waxing philosophical on a friday nite

i'm reading a very interesting article for my TCC history class (i know... can you believe it? me neither) about what really happened when c squared (you know... christopher columbus... okay, you're not laughing, moving on) discovered the americas, and it's really kinda made me think a lot.  always nice to have something occupying my mind during work... seriously, though, i had no idea that guy was such a psycotic genocidal (is that even a word? we'll never know) jerk.  it's very interesting how americans get all up in arms over the few thousands killed in 9/11 while failing to see what probably adds up to millions of people killed by americans who disagreed with other peoples' way of living much as al Queda does ours.  the number of people, for instance, that the spanish killed upon discovering the new world ranges anywhere from 250, 000 to 3 million, but neither of those numbers are anything to shake a stick at.  not to diminish what happened on 9/11 because it is tragic and definitely upsetting, but it's important to keep that perspective in mind.
 
perhaps what bugs me about all of this is that so much of this cruelty, hatred and outright genocide is done in the name of religion, particularly Christianity.  i can't even tell you how many times i came across a sentence from Columbus's diary like "let us in the name of the Holy Trinity go on sending all the slaves that can be sold".  i was just thinking about it earlier and it made me realize that all the people see Christianity as a tragic revelation bringing about the death instead of life of millions have a point.  why do we kill one another in the name of a religion that commands "ye shall not murder"?  isn't that paradoxical?  moreover, what do we do to fix it?  wierd questions and probably no answers to them... i don't claim to have any answers... i just think.  well, every once in a while.  it is summer, anyway. 
 
oh.  and i'm working monday through friday next week.  only one closing shift.  and i don't have to work over the weekend at all.  could i have a more perfect work schedule?  i think not.