Pakistan

This I totally agree on. If it wasnt for religious reasons, it would have been for a different reason.

Yes it's true people would still continue to kill if there wasn't religion. However, people use religion to give a "greater purpose" to killing/wars. Which makes it easy for people to be manipulated into righteous/justified wars because they have a higher calling/purpose/etc and will be rewarded if they die.

Maybe not. Just thinking out loud so to speak.

If a Y is indoctrinating people to do X, and encouraging that behavior, and X occurs, why should we not look askance at Y?

QFT

And those reasons already do exist: Money, oil, race, pleasure, imperialism, love, hate, pride, dominence, etc. Religion is just another excuse. The problem is humanity. :(

What about the good apples who fall from the same tree? What about the good apples who come from a different tree?

Sure, a lot of bad has happened. Perhaps people have used Religion as an excuse for it all. What about all the good that has happened because of religion?

Yes and no. From a reason to kill standpoint, yes. But from making the world a vastly better place, kinda of.

Also:

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/18/magnitude-7-4-earthquake-hits-southwestern-pakistan/


"just deserts" maybe?

I'm blaming the people who created the religion and then used it for their own purposes to kill and maim other people.

If you are Y and told me to kill 100 people and I did it, people would not look at Y. Y would not go to jail either. People would look at X and X would go to jail. All "Y" has to say is "X took what I said out of context" 'Y' can also say that "X has the ability to make her own choices." (and she chose to break the law)

I think it's more the people who inherited the religions who have misused them.

At least in the case of Christianity, the founders of the religion all peacefully accepted martyrs' deaths (except one who was exiled to a small island by the Romans, where he died as an old man).

How has it made it a vastly better place? Please prove and quantify, thanks.

Also:
This is the link you wanted for "just deserts", maybe.

And somehow, because this earthquake happened, hundreds of miles away but in the country, it should be associated with it? Hell, for all you know it was at the same time Sarah Palin burped.

Charles Manson did more than just say "kill 100 people".

+

So by your logic we should not go after terrorist organizations who encourage and indoctrinate people to blow themselves up to kill others.

Those who flew into the Twin Towers died but we are still pursuing those who encouraged them to do it.

Hitler.
yup, it was gonna go there some day.
actually!
cult leaders!
lemme get some examples as well as some cyanide laced koolaids!
JIM JONES!

Whoa there. lol I guess I typed that wrong. I was trying to say that the world would be a vastly better place without it. Curse my bad writting skillz. And I was just brining up the earthquake because it was in Pakistan. Nothing more. No need to jump on meh. :)

/crosses his fingers

please be the blue koolaid......please oh please be the blue koolaid!

I am saying that I can encourage whoever I want to do whatever I want, but the PERSON still has to choose whether to break the law or not.

Same thing that applies with religion. I can read it, study it and practice it. If I choose to go out and kill someone because my 'religion' told me to do it, it's my fault.

There are all kinds of books with all kinds of information in them. If I read them and I'm compelled to break the law or to harm others, then I should be responsible for whatever crimes I commit.

Now being under duress is different. I'm assuming no one has a gun to my head or anything like that...

YOUR WORDS! THEY SAVE ASSANGE!

Those things were never taught to me and I was raised catholic. So yeah.... I was actually taught to be respectful of all people unbiased by their faith/race/sexuality etc. I was taught that violence was never the solution and slavery was never condoned (at least as far as i'm aware). There are people who take a faith and use it to bash on what they do not like or understand. But please, do not genralize and lump everyone all in to one group. I guess I don't get how your utter lack of respect for people based on nothing more than the fact that they believe in a higher power is short sighted and uenelightened.

If you think that all the worlds problems stem from religion you'd be wholly wrong. Would the world be a better place without religion? I doubt that too. Yes it's true, terrible things have been done in the name of religion, no doubt. People have used religious text to carry out their own agendas for awhile now. Religion has also given many people peace and guidance and helped them through very difficult times.

You also stated earliar that neither the death penalty nor the fear of going to hell is a deterrant. While I can't argue you with you on a factual basis as I have no statistics at this time. I would disagree with you on this point. I believe the reason that everyone seems to focus on that bad far more than the good and why the good seems to get dismissed all the time is that the bad is better news these days. Also, noone gets on and says "hey I didn't murder that guy because I might have gotten the death penalty" I would assume that most people think about the consequences before they take the action and the ones that go forward were going to go do it no matter what, but hey I could be very wrong just how I see it.

People tend to fixate on the bad of something they don't like or disagree with and just fixate on that. Trust me i'm not trying to convert you or tell you one way is better than the other. Personally I think a mix is the best. Whenever I see people go too far one way or the other never seems to work out as best as it can but again this is just my opinion.

you seem fairly angry yourself ^^