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To: ScubieNuc

I agree with the point you are making, but I do have some reservations about your numbers. The Crusades were a last ditch defensive war against an expansive Islamic empire and therefore I believe they shouldn’t be put under the Christianity column, and my second point is that your numbers for the Spanish Inquisition may hold true if you mean all Inquisitions throughout history, though I would still argue that the 100,000 number is an extremely high estimate; however, the Spanish Inquisition itself only executed approximately 3,000-5,000 and was unique in that it was under the control of Spanish Monarchy not the Papacy and though on paper it was a religious inquisition in practice it seemed to be more about consolidating political power.

Sorry about the rambling post, but I just wanted to add my two cents.


39 posted on 07/31/2010 6:45:16 AM PDT by Namyak (Oderint dum metuant)
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To: Namyak

I agree with your two cents.

I normally first skip breaking down wars or deaths attributed to religion or christianity and just “give” those wars to them. Even with that cessesion, the numbers are no where close.

The other thing to keep in mind is that wars are fought for many reasons: security, acquisition of land, money, power, and political or religious philosophy. For example, our current war against Terrorism was started by Muslims attacking us for religious and political reasons, but our response has more to do with security then fulfilling a religious tenet. So to list all the casualties of this current conflict under a title like “deaths by Islam”, it wouldn’t be completely accurate.

Another thing about Christianity is that while it does support killing for punishment or defense it isn’t commanded as necessary for the Christian believer. That is very different from Islam, where killing the unbeliever is commanded.

On the Crusades, there were some decrees made by Popes and other Catholic leaders which were not supported by the Bible. Things such as freeing Jerusalem will grant you salvation, but even given that, you are correct that the Crusades were primarily are defensive position as a result of the expanding Muslim empire. To call the Crusades a war created by the Bible or Christians is to grossly misunderstand what was all going on.


67 posted on 07/31/2010 4:23:09 PM PDT by ScubieNuc
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