ABSTRACT
News, seen on flat screens, online, and in hard copy, is filled with one primary fact, wars in the Middle East and terror attacks throughout the world. That primary fact is of Islamic-inspired violence, violence as individual acts of terror, or violence as warfare among states in the Middle East. People often see politics and religion interrelated to such a degree that in cases of ostensibly religious violence we discern motives that are actually a mixture of religious and political motives. It is better to determine in a theoretical manner a description of religion and its relation to violence based on basic principles: religions and political states are the largest and longest lasting human social entities health professionals, religious and political entities act to protect themselves, intentionality is at its most extensive in religious and political entities, religious and political social entities perceive threats most readily, and religious and political social entities are prone to war.
