The people that use religion for excuses to do bad things, aren't truely religious. There have been a lot of people who used religion for personal gain. A lot of the popes during the middle ages were currupt , because they were in it for the wrong reasons. They just wanted power, not to serve God.
My relgion teaches free will. That God lets us make our own decisons and will not interfer. He just gives us guidence and saves for us when our mortal lives our over. So I don't blame God for anything that I do, or for bad things that happen to me.
I don't read the bible word for word. The bible was written by men. So its not God's clear vision. Same with other religions text. The message is is whats important. I am not a fundementalist. I don't recall anything about the sins of the father being visited about the son ( I thought it was " The sins of the father shall not be visted upon the son"). In the bible there were numerous instances where Jesus discouraged people from being hateful towards sinners and non beleivers. Islam does not teach to kill infidels. They are supposed to fight the enimies of Islam, as in people trying to hurt them. Purely Jihad means has to do with ones inner struggle. There is another jihad that has to do with fighting the enimies of Islam. But it says nothing about killing infidels for no reason. These terrorists are wrong.
Muhammed taught that the Christians and Jews were people of the book and should be respected. During the early days of Islam, all the groups lived in harmony for the most part. During the Crusades some local Christians even fought on the Islamic side, due to being treated so well. It was the crusaders that could tolerate the Muslims not the other way around.
People who truely beleive in religion can use it for structure. Those that don't have it , oftend suffer from lack of structure. Unless the find something else positive to rely on.
The internment of the Japenese is seen as one of the biggest travesties in American History. Many of the people sent to interment camps were fourth generation Americans. And it certianly was even more wrong to conquer the land of the Indians.
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