Religion: The Ultimate Evil

I have been keeping up with this Muslim cartoon story over the past week or so. It just reminds me of how religion is ripping the world apart. Just look around the world. Most major conflicts, and the longest running conflicts that have killed the most people all stem from religion, either directly or indirectly. Religion has been responsible for conflicts in India, Israel, all over Africa, etc. Religion and religious based wars, are the leading man made killer of people in the world.
Religion has been responsible for incalculable amounts of death, destruction, and suffering in the world throughout history.

It is one of the main issues, along with race and class, that divides the worlds people. The world would be better off without religion... this has always been my belief. But it is not only my belief. I share this belief with a growing number of people. Not to say that it has not done some good... but the evil that it has been responsible for has outweighed any good that it has brought.

The issue with the cartoon is just a reminder of how religion makes people crazy. In Western countries, people say that Muslims are out of line for protesting and rioting, but Americans would be outraged (and have demonstrated their displeasure) if Jesus, or the Pope were disrespected in a cartoon. Americans, with their right wing religious ideology, would (at minimum) demand that the cartoonist be fired. Americans & other westerners believe in freedom of speech when it suits them.

Both sides are wrong, as is usually the case with these religious conflicts. The Europeans were attempting to provoke the Muslims. And it is interesting that throughout this global debate, few bring up the issue of how this all started and few want to talk about Europes problem with racism. So on that point, the Europeans were wrong, for not only disrespecting another religion, but for really disrespecting another culture. On the flip side, the Muslim world is wrong because they have taken the protests to violence, which in a way, validates the storyline of the cartoons which depict the Muslim religion as radical and violent. Muslims also don't seem to understand that they cannot impose their religion on people who are outside of their countries and outside of their cultures.

In other words, both sides are nuts. Religion may eventually lead to the demise of mankind.... this is the way that the world is drifting.