Kim, I get the hatred thing from the words you say and how you say them. Your attitude that comes across indicates bigotry to me and to me bigotry and hatred are the same thing. I accept your explanation of your views and will keep that in mind.

I obviously do not agree with all of your views, I am a different person with different experiences. While I do not espouse any religion or sect of one I do see value in core teachings and concepts of many of them. I agree that in practice official religions have done and do as you have said. However on the individual level I know this is definitely not always the case. I know this by personal experience with the people and by learning from their personal experiences. I also know a great deal about many religions due to personal involvement with them. I am not an expert but I am experienced enough to know that many ideas and assumptions about religions that inexperienced people have about them are not valid and based on superficial and flawed information.

Islam is probably my least favorite religion if I were to classify religions into favorites. However that does not prevent me from believing the peaceful performance of their type of worship is a right they are entitled to. When someone in the name of Islam crosses the line they have sacrificed their right to freedom of religion in the same way that any criminal sacrifices certain of their rights as a direct result of their crime. Unfortunately the killers in the name of Islam get all the attention and that's the info many people base their attitude about Islam on and that is not really how the majority of Muslims are. It is the lumping them all together and thinking and saying they are all evil because they are Muslim that I find fault with. Too many Americans are content to do just that and it unfortunately influences popular opinion. This in turn causes more polarization and misunderstanding and makes efforts towards solutions much harder.

I understand that you feel you are only here to please yourself and that is your right to believe that way. I do not believe that about myself. At least not in the same way as you appear to. I believe the way to make myself happy in part involves minimizing things I do that make other people unhappy. The more unhappy people there are the more I run into them and they make ME unhappy. I call it being wisely selfish. It's just the golden rule is all and it works.