Persepolis - Debate Worksheet (Religion in politics)

Group Members: Milly, Dada, Noey, Gam, New, and Jeen  Class #: 1206

Topic: D​ oes religion create more violence or more peace? 

 
Print this worksheet and bring it for the class debate. Worksheets will be submitted to the instructor. 
 

Peace Violence
Argument 1 - Religions such as christianity and buddhism does - People kill others in the name of God
not allow you to kill anyone. If you do kill
List arguments in bullet-point format. someone, you are going against the religion.

You may use phrases; complete
sentences are not required.
- Within religions, these three evil roots bring
about great unrest in the mind, resulting in
physical outbursts of violence culminating in
global warfare. For example, Buddhism teach
people to have morals and ethics in mind that
are essential factors for the reduction and
ultimate eradication of greed, hatred, and
delusion—which form the root cause of
various conflicts and wars, both within and
without.

Sources http://www.drbachinese.org/vbs/101_132/vbs120/120_10.
List websites, articles, videos, quotes, htm
and authors/organizations.

Argument 2
List arguments in bullet-point format.
You may use phrases; complete
sentences are not required.
- These troubles, wars and crimes were not
originated from religion. Instead, they are
human-based. To expand, all these WW1, WW2,
various civil wars, American War and so on… are
not religious-based war but actually from people
greediness from wealth and powers. As so, a
point can be made that these war are caused by
people who take excessive pride in themselves,
hence you often see them disrespect their
religion and performing such crime and harsh
murdered.
- According to collegiatetimes, Allah states
in the Quran that He rewards good
behaviors, among the most frequently
mentioned of these are speaking the
truth, being kind to family, honoring
parents, giving charity, feeding the poor,
freeing slaves and studying. Allah also
states in the Quran that He punishes bad
behaviors; among these are the worship
of idols, stealing from orphans,
disobeying one’s parents, cheating on
one’s spouse, giving false testimony,
committing murder or suicide, or
● The strongest proponents of world peace
are secular developed nations rather than
religious countries and they donate more
money to poor countries
● According to, Mr.Inbar Aran
● First, you would need to check what would
happen if there was no religion at all.
○ Measure peace & violence in both
cases, subtract, and compare.
Simple, huh?
○ Even measuring the peace and
violence in this reality is close to
impossible. How do you even
measure ‘peace’? Squared meters?
You might be able to roughly
estimate, though.
○ And then comes the problem of
checking the possibility of a reality
that never happened.
● Some of the violence might be there
anyway, and some might be created only in
the absence of religion

Sources
List websites, articles, videos, quotes,
and authors/organizations.
enslaving a free person.
- Islamic Ottoman empire expanding over north
Africa or the European empires conquering
territory all over the globe.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-human-beast/
201208/is-religion-better-making-peace-or-making-war
● ① 60,669,200–84,589,300 – World
War II (1939–1945)
● ② 40,000,000–70,000,000 – Mongol
conquests (1206–1324)
● ③ 25,000,000 – Qing dynasty conquest
of Ming Dynasty (1616–1662)
● ④ 20,000,000 – Taiping Rebellion
(1850–1864)
● ⑤ 520,000,000 – Second Sino-Japanese
War (1937–1945).
● ⑥ 16,563,868–40,000,000 – World
War I (1914–1918)
○ This list of wars by death toll
includes death toll estimates of all
deaths that are either directly or
indirectly caused by war.
○ These numbers usually include
both the deaths of military
personnel which are the direct
results of battle or other military
wartime actions, as well as the
wartime/war-related deaths of
civilians, which are the results of
war induced epidemics, diseases,
famines, atrocities, genocide etc.
✮✮✮None of the Top 6 wars had
much to do with religion✮✮✮
○ Most of these were about
expansionist ideologies and pursuit
of wealth, territory and prestige.
● Now let’s look at the worst Genocides of all
time.
○ European Colonization of Americas
○ The Holocaust
○ The Soviet famine of 1932-33
○ Bangladesh atrocities of 1971
○ Post WWII German Exodus
○ Cambodian genocide of 1975
https://listverse.com/2013/05/03/10-atrocious-genocid
es-in-human-history/
Argument 3 - Religious peacemaking in Kashmir,
Israel/Palestine, Iraq, Nigeria, Sudan, and
List arguments in bullet-point format. Macedonia.
- In the quran it does not directly have those
You may use phrases; complete things like the stoning. It is more like the
sentences are not required. social norms that people develop and use.
Overtime, it was combine, but the true
traditional religion itself does not state that.
- Religions like islam allow husbands to have
more than 1 wife. They allow them to stone
the girls if they commit adultery. Girls buried
through their neck and males buried through
their waist. If they can escape then they will
be free. (Girls getting disadvantage)
- Religion in many parts of the world is
contributing to violent conflict e.g. southern
region of Thailand (Islam)

