Thanks for looking at both side on this. Refreshing perspective.
I believe that all people, myself included, are born spiritually broken. For me, this explains why Christians, Atheists, and any other follower of any other faith have the capacity to wage war and hate one another. It seems to be our nature.
For me, religion is man's way of making himself/herself right with a higher power (the pursuit of knowledge included). I prefer to think of this journey as relational - God pursuing me.
Most people would label me as Christian. But if you asked me what I believe, I would say I am a follower of Christ. His words provide me with the best way of knowing God's pursuit of broken people, myself included.
You could say i follow Christ, like Buddhists follow Buddha.
There are many things that add up to war, and it is not human nature. In a couple more generations, there will be no war on earth.
People abhor astronomy as a bunch of tripe thought of when men weren't as smart... Still, people talk about lunacy, (dealing with lunar/moon) and how all the crazies come out on full moons.
Well, there are also times when hostility comes out.
It is what the Mayan calendar tracked.
The trouble is that humans are very short lived. If we were longer lived, when going into WWII, we woulda said, woah, we've already been down this path, lets not do that again.
The next piece is that we are taught "survival of the fittest" where the biggest and meanest (psychopaths) take from everyone else, and that's fine because its "human nature". But, it isn't. It is cultivated from the personal defense / self preservation.
After that, we get to a point of allowing people to be what they are. Seeing what we have in common, and not so much our differences. We develop compassion for others.
Then, we start learning that win-win solutions are where its at.
Win-lose 1+1=1
Win-win 1+1=4
And so, the basis of negotiation will start off with win-win.
Then children are taught how to negotiate. How to ask for what they want, and trade for it.