inspiredbyactualevents.com

A recent brief dispute, in which R3W criticized some Christians’ characterization of America as a country founded on Christian principles, prompted this inspiredbyactualevents-esque response:

Religions are dangerous precisely because they do what the government under our Constitution cannot: They condemn others for their beliefs and go many steps further.  They frequently (most of the time when you take the longer view) punish others for their beliefs.  The Isrealites, while not seeking converts, nonetheless massacred thousands (remember the Midianites and the Hittites and the Canaanites?) to steal their promised land. Once given the green light by Emperor Constantine in the 4th century, Christians regularly slew any who would not convert; and there was that wee four centuries of the Inquisition.  And how did the Muslims convert the millions of people living in the middle east in just few centuries?  I think we know how.

The argument that these seemingly endless atrocities were inflicted by a minority of ‘bad’ monotheists does not hold, given the expressed noble sentiments of the people of the Book.  While a numeric minority undoubtedly led the bloody charge, the majority (and certainly the center) of these communities all profited, and still profits, from the carnage.  Today, the comfortable middle class of all these religions, more than any other group anywhere at anytime, enjoy the blessings of prosperity, often the blessings of wealth.  Coincidence?  I don’t think so.

R3W