The Most Dangerous Religion
Many times when I am discussing the dangerousness of Christianity with Christians, the Christians will ask me why I am not discussing Islam, which they claim, is more dangerous. This of course doesn’t absolve or defend against the charge that I am making about the dangerousness of Christianity. In fact, Islam could be the most dangerous religion on Earth and that still wouldn’t excuse Christians from the dangers they pose to freedom, happiness, human progress, and even the very survival of the human race. This argument basically amounts to, “Don’t worry about the crimes I am committing, look over there.”
Even many of my fellow freethinkers such as Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens seem to think that Islam is more dangerous than Christianity. And while I greatly respect both of these great thinkers, I will have to disagree with them on this point. The fact is that it is Christianity, which is the most dangerous religion on Earth, not Islam.
I will grant you that Islam is probably more violent that Christianity as far as sensationalism, but being violent and being dangerous are not always the same thing. A serial killer could kill 5 or 6 people and while I wouldn’t want to sit next to him or her at dinner, the serial killer would still be less dangerous than the greedy CEO whose company dumps toxic chemicals into a near by river killing dozens and making hundreds sick. You could probably even sit next to the guy at dinner and never know how dangerous he really is.
With religion I see it in a similar way. Muslims flew planes into our buildings and killed 3000 people on September the 11th. This of course rocked the world. No one is claiming that such an act wasn’t violent or that the people responsible weren’t motivated by their religion. The blood of those 3000 people is on the hands of the Islamic religion. While it is true that not all Muslims agree with actions such as this, it cannot be denied that those who committed this attack did so because their religion was open to such an interpretation. Other attacks motivated by this type of interpretation of the Islamic religion were the attack on the USS Cole, which killed 17 people and the attack on the American Embassy in 1998, which killed 225 people. And then of course there are the 40 or so beheadings that were captured on video and plastered all over the news.
What about Christianity? It might surprise people to know that according to the FBI hate crime statistics, almost 1500 gays and lesbians were reported to have been attacked in 2007, right here in America. Many such hate crimes go unreported. And like with the Muslim religion, not all Christians think of homosexuality as a sin and not even all of those who do would resort to violence, but it cannot be denied that those attacks were motivated by Christians who have no hard time interpreting the Bible to support such attacks. One may argue with that interpretation, but the Bible isn’t a very clear book and it is obvious that there are verses, which lend themselves to such an interpretation. Stem Cell Research is yet another one of those positions in which many Christians believe that their holy book and their deity of choice are very much against. Such research could help to save the lives of 1.4 million Americans who have Lupus, 1 million Americans with Parkinson’s, and over 220,000 Americans who have spinal injuries. These people could live if the Christian motivated Americans (34%) weren’t spending tons of tax-exempt funds to insure that these people die.
But I am not done yet with Christianity. It is pretty well known that the Pope not only claims that condoms don’t protect people from HIV, but instead increase the risk of HIV/AIDS, Many of the same Christian motivated Americans who believe Stem Cell Research is evil also agree with the Pope. These Americans were able to restrict government aid going to AIDS infested Africa to insure that no condoms or sex education was to be included in such aid. In 2007, there were 22 million reported cases of HIV/AIDS in Africa. 1.5 million Africans died in 2007 alone. That is over 4000 people a day would could possibly be alive had the Religious Right not stopped the flow of condoms and proper sex-education in that continent.
Already, the death toll and danger that Christianity has caused dwarfs that of Islam and we haven’t even gotten to the worst of it. The threat of Christianity is a threat to our very survival. America is a nation on the cutting edge of science and also one of the nations who is among the worst contributors to the probable causes of global climate change. It is American, which will be called upon to not only help to reduce our carbon emissions but also help to reverse the damage. Of course one third of the American people don’t believe that mere humans can damage what God has created and so we have the so called “Moral Majority” telling their followers that global climate change is a myth created by evil scientists to get grant money. This religiously motivated belief is a danger to every man, woman, and child on the face of this planet.
Don’t get me wrong, on many of these issues the large numbers of Muslim agree with 43% of Christians on these issues. The difference is that those Muslims aren’t in the position of power to influence these types of dangers. The serial killer might want to dump the toxic chemicals into near by rivers and lakes, but he or she isn’t in the position to do it. The greedy CEO is in such a position and that is by he or she is more dangerous than the serial killer.
Filed under: Evils of Christianity, Most Dangerous Religion, Religion