Being too religious

Religion has been the cause of many wars since its origins and I think it is the basis for a lot of problems in today's society. I believe it is possible that people can be too religious, and I think it scares society since it has always been there, causing problems. In recent years there have been the ongoing troubles in Northern Ireland, and more recently the terrorist attacks in America on 9/11 and the attack in London on 7/7. Religious extremists have forever been an ongoing issue, whether it was the Catholics during the 16th Century, who burned the nonbelievers at the stake , or the Muslim extremists who are now attempting to do the same kind of the thing today. I am not really religious myself, and I think in part this is what makes extremely religious people intolerable to me. I don't really have a problem with religious people as a whole, I just get annoyed when I am approached whilst walking down Dudley Street by preachers who try to convert me!

I find it difficult to accept that people believe in something that there is no solid proof for . I think its because I’m part of the science generation, and I require proof before I commit myself to anything. It does worry me that people can be taken in so easily by beliefs that have been proven wrong by science, and feel so strongly about it that it makes it OK to take the lives of innocent people. This is just part of the contradictions that make up religion because one christian value is that murder is wrong and yet what about the crusades?

Religion is fine as long as the people who follow it accept that other people have their own beliefs too, and they should not be penalised for this. I just find the idea of extremists threatening because looking at the past you can see the unlawful acts that religion has gotten away with.

There is a story on the Times Online, about a Female Pakistani minister shot dead for "breaking Islamic dress code". Link below...

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article1414137.ece.