Artful Dodger:

> The big flaw in your thesis is that in Islam, the evil is in the teachings. In Christianity, you won't find that same kind of teaching in any measure. Christianity does not promote, advocate, or encourage evil in any way shape or form. Islam does.

The flaw with your thesis is that you assume that people are defined by their ideology, but that is wrong. People are defined by their actions. I can go and say that I am a great Christian, then cheer when my country goes to war for oil. that is hardly a good Christian but a hypocrite. Then when people ask me why I supported the war, I will say that it was the other side that was to blame and in doing so I will have washed my hands of the simple fact that I condoned violence. Hypocrysy at its best. Christianity has been like that through its history. Christians suffer from a "victim" complex, always blaming others when in reality it is their own greed and selfishness that has driven them to war.

> You're an atheist. More people have been killed in the world by godless people than have by those professing faith in Jesus.

Is that so? Christians sent an estimated 60 million natives in the Americas to their deaths. Entire cultures were massacred, violated and enslaved. So great was the killing that Europeans had to start importin African slaves to work the plantations after they ran out of natives to abuse. Not even a madman like Joseph Stalin can compare to that.


> The New Testament clearly teaches killing is wrong. No amount of complaining by you will change that.

And ALL Christians REALLY follow that?

> Early in the 1600's, when different countries were vying for control of the New World, Protestants and Catholics were at war. The Catholic French were killing en mass the Protestant immigrants. The opposite was true as well. It was a Territorial war as much as it was about religion. Each side believed they were doing what God wanted. How they could possibly kill in the name of God is strange to those living in the 21st century. Clearly, there is no NT teaching to support such things.

Again you insisit in dovorcing people's actions from their ideology. The teachings are great, and people's actions don't count. It is the lame excuse of those who refuse to accept that Cristians are hypocrytes in spite of the good teachings they received from Jesus. A Moslem could very well argue that the violent tone fo the Koran is a reflection of the politics of the times. Mohammad had to fight against the powerful men in Mecca and Medina. Hence the the tone is violent, but it had nothing to with the "true" teachings of Islam. Blah blah, it would be the same empty excuse of divorcing actions from ideology.

Christians are defined by their actions. In the end is God not judging people's actions? Christianity has been brutal in its history, and Christians close their eyes and deny it because accepting the truth is too painful.

> But these facts say nothing about Christianity. You can't get these ideas from the Bible. They aren't there. Further, any intelligent student of the Bible understands that the Old Testament isn't a guidebook for the New Testament believer. So appeals to the OT are moot.

So Christians are worse then because at least Moslems have an excuse. The Koran says I should go to war, so i did. But Christians are a lot worse. The Bible says I should be peaceful, but instead I disregard my teachings and I go to war. Moslems have an excuse, what excuse do Christians have?

> However, the Koran is full of such teachings of hate and killing. As are the other authoritative writings in Islam. And Muhammad's life, as an example, clearly shows a history of violence, war, and aggression. He taught his followers to do the same.

Like I said, Islam has an excuse on accounts of their violent ideology. What is Christianity's then?