01-06-2010, 09:33 PM
Quote:This is a bit dated, no? The difference between Christianity and say Islam, is that Christianity evolved and Islam didn't. Whereas in the Middle Ages Christianity was intolerant and often enough malicious, and Islam was tolerant and somewhat open-minded, at least relatively speaking, the roles have reversed completely.
I am sick and tired of hearing about how Christianity was responsible for such and such evils....... 500 years ago. This is a sign of someone not having a valid argument.
Oh and btw, I am an atheist.
Yes, but Christianity didn't evolve on it's own accord. The reason Christianity has "evolved" and Islam, for the most part, hasn't is because Christianity has developed in primarily secular societies. There are still large parts of the Christian following that believe, much like Islam, that the United States should be made into a Christian state and non believers should be denied citizenship. Not the majority, but the Middle Age mentality is still alive and well within the Christian faith. You don't have to look back 500 years to see this. Christianity along with a whole lot of racisim had a pretty large impact on Africa not 100 years ago with European Colonization. And even now in America, Fundementalist Christians utilize terrorism against abortion doctors to further their beliefs. Fundementalism of any kind is detrimental to society because it inherantly suppresses growth and evolution.
The reason you are seeing such bombast out of the Islam faith at present is because the fundementalist believers are losing their grasp on power. There are letters between Ayman Al-Zawahiri and Bin Laden which state clearly that the greatest enemy to thier movement is not the United States but liberalized Muslim nations. The secularization of many Arabic Muslim nations is starting now and the best thing we can do is support this process while doing our best not to add fuel to the fundementalist's fire.