ISIS & Religion

I consider myself Agnostic and respect the rights of all people to worship how the choose so long as they 1) don't kill others in the process 2) don't hurt others in the process 3) don't take from others in the process 4) don't pressure others to convert to their religion or change core beliefs.

Been following ISIS. Hearing stories of "convert to Islam or be killed" and people, in most cases, choose being killed.

Me, not being any religion, if I was told that my family and/or I must convert or die, I'd convert. I'd fake it. Go through the motions. Walk the walk, talk the talk. Then escape when opportunity arose. Don't Muslims have to visit certain holy places at some point? Why not say I'm going there and then GTFO. Run.

What compels these people to die for their religion? And on the other side of the coin, what compels people like ISIS to kill for it? I just don't get it. Religion is suppose to be a positive thing, isn't it?

What am I missing here?

Jesus said, "he who denies me on earth, I shall deny in heaven."

Why do you think ISIS has been winning confrontations where they are outnumbered 100 to 1? It's because they're not scared of dying.

I love the details of the story of David and Goliath. It very likely actually happened, small parts of the story have been confirmed by archaeological evidence. It doesn't take supernatural powers for a little guy to hit a big guy in the head with a rock. The part I like is when he shows up to his side's army cowering in fear for days to the taunts of Goliath, and he doesn't understand why they are afraid. In his eyes, he can't possibly lose, because God is on his side. The king tries to give him armor, and he refuses. Maybe God was on his side, or maybe David was just a crazy mother fvcker.

My English former father in law was a ww2 fighter pilot for the raf. He said 23 was the cutoff age for fighter pilots, because they thought that was the age a man realized his own mortality. And once that happened, even when they were losing the war, you were a waste of a plane to send up there to fight.

Crazy mother fvckers kick ass. Whether you got that way from your religion, being young and stupid, or were just born that way, being completely separated from the idea of worrying about your own mortality gives you ten times the ass-kicking ability. That's why it's built into all successful philosophies - it works. Convince people that dying doesn't matter, and they will immediately become more powerful. Fear for your life holds you back.