Man, WickedLiquid. That's a horrible story about your friend. I am very sorry to hear about that.
Recently on News.com.au I listened to a video that was of an Australian radio host actually talking to one of the leaders of ISIS (possibly the leader, actually) over a phone call or radio or something. The radio host asked the guy what is it ISIS wanted, the guy explained that what ISIS wants is for the world to be under Islamic law. When questioned about the violence and murders, the ISIS fella denied it all, saying it's made up by the media. It was a chilling interview to listen to. I didn't listen to all of it because I was at work and the video was quite long.
Despite being raised in a Luthren family, I think nowadays I too am more of an Agnostic person. I like the idea that there is something above us (perhaps below us to so to speak, edit: but I don't "like" that idea) and that there is a "higher being" of sorts, or maybe an after life, but I'm just not entirely convinced by it. I'm open to the idea of religion, but I hate it how people try to force their religion down the throats of others, using things like fear and even violence to try and reinforce their point.
I hope I don't offend anyone with my following examples, because it's about two former friends of mine who are heavy Christians (this'll be long, so please excuse the tl;dr if you don't wanna read it).
My first friend lives interstate down south, moved away a while ago. One day out of the blue he rings me up to catch up. We chat for a while, but we both had bad reception where we were, so we decided to continue the conversation over text. We do so, it's pleasant, then he starts talking about religion, Christianity. He's talking about how he's very concerned with the after life and even scared that he and his family and friends will go to hell. I explain my views on religion, and then he tells me this,
"Craig mate. You are going to forever burn in the lake of fire. You will never see your friends and family again. You are going to suffer."
He said a few other nasty things about how I am going to suffer an eternity of pain and misery, then started explain how he was trying to "save" me because he wanted to save his friends. I felt horribly offended by this, I mean... I kinda understood why he was doing what he was doing, because he genuinely believes this is going to happen (and I'm not going to argue that it won't, because no one truly knows), but I explained that trying to use fear to make me believe in his cause is not right. He tried to justify himself, then I politely ended the conversation. We're not friends any more.
Another example, I had a friend who is also a heavy Christian and she has very, almost extremist views on anti-homosexuality. She strongly disapproves it, particularly of same sex marriage. Over Facebook, she kept doing massive status updates how it's apparently wrong because of what the Bible says, and she would use quotes from the Bible to try and justify her points. She then went on to try and post online petitions of anti same sex marriage, to encourage her friends to sign it, and even went ahead and posted "Pray the Gay Away" advertisements and links, to try and "save her friends".
I didn't say anything to this girl, but I have close friends who are homosexual and bisexual and I just got angry seeing these updates, so I scrapped her off my friends list.
My point is, regardless of what religion and faith people may have, I absolutely hate it when people try to use fear, propaganda and even violence to try drive their views and ideas into the minds of others. It's just wrong.
Sorry to go so far off topic.