MrFast said:
Christianity is in alot of ways just as bad (probably even worse) than Satanism. Sure he killed a guy, and a few others did the same I'm sure but from what I can see satanists take their own lives more often than taking the lives of others. Also, keep in mind that the christians killed thousands and thousands of people in the Crusades and are usually the cause of most holy wars. In my mind, anything that would cause people to kill eachother is not a good thing.
People can believe what they want, whatever makes them happy. I'm not gonna preach non-beliefs to anyone cause that would make me just as bad as these. Just my two cents.
The Western church made horrible mistakes, as do all individual Christians. We are ALL guilty of sins and mistakes. If I told you I had never accused a person falsely--or even that I'd never drawn blood--I'd be lying. (I threw a rock at a kid on the playground at 5 years old...the kid was OK after the knot on his head healed, but I can say I STILL feel bad when I think about it.)
However, other religions--and atheism--are not exempt from mass killings. Recall Stalin's purges, which were not committed in the name of any god that I'm aware of.
Read here for more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Purge
To that I would also add China's persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
Human nature is such that we will pervert ANYTHING we can get our hands on if we can make it serve our bloody ends, be it the philosophies of religion, atheism, science, sex, ANYTHING...many things that of themselves would be just fine if we didn't twist them. Religion is chief on this list of excuses because when people try to claim they're doing something in the name of God, others are afraid to call them on the injustice of what they're doing. The concept of religion in and of itself is not invalidated--however, those who carried out those actions under false pretenses are responsible as individuals for them.
MrFast, I have some more reading material for you, if you feel like wading through it. I am posting this as a reference for what I'm about to tell you, which was that
even during the age of the Crusades, Christianity was not of one mind about such acts. My source is the writings of the Greek Orthodox Church. If you recall your history, the first Great Schism occurred in 1054, about the time the first Crusade kicked off...just a touch before, or perhaps during. This was when the church of the East divided from that of the West. Those churches under the leadership of Byzantium instead of Rome took a very different stance towards those outside of outside of Christianity. They have little to no participation in the Crusades that I am aware of...and this is a SIGNIFICANT branch of the Christian faith which is often forgotten by Americans because our Orthodox population is so small in comparison to Christians descended from the Western Church (of which I count both Catholicism and Protestantism).
In the year 1568 we get this statement from Patriarch Metrophanes III of the Greek Orthodox church when he heard about the mistreatment of Jews: "Injustice ... regardless to whomever acted upon or performed against, is still injustice. The unjust person is never relieved of the responsibility of these acts under the pretext that the injustice is done against a heterodox and not to a believer. As our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospels said do not oppress or accuse anyone falsely; do not make any distinction or give room to the believers to injure those of another belief."
A "heterodox" is one outside of the church, and the significant part of this quote is that you have a major leader in the Orthodox Church openly condemning violence against unbelievers and stating that the perpetrators will be
equally accountable in the eyes of God just the same as if they had done it to a fellow Christian. Of course, some in the Orthodox Church did not heed this teaching...obviously SOMEONE in their church occasioned this finding in the first place, and that wasn't the last incident (the pogroms against Jews in Russia, for instance). However, I reiterate--you have church
leadership delivering a condemnation of such behavior that couldn't be clearer.
So in summary, what is my point with all of this? My point is that all Christians are NOT of one mind, and that non-Christians are just as guilty of crimes against humanity. Christianity, Islam, atheism ALL have blood on their hands--do not dare condemn one and act as if no practitioners of the other are guilty.
(P.S.: My source for the material on Eastern Orthodoxy--
http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article8089.asp )
War_Blade said:
You can't even compare that...
The Christains hundreds of years ago arn't the same people walking around today. Christainity Isn't supposed to be violent but when people bend what the bible says it become a problem.
btw, im atheist
Thank you to showing respect for those who do not share your beliefs. This is much appreciated.
