Causation

Has there ever been a war started over...um...best friends?  Over ice cream?  Over someone's garden?  Over someone doing someone else a favor?  Over someone getting a promotion?  Over someone taking a vacation?  Over a child learning to say their first word?  None that I can think of.

So why is something as innocuous as religion so volatile.  Let's dissect.  

On the "loser" side, if you believe a certain religious "story" and you find out

when you  die you picked the wrong religion you might end up going to 

Hell or

 you might be reincarnated as a turtle or you might be done, period.  

On the "winner" side, if you picked the right religion you might end up living in very balmy, white, fuzzy clouds, you might have a constant smile 

on your face and you might be given wings when a bell rings, I think I have all that right.

So does all this mean there's someone beyond our horizon who has this giant blackboard (I'm having a non-electronic fantasy) who is keeping track of the winners and the losers meaning you each receive a hash mark as you pass 

through the portal? 

I can see it all now: 

You started the Iraq war - Loser

You prayed to the right supreme being, Bhudda - Winner

You cheated your little sister out of her chocolate sundae - Loser

You went to church every Sunday your entire life - Winner

You didn't believe the Koran - Loser

You only bought dolphin-free tuna - Winner

You didn't use the write sign-off in your prayers - Loser

You became a pacifist and were shot down in the riots at Kent State in the 70's - Winner

You ignored the genocide happening around the globe - Loser

You fell asleep during the Sunday sermons - Winner

You threatened your family if they didn't believe exactly what you did - Loser

You didn't shine your shoes before Temple - Winner

You spent your life intending but not doing - Loser

You rolled on the floor in church while speaking in tongues - Winner

You believe everything your government and the news media tell you - Loser

You planted trees every day of your adult life - Winner

Who can say who is right and who is wrong?  Religion forces (or tries to) us to

believe what it says whether you're Nazarene, Seventh Day Adventist, Catholic, Jewish, Moslem, Hindu, African tribesman, aborigine, Native American, Bhuddist or atheist.  You have to 

go along with whatever they "preach" or you don't have faith, which of course means you're going to Hell.  The fear, hatred and violence that surrounds the need to be right is pervasive.  

My question is who says any one of these choices is the right one or the wrong one?  Why is there this broad-based life & death need to be right?  And what is it about living in the

 Midwest that makes you conservative?  Is it the vegetables, the weather, dust on the brain...what then?