Greetings

[ruhollah]

i have read alot of islamic verses and their translations and they all seem pretty damn evil to me. but that must just be my 'beginners outlook' eh?

Its unfortunate that if you Google about Islam, you'll probably come across with the most out-of-context verses and therefore being turned off completely by the religion.

I suggest to do more research, to find more about a certain religion. It like avoiding to read about Catholicism just because of all the pedophilia news in the media. As I mentioned earlier, the powerful can no longer hijack a religion but can only demonize it.

Here is a link, it has lecture based on any controversial issue you can think of:

Pork, alchohol, racisim, niqab, cutting hand, burqa, boob quake, miss USA, christ, john the baptist, dating, sex, friendship, family, suicide,...etc.

http://www.sayedammar.com/sayedammarnakshc.html

I think the lecture most relevant to your post is #164.

There are other great lecturers on the internet/youtube aswell, the more you search the more answer you'll get...

hope it helps