In Whose Name?

I was going to post a blog piece about how religion is not behind conflicts, but really what's the point? This seems to be the main issue where the religious and non-religious can really agree. It is also a patently false premise. People use religion as a tool, not to control the minds of others, but to get what they want. It is the equivalent of using the passive voice to express unintentional acts of brutality (i.e. The knife went in. or The gun went off.)

If God wanted a piece of land for Himself he'd just make it. If God wanted to force you to convert, He'd be able to just break you. If there is no God, than we'll just find some other reason to beat the hell out of one another. What scriptures do we look at to push for peace or war, tolerance or ostracization, good or evil? What do we mean when we say these things? We never ask though because that would require the hard decision of giving up what we wanted. And when we cannot break free of what we say we believe, we hold God accountable for our own failure.

False Christians and unquestioning skeptics figured out long ago who the fall guy was. I have seen Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, Black and White, kill in the name of their father when there wasn't an ounce of conviction in their bones except power and pride. We are all after the wrong person when we crucify God, perhaps we would best to crucify ourselves a bit more. If I were to say that however, I should have the whole world allied against me ... and they would do so in the name of whatever it is they worship.