Minnesotans were recently asked if they thought religion was responsible for war and other conflicts and a surprisingly significant 77% of them thought that at least a fair amount of war and conflict could be attributed to religion. About 60% thought that some religions were more likely to encourage violence than others.

The poll also provides an interesting exercise in asking questions a different way and getting different answers. Fifty percent thought that Islam didn't promote violence any more than other religions, but 34% thought that it did. Makes you wonder what the missing 16% were thinking.

Unshockingly, only 3% thought that Christianity encouraged its members to be violent (and 91% thought that it didn't). Curiously, 5% thought that Buddhist were more likely than other religions to stir up trouble. 73% thought that Buddhists were no more likely than other religions to cause conflicts.

Another interesting finding of the poll that's in keeping with the findings of other polls we've seen is that the more educated the respondent, the less silly their answers were.

Unfortunately the article doesn't state what the religious beliefs of the respondents to the survey were, but I'm guessing that most were Christian (this is Minnesota we're talking about... most were probably even more specifically Lutheran). If that's the case the result of the survey could be summarized as follows: religions do cause war and conflict — except mine.

Minnesota Poll: Most say religion has role in world's conflicts - Star Tribune, 28th December 2003 (via morons.org).