losing my religion

Hey you, out there in the cold...Getting lonely, getting old....The other nite i was listening to one of my fav songs by REM " Losing my religion", and couldnt help thinking about it over and over again...I have this one question which i always find tough to answer : Why do preachers of religion .. Pandits, Mullahs or the Priests talk about one religion being supreme over the other..jingoism or whatever u may choose to call it .. . Religious fanatcism .I fail to understand this weird logic of rating things... religion.. castes... even education is rated. Why is something compared to the other. why cant things be considered in parallel.. why arent religions equal.? Why should someone choose wife over parents or vice versa?Why do some ppl say .. our religion is the greatest in the world??.. After all religion is a means to the end- Moksha.. Why arent professional choices equal? Just because this society may not pay some professions well enough , that doesnt make it any lower in quality... More often than not... Why is it that the respect we give to a person who serves food at a restaurant more than say a rickshaw guy we meet down the street? Arent they just 2 professionals who are offering a service for which we pay and just because we pay someone more doesn't mean that he deserves any more respect...I come from bangalore and have grown up with some teachers widely almost convincing students to take up only science post 10th and that commerce and arts is for lower mortals.. u should see the expression change to a frown on ppl's faces when u tell that my son or daughter is doing arts /commerce a few years ago... almost like this guy defy dint have anything better in life to do ..hence he must have taken this up... ..esp a place in bangalore which has more than 40 engg colleges in the city alone and over a 100 colleges across the state.. Times are different. now .Thanks to alternative careers and mba as well where both compete on equal grounds.. i am waiting for the day when i would fill edu/ professional forms which will not have religion or caste to be mentioned..Last summer i visited my parents village after a gap of 4 years , in northern karanataka, and as i walked through it during the evening, i was impressed to find a new village school close by to the old one...On enquiring i was shocked to find found that this school was completely only for the scheduled caste/ ST because the higher caste ppl dint want their children to study with students from a lower caste..This is as recent as 2008... Even the free food served in the afternoon is different .. As i strolled towards the outskirts of the village i realised to still see the divide so apparant ... The wells are different... water pumps are different... what a contrast.. .the water underneath comes from the same spring source.... When will we ever get ourselves free from this bias ?Now, back to religion.. at this point of time, i cant help but write about 2-2 ( 2 couples ) of my best friends going through the toughest time trying to convince their parents to allow for inter religion marriages...I would also like to bringforth this point here that from both sides ( religions ) neither of them are asking for conversion, but even then parents just dont want to give in . It's reached a phase where blackmailing has taken new forms like not eating food despite being diabetic..etc? Why should children choose parents over girl or vice versa?. Dont we know that both are more than important ? What is it about accepting another faith which is so tough ? We may be living in the times of Apple i-phone but i guess the apple still hasnt struck our heads and made us change our beliefs ?Lastly.....all i wanna say...
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory nightWhere the children of tomorrow share their dreams
With you and me

Take me to the magic of the momentOn a glory night

Where the children of tomorrow dream away

in the wind of change