The thing with all of these organised religions is that to fully understand how absurd they are you need to look at their history. You need to understand how they came about, when they came about, try to get an understanding for the historic and political sphere in which they were created. Islam got to the party a little after everyone else but certainly didn't shy away from working at convincing people the world over that there 'brand' was the best one to follow. They utilised very similar methods to medieval Christianity, in that they spread the word and you followed or died. You can't create a concept like this and have people ask tricky questions or say no thanks. Note how in every instance it was down to man to do GHod's will. Funny that. Man was always happy to speak on GHod's behalf, to pass his message on.
Religion was about control and it always has been. It is about revenue generation. That is why religion is just another form of Government. What you see now are people desperate to maintain control. To try to step back in time because modernisation, freedom, liberty all lead to a waning of control and power. We do need the moral teaching that some religions were once about but we certainly don't need the indoctrination and brain washing of the various death cults. Religion was always about conquering. If you conquered the minds of men, you grew stronger, your armies swelled and therefore your chest was full of gold. It is no different today. Every one of these religious armies is paid. They are rewarded. They are allowed to act outside the law to do the bidding of their controllers. They are brainwashed into acting the way they do, they do so through fear. When the money dries up so does the fervour and desire to fight. In Afghanistan the ranks of those fighting, be it the Northern Alliance, The Taleban or even the West were doing so over control and money.
Look at how Islam began, look at what the ruler of the time was trying to achieve? It was a crusade to spread his idea throughout the World, certainly throughout the Middle East, Africa and Europe. it was done so by the sword, it was done by letting blood. Why? Well these others all had their own set of beliefs, most which predated Islam. Look at what the religious landscape looked like before Islam. It was pretty much the same as everywhere else. Someone always turned up though and said I'm the main man, don't worship those idols, it is all about me. To be taken seriously they needed power, they needed control. The very shrine that Islam holds most holy was scrawled with hundreds of differing deities long before the first ideas for Islam appeared on paper. The religion of the time looked very similar to every other religion. We also still have huge numbers of people in the World who are impoverished, uneducated who rely on goodwill to survive. In every one of these regions we see radical medieval Islam beating them with a stick to bring them under their 'protective' wing. If they stop fighting, they lose fear and control. If they stop fighting they'll struggle to recruit. If they rule by peace then their religion will only dwindle and be seen for what it is as people become truly enlightened through education and learning. Such a very sorry state of affairs.
