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Hey- you've given me a few ideas, thanks. Well, I think a lot of mainstream religions, if not all, basically tell people to be nice to each other (sorry about the simplicity here, I don't know a great deal about religion), so what if mine (which has to play a bad role, I think) told people to be not very nice to each other, and not to care what other people thought or said? It's probably a crazy idea..
No, don't make it that obvious - it wouldn't be believable. As with all religions, especially Christendom and Islam there are different theological interpretations, and these often radically differ. One could even argue that these two religions are the result of the same divide and are really quite the same, but this is another debate.
Take for example the most infamous at present day: the muslim extreme fundamentalists. They are religious fanatics, and believe strongly in the fact that
they are right, and therefore mean that whatever their tactics, they are justified. 11/9, the Palestinian suicide bombers or the UN headquarters in Iraq is a good example of the result of these beliefs: death and destruction.
However, one must keep in mind that they do not set out to do
wrong, they set out to do what they believe is
right.
Islam is not an evil religion, despite the fact it drives some of its followers to despiccable acts through i.e.
terrorism. The reason for this is not the religion in itself, because Islam is a far kinder religion at its roots than even Christianity. However, it is twisted and malformed into the unrecognisable by certain teachings.
What it all boils down to is the fact that religious-based evil is not created by the religion, but by the mind which interprets it.
So, to create a religion suited for your purposes, create one regardless of whether it is intended to do good or evil. Then have your villains interpret it in such a way that gives you the effect you wish. There are very few people who do malicious acts simply for the sake of being cruel. They do it because they believe
they are right.
A good example would be Hamilton's newest book,
Pandora's Star. Here he has a religious terrorist group who believe a crashed starship contained an alien with a malicious intent towards humanity. Even though the institutes researching the starship state that there were no survivers on board, they persist in their belief that the
Starflyer has lived through the crash and infected the minds of the researchers and other political figures. Therefore, they strive to eliminate this perceived threat to humanity and engage in acts of terrorism. Again, their justification is that the
end migitates the means because they are ultimately right, and all they are doing is protecting humanity as a whole. Therefore they are just in their terrorist activities.
I hope you see what I mean.
PS: I do repeat myself a lot, don't I.
... Swedes again.