Should we put the burden of blame for atrocities on a religious system, or upon it's adherents? Religious systems wish to spread peace, love, brotherhood, etc... What starts out as a mostly peaceful community eventually has members who split away for one reason or another. The split is a result of some member of the community believing that "We have strayed from our original beliefs." They take this idea of having strayed to mean that 'They' are chosen to carry on as the light bearer of their religion. This kind of thinking always leads to extremism in any direction.  For example, there is a church group in Kingston, GA, in the U.S. that handles snakes. They believe that if they have enough faith, and are endowed by the gifts of their god, they won't die from any snake venom. Deaths in that congregation are not met with doubt about the doctrine being professed, but rather about the member who died from snake venom.

So, who do we blame in the case of members dying from snake venom? Was it the lack of faith from the church member that caused his demise? Could the deceased member have died because snake venom can be fatal? The easy answer comes from which end of the snake you happen to be on. The venomous side backed by scientific evidence shows that snake venom is indeed toxic, and in most cases, fatal. The Faith end of the snake claims that with faith, you can move mountains. I have yet to witness a mountain being moved in such a manner.

Religious fundamentalism is an attempt to translate the sacred text of it's associated religion, into an orthodoxy that is inerrant. This same thinking went into the inerrancy of the Pope. (from Wikipedia: This doctrine was defined dogmatically in the First Vatican Council of 1869–1870, but had been defended before that, existing already in medieval theology and being the majority opinion at the time of the Counter-Reformation.) In Christian dogma, the bible is the literal word of their god, and can not be interpreted to mean anything other than what it literally says. C.S. Lewis pointed out that when Jesus said to be "Gentle as doves, and wise as serpents" did he mean to lay eggs, and crawl along on the ground?

Fundamentalism in all it's extremes has done nothing to promote the original tenants of  faith from it's founder. In the case of Muslim parents honor killing  their children is beyond the scope of Islam, just the same as handling snakes is beyond the scope of Christianity. In both cases, it is nothing more than a religious ego trip. Christians are supposed to become more like their god, and less like their own human nature. This isn't happening these days. Instead of being charitable, Christians have become judgemental, and narrow minded. Islam is no less judgemental or narrow minded. However, it should be noted that not all Muslims, and not all Christians believe the same as their extremist members. In the rush to gain superiority over other religious beliefs, both the Christian and Muslim extremist have been running over each other to see who can be the most toxic.

People will point to the crazed man who burned his child alive, for walking home with a boy. They'll all say "He is a Muslim." They should remember the people in the U.S., who say they are Christian have done the most horrible things to their own children...in His name of course. Yes, they'll blame it all on Islam, and not count the same atrocities committed by Christians. They'll say "Well, that's different, he's a ______. He's not one of US." The cycle of hate, bigotry, insanity, cruelty, and stupidity just goes around and around. It won't stop until religion is relegated to the mythology of fairy tales, and the gods of olympus. As Ditterod said: "There will never be freedom until the last politician is strangled by the guts of the last priest."

Please feel free to use this along with my name.

Thank you for your time.

Franky