I've been reading some nodage in the last few hours about various religious factions' animosity toward other religious factions. Normally I'd write it off as just being human, but I feel I really must vent my spleen about it right now.
The story, no matter where is occurs or what parties are involved, is always the same: Party A oppressed Party B sometime int he past, and so therefore Party B decided to wage an all out jihad against Party A; Party A then retaliated against Party B, who retaliated against Party A again, ad infinitum.
And Yet somehow no one seems to take any notice of the absurdity of this.
If you're going to hate someone for some stupid reason, you might as well go ahead an get even more juvenile and start a war between those who tie their shoelaces with the 'loop-and-swoosh' rhyme and those who use the 'rabbit hole' jingle. Seems kinda silly when you put it like that, huh? This especially annoys me with christian factions who slaughter each other en masse in the name of Jesus. Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Jesus Christ all about 'love thy neighbor', 'turn the other cheek' and 'let he who is perfect cast the first stone'? And yet somehow these doofuses conveniently find some way around the commandment that says 'Thou Shalt not Kill'. Killing your fellow human does not make you more of a man.
There is, of course, the matter of self defense. I'm torn here. I don't agree with open-ended, arbitrary violence, however I'm all for self defense, if the threat is imminent and obvious. If someone is slashing at you with a knife, you most certainly have the right to try to disarm them. But if you shoot someone because 'I don't like them, they might have had a knife, and they might have tried to attack me', well that doesn't work.
Now, I can guarantee someone is thinking 'well, you don't know what it's like to be hated for your faith'. I don't? I ascribe to a faith (in a slipshod, half-hearted manner, I must admit) that, at various times in history, has had had its leaders murdered, bounties placed on them (just like beaver pelts!), extermination orders against them and indeed entire armies gathered to control them. So, please, don't go and say a thing like 'you don't understand'. I understand.
In short, don't kill people. It's bad, m'kay?
And in the words of a great man "...but this is just my opinion, I could be wrong".