Being born is really like drawing straws. Consider the fact that you were probably born American, into a Christian family. Given the world's popuation, you had a 1/6 chance of being born Chinese, one of multiple eastern religions. 1/6 chance of being born Hindu in India. Process that. You can take whatever meaning or destiny you want out of where you are, but your chances weren't that good of being born where you are- all arrogance aside, probably the best possible country in the world, financially socially politically, in many ways. What if you had been born in a Third World Country?

Now thats all interesting, but further think about this. Are you really Christian (or whatever religion you might be) because you sat down, evaluated it, weighed all the other religions and beliefs, and chose your religion like you'd chose a TV at Best Buy? NO. You were born that religion, and while you may end up Protestant if you started Catholic or vice-versa, chances are you're sticking with what you started with. Soooooo though social religious and political pressures are different in different countries, chances are most other people are sticking with what they started with too.

Fuuuuurthermore, you end up really being convicted that your religion is right, true, best, whatever. Take a look at all the Muslims these days in the Middle East waging religious war on us or Israel or what have you. Everyone is sitting around shouting that their religion is right when fact is most people probably know very little about any of the others and fact is believe in their religion cause they were born with it. Even if people know much about their own, they probably know very little about other religions.

That leaves me a little more open to considering the validity of other religions, because fact is its a craps shoot whether I'm born American Catholic or Chinese Buddhist. And I can almost promise you on simple odds that if I was born Buddhist I'd still be Buddhist today. If any one religion was that AMAZINGLY true and right compared to all others I see a few more people converting. Sure there's the argument about not having access or exposure but still. So Christianity still could be the one true right religion, but fact is, I never know what I'd think about it if I was born Buddhist, and fact is regardless of what I tell myself, my convictions about it are largely built on at least the cornerstone fact that I was born into it.

So there's that. Its really a matter of dice whether you're eternally aghast that someone would fly a plane into your largest city's twin towers, or whether you're happy someone finally taught those arrogant Americans a lesson. You could be on either side of the coin. So what if you were on the other side? Makes you think differently about this side, and about the people on the other side. They're living with exactly the same attitudes and actions we are, they were just born on the other side.