Originally posted by chalcedony
Christianity grew without the use of a sword and despite the fact that Christians were threatened with death if they did not renounce their beliefs. That is more of a miracle than islam.
?? Come on chalcedony where in the world did that come from. 1st
relatively speaking, not many Christians were put to the sword/executed in the ancient roman empire. Although, I’d say after Constantine a large number of other people were. Anyway, the numbers are relatively low. As I understand, in Alexandria the governor reports that 9 Christians came to him to demand they be executed and die as martyrs, he advised them to jump from a cliff and refused to have anything more to do with them. Chalcedony, can you give me an idea of (outside of a few crack pot Emperors) how many Christians were “executed” and over what time period. I think if you read up on the subject from a non-biased source you will find the numbers much lower than you think. That said – I started this post with “relatively”. Why – well because Caesar himself after subduing the Gallic peoples sold around 1 million women and children into slavery. To make an example in a rebellious town in Gaul, Caesar had both hands cut off from each male regardless of guilt (I think it was around 3-5K people) and then sent them to beg in other towns to act as a reminder. The above being non-Christian examples of people that got the shaft. My point being – just what sort of world do you think Christians were living in? And why is it you think that Christians got it any tougher than many other peoples of all sorts of religions. Christians were often confused with Jewsso and after Roma burnt Nero blamed the Christians living in Roma (as Jewish were considered trouble makers) and had them rounded up and executed. However – this is nothing when compared to what the Gaul’s endured.
Second – Christianity was spread by the sword. What planet do you live on? That isn’t to say people didn’t convert by choice as that did occur as well. However to say that Christianity wasn’t an excuse to decimate entire civilizations in the name of god is laughable. They didn’t call em conquistadors for nothing.
Thirdly, when a “missionary” withholds food or links receiving food to Christianity. Well, quit frankly I think we can agree that is repugnant.
As I understand, in Indonesia Islam was spread through contact and trade. Buddhism did the same in Japan. Where at one time the Japanese wanted all Buddhists killed. After awhile they themselves became Buddhists. That’s just human nature.
According to my Iranian friend, Muslims conquered and killed Persians to “spread” Islam there. Then they removed the heads of state and replaced them with Arabs and changed the language. Many Persian intellectuals fled to India. That is why many pre-Islamic Persian myths are in the Qur’an. Of course this is according to him. He’s a Doctor Biochemistry but also Iranian. So I consider him learned and his word is worth something. So here we see Islam spread by the sword. As we should expect.
I have been told, in Islam if you are Muslim (maybe in the past?) you get a tax break versus if you are in an acceptable religion but not Muslim? Is this correct? WAs there any kind of financial incentive? If so I’d convert as well – or at least say I was converted. Godly – yeah right.
People of both religions were notorious slave traders. I mean notorious. They killed millions. So the truth is people believe that which they are taught to believe and people are people regardless of faith.
From an Atheists point of view I see Islam and Christianity walking hand in hand like lovers. They're so similar one can scarcely distinguish between the two.
Originally posted by Proud_Syrian
We are living in an era of HYSTERIC ISLAMOPHOBIA and anti-muslim racism and hate, so any good news about people embracing islam will streangthen our resolve in standing up for this hate which is coming from pathetic fanatic christians and jews.
This is true (about the hysterical Islamophobia) but don’t think it is just from pathetic fanatic Christians and Jews. I certainly know a number of non-fanatical pretty much run-of-the-mill Buddhists, Atheists, Hindu, Taoist and Shinto that are also Islamophobic. That being because everyday on the television these people see a Muslim blowing something and someone up with a bomb. I’m not going to debate whether this is truly representative of Islam. I don’t think so. But the Christians and Jews don’t control the Chinese media nor the Japanese media nor the Hindu or Thai or Singaporean media. Yet, I have talked with many of these people and they are afraid to go to countries that are Islamic and sometimes get scared seeing Muslims. (oh, when I said Chinese I meant Atheists Han). Obviously, everyday people from every culture witness some disaster in Indonesia or India or the ME or Russia or the Philippians or North and East Africa or Eastern Europe or Pakistan or some woman being sentenced to stoned-to-death or protesters in Iran beaten. I’m not saying that this doesn’t occur in other countries. God only knows how violent it is to live in the USA. But that is seen as a social problem not a religious problem. As a result and quite frankly when compared to the other major religions I think we can agree you just do not see that level of violence. Just last night my partner (her father is a Buddhist priest) was watching TV and exclaimed “Oh no” and so I looked up from reading and on the news there was some Pakistanis from one Muslim faith killing some Muslims from another faith. Although I’m Atheist I have religious friends some of whom are Muslim and although like all Religious people in that their a bit brain-washed – (just my perspective) other than that they are the nicest people you could hope to meet. So you certainly can at least understand where this stero-type is coming from? I think we can agree to at least that much?
