Don't get me wrong... but I've thinking and wondering...

You know how it is when somewhat idle thinking turns serious when it comes to a reality that cannot be denied. Today the reality is that religion has been and continues to be one of the major causes of war… perhaps the major cause of war. The phenomenon has been such a factor in the history of wars that the Latin term bellum sacrum (Holy War) is used to represent the idea of war that is caused by or justified by differences in religion.  In a short list of ten of the ongoing conflicts in the world today, only one is not specifically about religious differences:

War in Afghanistan since 1978 with as many as 2,084,468 fatalities;

in Somali… a civil war since 1991 with more than half a million fatalities;

in Nigeria since 2001 with almost 11,000 fatalities;

in North-West Pakistan since 2004 with more than 52,000 fatalities;

in Mexican drug war since 2006 with more than 150,000+ fatalities;

in Egypt crisis since 1911 resulting in 4300+ fatalities;

in Syrian civil war since 1911… 162,411+ fatalities;

in Iraqi since 2011… 19,598+ fatalities;

in Central African Republic (CAR) since 2012… 2,000+ fatalities;

in South Sudan Civil War since 2013… 10,000+ fatalities

…and the easy-to-find-on-the-Internet list goes on with familiar names of countries and broader regions of the world… and especially discouraging numbers of fatalities.