Religion
In reply to the discussion: Religion Was Not the Reason For the Paris Attacks [View all]Prophet 451
(9,796 posts)My grandmother was devoutly Christian. Prayed every day. She was pro-choice, pro-gay and spent her entire adult life caring for disabled and disturbed kids. While it may be difficult to see in a country where the public perception of religion is dominated by fundies (a theology that amounts to a cross between a revenge fantasy and a death cult), most theists are decent people (or, at least, no worse than anyone else) who, if you respect their right to believe, will respect your right not to.
Religion is complicated. Fred Phelps might have read his Bible but MLK read the same book. Maybe that's the final truth, that we get out of religion what we put into it. If you come to a holy book looking for excuses to comdemn your fellow man, you'll certainly find verses that give you that excuse. But if you come to it looking for reasons to love, care and raise up your fellow man, you'll find those too. Far be it from the devil-worshipper to defend the Abrahamic faiths but I suggest that the people who hang their hatreds on religion would find something to hang it on regardless.