Absolutely… not! Just the other way around has been my observation. Good people make good Christians. Not only that, good people also make good Muslims, Buddhist, and perhaps even good Taoist depending on your definition of ‘good‘.
Living in S.E. Asia (esp. Malaya and Indonesia), Middle East and North Africa made this glaringly obvious. All three regions are Muslim, yet the life styles of each region (esp. S.E. Asia compared to the other two) are strikingly different. If religion makes the people, then the people of each region (in this case Muslim) should have been much more alike.
Since those initial observations, I have seen countless examples of this disconnect between religions (and politics) and people. People bring their innate personality, level of maturity, and emotional stability to their religion or politics. The fears that lurk within us manifest themselves in often ‘nasty’ behavior. The fears the lurk within us determine how we express our particular religion or political leaning.
I don’t see this as being any great secret either. It is dead easy to see, and just as easy to understand. So why does this seem to be beyond the understanding of all but a very few in the world? I can only guess that the social group instinct driving us to judge groups of people (the books) by their affiliation (the covers) is blindingly irresistible.
Our social (group) instincts also drive us to adopt the beliefs (religious, political and the rest) that fullfill our need to either belong to a group or distinguish ourselves from a group. In this regard, beliefs serve much the same purpose as the clothes we ‘chose’ to wear.
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