What determines most people’s religion?  Why are most people in Saudi Arabia Muslims?  Why are most people in India Hindus?  Why do the majority of Americans claim to be Christian?  Why do people in Communist countries say they are atheists?

Perhaps the answer is one word:  geography.  Most people’s religion (or lack thereof) is determined, not by a personal seeking of truth, but by the influence of the religion (or lack thereof) of their childhood — geography.

And what determines who is the enemy in war?  Isn’t it usually geography — people from some other geographic area, some other nation?  Two nations declare the citizens of the other nation to be the enemy and then the citizens of each nation wish and do evil toward the other’s citizens, based not on the character, value, or morality of the people, but based on their geography.

So I ask, does geography make a religion true?  Does geography justify the evils of war?  Perhaps we should make our decisions and shape our beliefs and behaviors, not on geography, but on thinking for ourselves and seeking the reality of truth?  Perhaps we should strive to think outside the influence of our upbringing and society.

Are my observations valid?  Here are two more questions to stir your thinking:  1)  If you were born to Pakistani parents and grew up in Pakistan, what religion would you most likely be?  2) If you had been born and raised in Japan, and you lived there, and your family was Japanese, whose side would you have been on in World War II?

Gee.  Geography is powerful.