Reply #87: I should have been clearer that...

[TreasonousBastard]

I'm not talking about omens or comets or clouds that look like the Virgin Mary.

Many of us try to look outside of the observable universe to find something more. maybe we see signs we recognize, maybe we don't, or maybe we just think we see signs.

But we search, nonetheless, often in darkness.

The fundies of the world have been causing far more trouble than their numbers would suggest. About half the world is either Christian or Muslim, and most of those billions go on about their business without any bother at all. Can you imagine the hell this planet would be if they all followed their crazier leaders? Solve the overpopulation problems, that's for sure.

I've never bought into the idea of religious war. Sure, it's happened here and there, like with Philip II, but most of the time religion is used as an excuse for a far more nefarious plan. European "religious" wars more often had to do with certain unpopular royal families or property held by "heretics." Even the Crusades were driven more by the desire for access to trade routes than any doings in the Holy Land. And, while the Spaniards brought missionaries to the New World and happily slaughtered hundreds of thousands of uconverted heathens, it was gold, not souls, they were after.