Last week I spoke about the importance of ethics, but one ethical decision that has been made time and time again form the start of the world to today is the decision to start or cause a war. Ethically it is wrong to cause harm on others, but since there are so many different reasons and causes to a war what may seem ethically wrong to us is clearly the correct decision to others. The fact is that since the start of mankind we have been waging some kind of war with each other. Tribes have attacked and slaughtered other tribes in prehistoric times, and after that during the ancient roman times people and cities outside of Rome and the papal states were slaughtered and murdered. Wars started from disagreements to the way others live have been happening since the start of time, but more recently after BC wars have been started because one country practices a different religion than another. There have been wars started over the money and resources that other countries hold, and there have been civil wars started for others to take what has already been acquired. The fact is, wars have been around as long as people have, and those who start those wars have always either felt that it was the right decision to make ethically, or that the ends justify the means making the ethical and moral nature of the decision unimportant.
One of the most common reasons throughout modern and Anno Domino times is starting war or conflict for religious reasons. Since AD there have been many times war has begun because of religious reasons. One of the most common throughout history is the crusades. Crusades have been called to various cities and countries throughout the years, with some like Richard the Lionheart making his name from them. This is the most basic and common of wars in the past. Another one of the often-caused wars for religious reasons have also been fatwa’s or Jihads that have been called upon from Islamic states.
Religious wars are terribly common throughout history with those still carrying on to this day. What makes it interesting ethically is that all those who calls or fight in these wars believe that ethically it is the most important and correct decision that they have made. They believe rigorously that it is ethically correct and often because of religious differences these wars will be caused. The fact that we know as people harming or murdering others is bad ethically is one thing, but when people believe they should do what they know is morally wrong but for what they believe is the ethically correct thing, it makes the discussion of how importance ethics are more prominent. I cannot imagine many reasons that you should harm another for an ethical reason, but the fact is that it has been happening since the beginning of time and is still happening to this day. This is something that seems to be impossible to stop as one will always go with what they thing is the best.
Ethically I feel that this is something that should not continue in this day and age. As people, we should go with what we believe is ethically correct and best for all others. If you think about how much has happened or how many life events have changed just because of decisions that happened hundreds or thousands of years ago then it is a bit insane. Even though they happened hundreds of miles away and hundreds of years away they have made impacts on your life. These impacts can be anything, such as immigrants being allowed to not allowed access to other countries hundreds of years ago. This means that possible ancestors could have been different, shaping you differently meaning that you could have been born somewhere completely different. Even 9/11 made impacts on everyone to this day in different and varying degrees, and it is almost insane to think a war may have given you a life some consider lucky.