If someone asked, "If you could only wish for one thing, what would it be?" Almost everyone says "Peace on Earth" or "An end to all wars," from beauty queens to politicians to religious leaders to children to the average person on the street. Even though those wishes are great, they don't mean anything. There will never be peace on earth as long as people are around.
Since people have been around, there has never been peace on earth. Cavemen would fight over land, food, and even women. Cain killed Abel so that God would honour him. Gabriel made the walls of Jericho fall down. The American Revolutionary War was fought for freedom, and the American Civil War was fought for more freedom. Wars have always happened and will always happen.
Wars will happen as long as people can think. Wars are fought over ideas like freedom, honour, dignity, and so on. Wars happen over land, greed, power, prejudice, and other things. War is something that people do. For example, everyone has some kind of bias. If they don't like a certain race, country, or religion, they also don't like people who are short, tall, fat, skinny, smart, not smart, loud, or quiet. Some people don't like kids, some don't like old people, some don't like people who have pets, some don't like people who play their music too loud, some don't like bad drivers, and some don't like people who believe in God or don't believe in God. What some people think is right and proper can be wrong or even make other people mad.
Religion can't stop wars, and many wars are fought over religion (Note: I believe that religion is used as an excuse for war not the real reason for war.). During the Crusades, Christians fought against Muslims. Many Muslims want to kill everyone who doesn't believe in their religion. During the Inquisition, heretics were killed by the Catholic Church. After killing millions of Jews, the Nazis moved on to killing Catholics. Under Stalin, the Russians killed anyone who was even a little bit religious. Christians killed other Christians because they were the wrong kind of Christian. Muslims killed other Muslims because they were not the right kind of Muslims. Don't forget about atheists. Stalin was an atheist and wanted to get rid of all religion, which I think makes atheism a religion as well. Most of China's leaders are atheists, and they have put a lot of religious people in jail or killed them. Throughout history, there have been many different kinds of religious wars.
But the main cause of war is the desire for power. The power to make other people do and believe what you do and believe, the power to make other people give you what you think is rightfully yours, the power to make other people treat you the way you think you should be treated, the power to get what you want (money, love, respect, etc.), the power to punish others for doing things you don't think they should do, and the power to keep other people from having things or thoughts that you don't have. In other words, the power to be in some ways like God and make everyone else look like you while you are in charge.
People will always be greedy, envious, biassed, and angry as long as they can think. Wars will happen as long as these things are around. Most people, whether they are religious or not, believe in the Ten Commandments. However, very few people can follow them all the time because our ability to think makes us want. We break some or all of the rules when we want something. No person is perfect. They wouldn't be human if they were.
