Do good, Feel good

Why are so many religious people so close-minded? Isn't part of the guidelines of religion that we should all be accepting and open? How is this mentality of "I am and what I believe in is the best, and you're going to hell for believing something different." How is this mentality and line of thinking going to allow anyone to find peace?

We should all be accepting of others beliefs. And we should practice tolerance of differences. Because its the variety and the differences from which beauty erupts. Without either we would just be robots- all the same make and model.

God could have created us to just be robots, but He didn't. He gave us so many blessings and will power is one of them. So lets use this gift of choice for the better. (And if you are an Atheist or an Unitarian, you can substitute your own dogma in place of my preaching about God and it can still apply, because I want to speak about humanity in general and not merely about "God-fearing" people.)

Let's use our will power to love one another, and to grow and help others grow. Let's live peaceful and loving lives with positive energies flowing from one to another.

Religion is a good thing, that people have corrupted with their delusional assumptions. And or their possible extreme misinterpretations of the materials presented.

I may see the Koran as a book of peace and equality, yet so many others see it as about violence, righteousness, and fighting (actual blood shed) in the name of the book.
Do you REALLY believe that is what God wanted? Or ANY God for that matter, with possibly the exception of certain war Gods maybe (for example in Greek and Roman mythology- which is unfortunately as far as my knowledge extends to). But does God want us to destroy each other? Does He want us to hurt others? and pain them? Or even inconvenience anyone? But then He turns around and is also teaching us to respect, accept and love each other?

If our God is about peace, love, forgiveness, acceptance, and all that is good and right, then how could He wish for us to do violent things in his name? Or judgmental things. Or wrong things, in general.

I don't think religion is bad at all, I think people make it bad.

So do I think people are bad?
I don't think people are all bad. I think there are few with bad intentions and they corrupt others. And I think most are just misguided. They follow what they have been taught and how they were raised. They may not question the information handed to them, and this doesn't have to be their fault.

Who's to blame? How do we fix this?
Change comes one step at a time. Not in one day, or year, or, for some, not even in their lifetimes. But if we all just did one nice thing every single day, maybe we could inspire someone else to do one nice thing too.
Pretty soon enough people would be doing good, that we might be able to overshadow the bad.

Smile at a stranger today.
Compliment someone and sincerely mean it.
Find at least ONE good thing in the world today. I'm sure you can, even if you're grouchy as heck.

As Burke said (I think it was him), all it takes for evil to win is for good men to do nothing.
So let's all do something, and fight evil.
Make goodness and compassion your religion or dogma.