All Religious People should be Pacifists (12)

Firstly, some Christians may point to key Biblical scripture and infer that Christians
specifically should not be absolute pacifists and instead respond with violence in certain situations.
More specifically, some Christians may refer to John 15:4, where Jesus said that “Greater love ahs no
man that this that he lay down his life for his friends”, allowing Christians to infer that sacrificing
one’s life through violence is a great action of love, in which love, and loving others is a key virtue
Jesus repeatedly taught during his ministry. However, some Christians may find contradictions from
Jesus’ teachings and find a viable defense to Pacifism. Some Christians may point to Mt 5:9, in which
Jesus said that ‘blessed are the peacemakers’, allowing Christians to infer that they should not
respond to violence with violence in return, but instead be pacifists by acting peacefully.

Additionally, some non-religious people would believe that it would be unjustifiable and
unrealistic for all religious people to be pacifists. Although secularism globally is becoming more
prevalent, it is undoubtable that religious influence is still commonplace among government and the
general population, due to two reasons. Firstly, it would be impractical to have people in positions of
authoritative power as pacifists by religious influence in the status quo, in which a nuclear age
requires governments to house weapons of mass destruction as a deterrent against foreign attack,
and thus in the counterfactual countries with military officials or people in power would be
significantly disadvantaged. Secondly, religious pacifism cannot function without conflict and
discourse with the legal system in times of warfare. Religious beliefs do not have authority over
conscription and the law, and thus it is unviable for all religious people to act on their beliefs and
become pacifists. Looking at the example of conscientious objectors during world war I, Christian
men who rejected conscription faced hostile internal attacks as their beliefs were not persuasive and
did not deem authority over contemporary military legislation. In the status quo, there would be two
main impacts if all religious people were to become pacifists. For one, widespread disruption would
similarly cause conflict and violent clashes between government, military, and religious people,
worsening the image of religion in general and likely pushing religion towards a further decline; and
secondly, cause the government to have to alter legislation surrounding conscription to fulfill their
quota, possibly adversely affecting other stakeholders who would not have had to be conscripted
before. This argument is strong as it considers the layered impacts of religious pacifism in the status
quo and is reinforced by a historical example of the impacts that religious pacifism can bring, in
world war I for example.

Contrarily, some Christians may infer that all religious people who believe in a deity should
be pacifists, whether it be contingent or absolute pacifists. Christians would point to John Austin’s
innate practical principals as the index of revealing the unrevealed Divine laws from God. Austin
believes that there are common universal sentiments that arise at the thought of certain actions, for
example, in this context, warfare and violence. Additionally, Austin states that these thoughts are
spontaneous, instantaneous, and inevitable, and commonly shared by all of mankind. Moreover,
these thoughts exist as Austin believed that human reason is slow and infallible, and thus God has
given us these feelings that act as a guide, warning us when we wander from the path of our duties.
In this context, Christians would infer that, from their moral sense, warfare and violence is
impermissible as the thought of it would provoke repugnance, and hence they should be pacifists. It
is plausible that this theory could be extended to all deities in different religions, as the ‘moral sense’
is common among mankind, giving all religious people inferences as to what actions are enjoined or
forbidden by a deity. Furthermore, Christians would see this argument as strong as it coincides with
Liberal denominations of Christianity’s teachings on conscience, where one’s conscience is the voice
of God, and thus find this argument strong and convincing.
 In conclusion, although being a pacifist draws more parallels with Christian, and in general
religious teachings, encompassing divine laws and Biblical scripture, it is likely unviable for all
religious people to become pacifists in our contemporary nuclear age, where some would believe
that violence is sometimes neccesary for the greater good.