Is Religion Really The Answer?

So I just finished reading My Life As A Traitor, by Zarah Gharamani, who is Iranian. She got arrested for protesting the way that the country is run while she was attending university. I don't want to tell you all of what is going on in the book, because I think that this is something that you have to read yourself. The way that it's written is not great, but I definitely got sucked into it. It basically questions how strong people believe themselves to be.

I mean, here is a woman who is tortured because she disobeyed the government. But she wasn't doing anything wrong. She was protesting the tyranny that controls Iran. She didn't write what she was told to write. She didn't shut-up when she was told to shut-up. She wore her head covering an inch or so too high when she was told to keep her hair covered, all because people are stupid. I can say that these people are stupid, because I have been given the freedom to do so. No matter that I have the right to do so. Rights don't mean shit. It's the ability to have the freedom to practice these rights. She didn't have this kind of freedom, because other people, who believed themselves to have more knowledge about what is right and wrong religiously, took this away from her.

Reading this book got me to thinking. What would I do/feel if I was wrongly arrested and then tortured? How strong would I be in face of being demoralized, dehumanized, and such? Sitting here, I think that I'd give these people a fight. I'd fight for my integrity to say what I want, do what I want, believe what I want. I'd fight for my right to be a human being, to live like any human being should. Sitting here, I laugh, because I know that those bastards won't get the better of me. I have my God with me. But is that enough? Would I say the same thing if I was being beaten non-stop, raped, electrocuted, starved, and the like? Would I be so quick to defend my beliefs? I can say that I would, but I'm sitting comfortably on my own chair. What about when I'm sitting on a metal chair with an interrogator in front of me, willing to kill me?

I'm trying to educate myself on the Islamic religion, not because I want to convert or anything, but because I want to know what makes it different from my religion. Sure, I probably would get a better understanding of what people believed by actually talking with them, but at the same time, I want to know why exactly Muslims believe that what they believe is right. My goal this summer is to read as much as I can on the subject. I personally haven't heard that many good things about the Islamic religion, and I wouldn't ever want to be a part of that. But I know that I have to take what I hear with a grain of salt.

Because, I know that people outside of Christianity don't hear that many good things about it. Sure, I know that there are a lot of people out there who say that they're Christians, but they don't live their lives like it. For example, in the news, there was a guy, Tyler Frost, who went to a Baptist school who got suspended for going to his girlfriend's prom because his school didn't believe in dancing. WTF?! Seriously? Is this the kind of Christianity that I want people to see? The type that screws you over for dancing?

So really, what I want to know is, who is right? Just because I believe that Christianity is the correct religion doesn't mean it is. But it is. Because I believe it is. What about the Muslims who believe that they are right, and the Jews who believe they are?


***HERE'S THE LINK TO THE PROM DEAL. YOU MIGHT HAVE TO COPY AND PASTE IT:

http://www.thecourier.com/Issues/2009/May/08/ar_news_050809_story3.asp?d=050809_story3,2009,May,08&c=n