The Darkness Within Us
Posted by Alexander Marquez on June 14, 2009War is defined as an armed conflict. Here is a list of some of the major armed conflicts that are going on as I write this post: The Arab-Israeli conflict, which has been going on since 1920 and has caused between 50,000 and 100,000 deaths. Then you have the Somali civil war, started in 1991 and which has caused 300,000 to 400,000 thousand deaths. We then have to talk about the War in Afghanistan, which begun in 2001 and has claimed over 30,000 lives. The war in Darfur started in 2003 and has claimed 450,000 deaths. The war in Iraq started in 2003 and has caused over 100,000 deaths.
These are just some of the wars which are tearing apart parts of our world at the current moment. So, what leads humans to war? According to my sources, the first recorded war occurred in 2,700 B.C. and was fought between Sumer, located in the modern Iraq, and Elam, located in the modern Iran.
So, as is pretty evident, humans have been at conflict since the beginning of the race. Religion will lead you to believe that the reason for the need for humans to wage war against each other is because of the sin of the first humans created by God (see the book of Genesis chapters one and two of the Bible).
Yet for the rest of us that are not religious and who prefer to analyze matters in a more scientific way, the question of what leads man to war is not answered that simply. Maybe religion itself is to blame for creating such dramatic differences between us. Perhaps if religion was eradicated we would all find common ground. Could nationalism be blamed?
Regardless, wars will continue to occur, for there is a dark place in all of us that leads us to take arms and kill our fellow humans, the sad state of the human race. I leave you with a quote from the great Martin Luther King Jr.: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” War will lead to our destruction.
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