many OT prophecies are found in the NT?
Why is there a swell in interest in modern times for prophetic topics?
Why are some people describing recent events as “end times”?
,1,Ken Samples, from Reasons to Believe (RTB), addressed Reasonable Faith Adelide on the 22nd November 2023 on the big world view questions. This presentation addressed the following questions:
1. What in the world is a worldview?
2. What does the Bible say about worldviews?
3. What are the four prevalent worldviews today?
4. How do we test worldviews for truth?
5. What makes the Christian worldview unique?
6. Are we experiencing a clash of worldviews today?
This is based "A World of Difference: Putting Christian Truth-Claims to the Worldview Test" (Baker Books, 2007) by Kenneth Richard Samples.
Kenneth Richard Samples earned his undergraduate degree in philosophy and social science from Concordia University and his M.A. in theological studies from Talbot School of Theology. He is a senior research scholar at Reasons To Believe (RTB). He uses his knowledge to help others find the answers to life's questions and encourages believers to develop a logically defensible faith and challenges sceptics to engage Christianity at a philosophical level.
,1,Scientism and scientific naturalism by Tom Daly
On the 9th November 2023, Reasonable Faith Adelaide hosted a presentation on 'Scientism and scientific naturalism' by Tom Daly.
Scientism and scientific naturalism are two ideas that shape how many people view the world around us and what we consider as knowledge, and yet they are often more assumed than examined. Scientism basically says that if you can't prove it scientifically, it doesn't count. Meanwhile, scientific naturalism takes it a step further, claiming that everything that exists is part of the natural world and there's no room for the supernatural. “You have faith, but I have reason” is the common refrain from the secular world and yet, when we compare scientism and scientific naturalism with the Christian faith, a far richer picture quickly emerges. Tom Daly examines some of the background and implications of these 2 beliefs.
Tom’s slides contain several hyperlinks as follows:
Why I believe in God | Dr. John Lennox interviewed by Dr. Amy Orr-Ewing at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnOkOAqyTYE.
Ricky Gervais And Stephen Go Head-To-Head On Religion at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5ZOwNK6n9U.
What Is Science and Scientism? | Ian Hutchinson at https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=mCT-My1_ViA.
Definition of Methodological naturalism at https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Methodological_naturalism.
Straw Dogs Quotes at https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/223467-straw-dogs-thoughts-on-humans-and-other-animals.
Mind & Cosmos Quotes at https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/19311137-mind-cosmos-why-the-materialist-neo-darwinian-conception-of-nature-is.
Does science prove everything? At https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxJQe_FefxY.
Why No One Has Measured The Speed Of Light at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTn6Ewhb27k.
Is There Meaning to Life? | William Lane Craig, Rebecca Goldstein, Jordan Peterson - Toronto 2018 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xV4oIqnaxlg.
Tom Daly is a member of our committee and is an IT professional who has worked in hi-tech for nearly 40 years.
,1,Branding rugby as child abuse has led to a heated debate between callers on Lunchtime Live.
Researchers from University of Winchester in the UK have advised that permitting children to take part in impact sports, such as rugby and boxing, should be considered a form of abuse to the child's brain.
A new study examined the strength of medical evidence showing impact sports cause serious brain injuries and concluded that this harm "runs counter to existing laws around child abuse."
University of Winchester Professor of Sport Eric Anderson, who led the study, told the show there is more and more proof.
"It's entirely fair because it's entirely abusive to a child's brain," he said.
"I know it's a highly-emotive topic, people love rugby etc, but people also love tag rugby.
"Tag rugby doesn't intentionally structure trauma into a child's brain.
"We have decades of research on this now, and every new research project that comes out is worse and worse.
"The [US] National Institutes of Health and the Centres for Disease Control have both stated, definitively, that there's a cause and effect relationship between the micro-trauma that occurs as a regular occurance in children's tackle rugby, boxing or other high-impact sports and long-term brain trauma.
"This is not contestable, medically speaking.
"The problem is we have people who love these sports and don't want to believe the research, don't trust the research or don't know anything about the research".
Prof Anderson said management of contact is beside the point.
"The purpose of the sport is to collide, to bring another child down," he said.
"That has trauma to the brain as a part of it.
"I understand that the culture loves rugby, but a child's brain doesn't care about the culture.
"A child's brain is traumatised when it's hit - full stop.
"You're also very well aware of the fact that many professional rugby players, hundreds now, are suing World Rugby, the Rugby Football Union and other rugby bodies because of the long-term brain trauma.
"So, we can no longer stick our necks in the sand and not see the problem".
Prof Anderson said dementia is now being diagnosed in 18-year-olds, which is only found in high-impact collision sport athletes.
Boxing coach Liam Morley Brereton said there is more care given than ever before.
"I don't know why he says he's a professor in sport, he's scaremongering every parent," he said.
"In boxing you have medicals before, in no other sport does your kid need a medical before they take part even in the gym session, never mind the boxing.
"In kids boxing every one of them are medicled every year; they'd be medically [checked] three months before a competition and they're medically checked the day of the competition.
"If they win that fight, they're medically checked the next morning.
"If a punch is landed anywhere hard... you're checked after the fight.
"I used to ride horses as a kid and I got more falls; are we just going to stop playing every sport?"
,1,Does Religion Cause Wars? The short answer is: “Yes and No”. Consider the type of person who rhetorically asks this question and who answers passionately in the affirmative. Such zealots nearly always focus on Christianity rather than religion in general, and ignore their own religion. What is meant by “Religion”? It needs careful definition.
People who claim to be Christian have caused wars. So have people of other religions, e.g. Islam, Buddhism. People who claim to have no religion have also caused wars. Is there an identifier of all the people who have caused wars? And, if there is, what can we do about it?
The real question is: What can be done to eliminate wars? Is it even possible?
Most of Geoff's statistics were obtained from the Wikipedia articleon Religious war at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_war .
Geoff Russell was a professional electrical engineer. He has a Bachelor of Engineering with Honours from the University of Adelaide, a post-graduate Diploma in Engineering & Computer Applications and an Associate in Theology from the Bible College of South Australia. Geoff now lives in Warrnambool and is now an Associate Pastor at a local Baptist Church and the Chaplain at the Warrnambool Campus of Deakin University.
