[stuartcr]

It's all in the interpretation. It's rare that you find terrorists, etc, that stand up and say...'I did that because I am a scumbag sob that wanted to murder'...they usually need something to justify, at least to themselves, why they did it. Religious texts are good for justifying, who can argue with God? It also helps in the recruiting process of other scumbag sobs, to have God on your side.

[agrace]

I understand your perspective, however, you'd be pretty hard-pressed to find justification in Christianity for violent acts. It really isn't about interpretation in the sense that the text can be genuinely manipulated. The crusades, for example, weren't based on interpretation of text. If I'm not mistaken, they were a result of a papal edict that sought to halt Islamic expansion. I bet the pope in question would have had a terrible time finding scriptural justification for what he asked his people to do.