A history of your beliefs Part 2

In the 13th century, the Fourth Crusade crippled Byzantium, which was once a cultural and economic epicenter for all of the West and the East.  This paved the way for the Ottoman Turks to come and sack Constantinople and effectively ending the Byzantine Empire. 

The last strike on Constantinople would turn the Hagia Sophia from a beautiful  Christian church to a beautiful Muslim Masjid, over time.  

Again, the religion seems to veil this concept of economic control. 

Moreover, in other aspects of life, the believers of a faith or practice tend to legitimize their actions via their beliefs.  And blame other external forces for events that happen in their lives based upon their beliefs.  There's really no problem with that, however when believers pick and choose which events were ordained by their great higher power and which events were not. 

To use religion as a force to legitimate anything, we have to accept the good and the bad.  Jews seemed to understand this concept.  When ever they wound up in the Diaspora, they thought it might be due to some sort of inherent flaw in the way they worshiped God, and they sought to reconcile this.  These days, morons like this: 

can also use their religion to legitimate their actions.  Doesn't make it right, but people who believe a certain way will do so no matter what.  The point of all this is for you, the believer to justify your own actions, without using something else to do so.  Not only does it build character, but it's a far less of a shady practice.  Take responsibility for your actions, and use your faith to make your life better, so that you might act better and make choices that don't suck.