Does Religion Cause Wars or Troubles?
Is religion a bad thing or is bad religion the root cause of many internecine conflicts in the world today? Philosopher and theologian Professor James Mackey hopes to answer these and other questions when he delivers this week’s inaugural Magee Special Lecture hosted by the University of Ulster. The intriguingly titled lecture, ‘Does Religion Cause Wars (or Troubles)?’ takes places in the Great Hall at the Magee Campus on Thursday November 13 at 7 pm. Outlining the crux of his argument, Professor Mackey says it is misleading to describe the Troubles as a conflict between Protestants and Catholics – both of which are religious terms. “The Troubles should really be described as an on-going conflict between Unionists, who are in large part descendants of the Planters dating back to the Elizabethan era and Nationalists, who are in large part descendants of the indigenous population of Northern Ireland.” Admitting that confusion over the terminology used to describe the conflict presented a
