There is one thing to consider with that. To the best of my knoweldge neither Christianty, think the crusades, nor the Muslim religion, think jihad, espouse killing in their respective 'bibles'. There may be a passage here and there that could be translated as such, but the over all message is not to kill all non-believers. One function of religion is to give people a moral base, particularly as the tribal society mindset was streched and in most cases broken by the expansion of communties. Tribal society created protocals to live by and all the members complied with that tribes culture or they were punished until they complied. Communities expanded, and that earlier way of creating members of a community that would support the community instead of tearing it apart, litteraly or figuratively, became difficult at best. Local law enforcement is one way to create a standard of behavior within a community, and religion was another way. Religious texts created a moral base for people to live by, however they are, as with all things, only as good as the person who interperts them. You can go into the bible and find a passage or two that will support most view points if you get creative enough and don't mind pulling things completely out of context.
Yes, people have done very horrible things in the name of religion and that should not be ignored. Just as people have done very horrible things in the quest to gain personal power. Anything, information, religion, weaponry, magic, power of any type, can be abused within the hands of a human. Humans as a whole are very inventive and resourceful, but not always to the good.
Jinx
psst: Jinx. Instead of breaking up your paragraphs like you would on paper, can you use a blank line between them instead?
It's a lot easier to read on screen than *standard* paragraphing. thanks.
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