gar977 said:
Catholism has taken the bible and made into their own cult or beliefs. I dont see one mention of "the Pope" in the bible. And, lets not talk about forgiveness of sins for monetary exchange. So, you see it did feel wrong because Catholics are not biblical-stay away from denominations and you will be fine dude-Heathens is no way to live.
Yeah.. Silent Song. Ok, its interesting how you pick out only points to preach negativity. If you dont think Muslims and Muhammed waged many wars and killed people then look it up. Next, I guess you will say the Civil War didnt happen and you need hard evidence. Come on.. You keep replying for the sake of argument. I would agree though.. worship is where the heart is.. it has nothing to do with a building or place.
Be careful.. calling the Opeth guy a God is EXTREME blasphemy. I've read the lyrics of Opeth and they are far from being Holy I can assure you.
This thread was started for Dan, so your making a question that doesnt make sense dude. You chimed in, remember. And Dan is the King of this castle!
Eesh.. look man, you're not making all that much sense. Secterian violence is not limited to Islam. You don't even need to go waaaaaay back to the Crusades to find an instance of violence of Christians against non-Christians. There's tons - too many - examples of religious violence by Christians in the 20th century. Maronites in the civil war in Lebanon, Christian / Buddhist violence in Vietnam, Christian fundamentalist rebels in Uganda, abortion clinic bombers in the US, Christian animists and Arab Muslims in Sudan, and even anti Semitism in Europe has religious roots. Terrorism rooted in Islamic fundamentalism is just more spectacular because it has a political message and its delivery (suicide bombings, beheadings) assures that it gathers a lot of attention. But I assure you that less people have died from terrorism in the last 10-15 years than people have died from routine secterian violence between Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, and others throughtout the world. All parties are equally guilty. You can't justify blaming any one side.
It's also problematic that you blame the religious beliefs of others for conflict. You have to understand something. You have a very SPECIFIC interpretation of what the "truth" is. Your very, very evident lack of meaningful knowledge of Islam or Catholicism causes you to make indefensible - and incorrect - statements about these religions. For example, you use the Islamic conquests as an example of Mohammed's "violence", yet you fail to mention the Roman Empire, in its Emperor Constantine end of days was a Christian empire that waged brutal war against its neighbors, in name of both the Empire and of Christianity. Jesus Christ may be the most important figure in Christianity, but many of the figures responsible for Christianizing the Western world used violence to ensure the spread of Christianity as a religion.
I think you need read a lot more about the ideas and religions you criticize, and not crazy propaganda pages set up by amatuers (such as that hilarious "truth about Islam" website). Pick up "The Prophet and the Age of Caliphates" by Hugh Kennedy if you're honestly interested in developing an understanding of early Islam. That's a good starting point and it has a very good bibliography, one that will allow you to explore the literature on the subject. You should know, and know well, that what exactly Islam is and what it is supposed to represent is hotly contested among Muslims, just like the meaning and essence of Christianity is contested by Christians. In spite of your assertions that Catholicism is not Christianity (which is a very radical, fundamentalist Christian argument that I do not see often from Protestants), you have to accept that whether you believe that or not is predicated precisely in your beliefs, and not in the question of whether or not Catholicism is a valid form of Christianity.
