My religion is better than yours.

Went to the annual Christmas Eve service at the good ole' Lake Bluff Methodist Church yesterday. Yes, I know being a good Christian means that I should go more than once a year, but me and God, we got us an understanding. I understand He wants me to go more often, and He understands that I have certain doubts. Like the whole "God created the world in 7 days" nonsense. Look, I was a Geology major. I know it took a little longer than that. And that He created man a few thousand years ago. Like I said, it was a little further back than that. No ribs were ripped from chests like a hunk of Play-Doh to magically create a woman. The whole evolution thing can't be brushed away. But the doubts I have lately are more in line with why in the name of Holy Christ does half of the world try and slaughter the other half in the name of religion?

In the paper recently:

1. An 18 year old Christian woman from Pakistan was killed by her attempted rapist because she refused to be raped by him. Had she accepted her attackers advances, she would have been imprisoned and forced to marry her attacker if she wanted out of prison. It is presumed she was killed so the man wouldn't have to marry a Muslim convert, which is what she would have also been forced to do. So to avoid shame, he killed her.

2. 68 killed, and hundreds of Shiite Muslims wounded in Iraq in a series of coordinated bombings. Most probably by angry Sunni Muslims because, well, they are of "different" religions. Oh, and not to mention they are pissed that they are no longer in power there.

3. Boko Haram, (no, NOT Procol Harum, the 60's band of Whiter Shade of Pale fame) a radical Muslim sect in Egypt, killed 39 Christians yesterday, most on the steps of their church as they left Christmas worship services. That they chose our holiest day of the year is no surprise either.

Why? Who the hell knows. God? I'm sure he has some reasonable explanation. Here's mine: they are brainwashed, and they are afraid. From a young age, they are indoctrinated into the lifestyle by their brainwashed scared parents, who in turn, were previously brainwashed by theirs. And so on, and so on... Why do others hate because we choose to call The Almighty by a different name? Better yet, how can they hate? All religions are peaceful. It is the followers who twist the words of their respective scriptures to fit their own self-deluded visions. And I can't look God in the eye and turn the other cheek. It just doesn't make any sense to me.