Greta wrote:I'll try again and see if an even vaguely sane or relevant answer to this question is possible. You may be surprised to find that people do actually notice when the answer to a simple question asked is an irrelevant rant.
I don't know if Christianity brought peace to Europe and don't need to check your claims. If it did, then that was a very good thing. The question is whether religion, with its obviously false claims (at least to anyone who doesn't believe in flying horses or virgin mothers), is a relative force for good today. That religion does some good is not under question, but whether its negatives outweigh the positives.
Today in both the west and middle east religion is at the very least the banner under which conflicted parties fight, manipulating true believers into making sacrifices "for God". As a result, theism is either pivotal or heavily involved with most wars today. GW Bush famously was told by God to Invade Iraq. The Taliban and Al Qaeda/ISYS claim that God demands that they go to war. Retrograde stuff that you'd think wouldn't feature in modern societies, which just goes to show that modernity takes some time to filter through populations, especially with inequality. Perhaps if the rich were less greedy there would be fewer malcontents seeking the solace of faith?
The Islam situation appears similar in nature to the cultural insanity that at various times in history afflicted China, Germany, Japan, Russia and North Korea, to name a few. Like individuals, every now and then entire cultures "go postal".
Islam is a corrupt attempt at a religion. I would not suggest you judge or grade all religions based on Islam.
It would probably be better for you Greta if you just forgot about Islam.
I am actually quite happy that the Sunni's and the Shia's are blowing each other up. Better that they hate each other than the rest of us.
Of course when an occasional Jewish American gets beheaded in the Middle East somewhere it does upset a lot of people. But what was this fool doing in a war zone anyway?
To the extent that the Sunni's and the Shia's are killing each other off, let them do it. I agree with Netanyahu on that point. He said that if you have 2 enemies fighting each other then neither one of them is your friend -- let them both fight it out.
As far as the rest of the dozen major religions of the world go, I know a lot of people who derive great strength and courage from their own faith.
And it is not given to any many or woman to know of a certainty which god is real and which others are false. Not to you. Not to me. Not to anybody.
What that Judaeo-Christian sect a corrupt attempt? 'Heaven' forbid something like that!
