We're all heard this over and over again. Somebody kills in the name of religion? Blame nationalism, aggression, love affairs...just not the Bible. Somebody defames science/scientists? Blame stupidity, not the Bible. Somebody stones women to death or faces them to wear the veil explicitly in the name of God? Blame the culture, not the quran. These people explicitly, unabashedly, and proudly proclaim their religion as THE reason for their beliefs/actions, and there's absolutely no evidence to the contrary. Insisting on blaming everything except the Bible makes you just as delusional as people who believe in the Bible in the first place.

Both of you have good points. The truth is that people interpret things they way it best benefits them. While they (i.e., people of various religious backgrounds) cite their holy book (or lack thereof) as their inspiration for believing a certain thing, they are simply looking through rose-colored glasses. However, their vision is already distorted due to their experiences (good or bad). The people in the Middle East killing in the name of the Qur'an? Well, they grow up in a society in which that is the guiding principle for all things, thus begetting reasons for them to act in ways that are extreme. The moral of the story is that everyone is different, though many have similar ways of thinking.

#138: It seems to me that you'd rather blame the religious texts instead of the people who commit these atrocities. I'm not sure what the point of that is unless you have a personal axe to grind with religion itself, but to me that's nothing more than an excuse and a refusal to accept personal responsibility. I am not a religious person, nor do I follow any particular faith or feel an obligation to defend religion, but when it comes right down to it, bad people will be bad people no matter what reasoning they hide behind. When someone does something horrible, the only blame I place is on the person themselves, because THEY are the ones who did it. You may be comfortable with allowing them to hide behind the bible or aggression or whatever bullcrap excuse you can come up with, but I am not.

It has nothing to do with the Bible, I'm so sorry that you are just naturally stupid(:

#179: That little jab at my intelligence might have worked out better for you if you hadn't admitted in another comment that you share the opinion of OP's boyfriend to an even further extreme by denouncing all of science. You belong in his camp, regardless of whether or not your reasoning is the same as his.

Wow...that's frightening. I think I may weep for humanity.