Junaid Mubeen wrote:Except that this belief in God is derived from God himself. So if you believe that God exists and really is all powerful, surely it's not a stretch that he would instil in his Creation an inherent belief in and love for him?
Within the logic of the Abrahamic religions, no it's not a stretch, but it's also not a stretch to believe that God instilled in his creation the power of reason that would enable man to find God later on in life, as I know some religions believe. In fact that makes more sense than simply being born believing there is a God, losing that belief and then gaining it again.
Junaid Mubeen wrote:Seriously, please explain because I'm not sure how you can attribute the major conflicts of our time (and before) primarily to religion.
Lots of wars have a religious element, but only due to the fact that most people in the world are religious, and you're right that there have been very few wars that have been waged purely because of religion (the Crusades being the only one I can think of off the top of my head).
Religion is still a problem in most of the modern conflicts in the world though, even if the primary reason for the conflicts is economic or political, for example how much easier would it be for the Israel-Palestine conflict to be solved if religious Zionist Jews didn't believe that Palestine was their homeland, or how many lives in Afghanistan would be better if the Taliban didn't subscribe to a radical version of Islam? But it's misleading to say that 'religion' is the problem, you only need to look at the 20th century conflicts to see that atheistic reigimes are capable of just as much terror, and I say that as an atheist. The problem is dogmatism and a lack of rational enquiry, things that both religious and non-religious reigimes can easily fall victim to.