- People blame religion as a cause for war like

how the ISIS blamed islam religion as their
intention. However, it is like how your friend
invited you for a drink, and you cause
accidents. Although, it is not your friends’ fault
because at the end of the day it is your
decision whether to drink or not. Therefore, at
that point you are blaming your friend for your
actions. Religion is used as an excuse for the
cause of war; however, it is not the true
cause.

Sources https://www.usip.org/publications/2006/01/religious-contr
List websites, articles, videos, quotes, ibutions-peacemaking-when-religion-brings-peace-not-war
and authors/organizations.

 
 
 
Peace -  
 
● According to the ‘encyclopedia of war’ published in 2008, Religious cause less than 7% of all wars recorded in the
history. (4% of which from Islam)
● Religious teach people morals and self improvement
● North Korea, which has one of the lowest rates of people practising religion, was one of
ten 'least peaceful' countries in world last year, according to the report.
● It is not ​religion​ that perpetuates violence, but people.
● Christian Exodus 20:13 states that “You shall not murder”  
● Without religion, human are no different from animals

 
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/11/14/religions-war-cause-responsible-evidence_n_6156878.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/01/opinion/how-religion-can-lead-to-violence.html 
 
Violence - Religion causes war 
● If there was just one religion it might be more peaceful >>> Conflict between religious eg. Hitler massacre,
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
● People who are deeply religious can get irritated easily when their religion is insulted.
● Some religions even promote violence against people who do not believe in that same religion. Eg. Islam???????
 ● Countries have been divided by war over their difference in religious beliefs. Eg. Bosnia(Muslim) divided from
Yugoslavia & Ireland(Protestant) from England(Catholic).
● One of the most infamous quotes associated with ​religious fanaticism​ was uttered in 1209 during the siege of
Béziers​, a Crusader asked the Papal Legate ​Arnaud Amalric​ how to tell Catholics from ​Cathars​ when the city was
taken, to which Amalric replied: ​“Kill them all; God will recognize his."
● Protestant vs Catholic - a long war
● The crusades are not a good example of people causing wars because of religion. This is because
it was not the Muslims taking Jerusalem that caused the English to attack, it was a terrorist group
that took it under the name of Muslim that caused them to attack when in fact the Qur'an states
that you should let other religions believe what they want and that they will soon understand that
Allah is the only god.
○ More of a land wrapped
●

●
● French civil war of religious
 
 
 
 
 
Debate Format 
 
 
Main Arguments - Peace  4 minutes 
Main Arguments - Violence  4 minutes 

Working Period  4 minutes 

Rebuttals - Peace  3 minutes 

Rebuttals - Violence  3 minutes 

Working Period  3 minutes 

 Summary - Peace  2 minutes 
Summary - Violence  2 minutes 

Audience Vote  Total Time = 25 minutes 

 
 
Audience Vote -- 5 Points 
 
Audience members will vote on who they believe makes the strongest, most well-supported arguments: 
● the quality of the arguments presented. 
● the quality of challenges (to your opponents) raised. 
● the clarity, organization and cohesiveness of the argument. 
● the quality of supporting evidence. 
 
● NOT​ on who they personally agree with.  
● NOT​ on who they are friends with. 
● NOT​ on who screams the loudest.