You are missing the point.The Brucemaster said:Yes theoretically but Captan Gh3y has already dealt rather effectively with the Crusade argument, it happened in the (relatively) distant past in a totally different historical context with totally different spiritual/moral values.
If the word of God and faith in the bible has such positive effects on people, as posts on here claim (loving your neighbour etc), then history should show that in situations where church has had strong influence peace and love would be encouraged as a result.
That's not the case...
"You find as you look around the world that every single bit of progress in humane feeling, every improvement in the criminal law, every step toward the diminution of war, every step toward better treatment of the colored races, or every mitigation of slavery, every moral progress that there has been in the world, has been consistently opposed by the organized churches of the world. I say quite deliberately that the Christian religion, as organized in its churches, has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world."
[Bertrand Russell]
"When the churches literally ruled society, the human drama encompassed: (a) slavery; (b) the cruel subjection of women; (c) the most savage forms of legal punishment; (d) the absurd belief that kings ruled by divine right; (e) the daily imposition of physical abuse; (f) cold heartlessness for the sufferings of the poor; as well as (g) assorted pogroms ('ethnic cleansing' wars) between rival religions, capital punishment for literally hundreds of offenses, and countless other daily imposed moral outrages. . . . It was the free-thinking, challenging work by people of conscience, who almost invariably had to defy the religious and political status quo of their times, that brought us out of such darkness."
[Steve Allen]