June 29, 2002

Religion
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Just reading some posts here, and i see religion being blamed for wars. Religion is never (underlined) never the cause of war. "WHAT!!?" i hear you all cry, "never?" yup religion and the differences between them we blame for conficts are only an excuse. we humans are clanish, we love our little small minded tribes. we are cruel and brutish and are only looking for a reason to start a fight. religion is used as an excuse and it may be used as a reason, but deep down its never the cause. what about Hitler and jews says you, a little research into Hitler will show that the image of him being a jew hater from day one is nonsense. for example in vienna he fell in love with a girl who just happened to be jewish. thats just one of many points. Now dont get me wrong hitler and the whole nazi setup was as evil as humans get. Hitler USED the inbred hatred and fear of jews to rise to power, and in time i think he conviced himself that his lies were true (i wish he had been caught alive, a spell in the ovens would have been fit punishment for him).
Someone mentioned the crusades... that was a power play by the Pope of that time (Pope Urban? not too sure my memory's a bit iffy) to break the power of rival constantinople. he knew (hoped) that the european armies on the way to the holyland would plunder Constantinople. Power that is always the reason and cause of war, dress it up however you like (religion) power is always the cause. Oh and the Israelie Arab conflict. if a land is taken from you, stolen (Romans~dispora), then passed down the generations to others, does the land stop belonging the rightful owners decendants? tough question. but to say its a religous war is simplistic. i live in ireland where religion has been used as excuse for butchery. makes ya sad to see what should and is good used as an excuse to hate.
Brett C, yeah i did chuckle when i read your post :) i think, maybe i sed before that Olorin was lucky, not wise. his plan to destroy the ring failed. Sauron weighed the lure of the ring to a 'T'. Frodo failed, gandalf failed, Sauron was just extremely unlucky. Shalom, peace my friends...