DUDE!!!! You need to go read some history. I will give you a hint----start way way way back before 1919. Muslim-Hindu conflicts in India in the 40s and 50s probably killed as many as Communism or Facism--these confilict led to the division of India into India (Hindu), Muslim Pakistan and Bangladesh.

I am Christian but have not been to church in over 4 years and really don't care.

An interesting position. If you don't mind, let me ask you two questions.

1. Are you at a place in your spiritual life that if you died today, you know that you would go to heaven?

2. If you did die today and stood before God and He asked you, "Why should I let you in my heaven", what would you say?

It appears that the prayer is possibly student led but not student organized as evident by the begining of this topic. Also, the prayer takes place in public schools on school purchased mats. As a taxpayer, in my opinion I find it difficult to take that there are people who are organizing religous activities on public school grounds funded by taxpayers money. Furhtermore, you do lose some of your rights when you enter a school. An example is that you cannot where certain clothing in school that may be too revealing or have certain words on it. All I asked is that maybe you should put yourself in someone else's shoes before organizing this. I have not seen anyone address this. Again, even if you are allowed to do this, is it right? Lets step on some people just to make sure our wants are met. I don't think this is right but like I said, obviously I am in the majority and this will take place on Friday. Just think about others who may not share the same views as you before conducting the prayer.

What I should have used a different phrase instead of "really don't care" as I was in my writing zone and it just goes...with that said even though I have not been to church in 4 years does not mean I don't know who died for my sins and I do pray from time to time and not in public and take part in our Christian Challenge here at WU and not going to church is something I have been debating with myself to go to. I thank God everyday I wake up and thank him for giving me another day to live. As to both of your questions I am a young man who has yet to live his life to fullest and if God willing ask me those questions 50 years from now and I might be able to give you a better answer

Chief:

Please do not interpret my comments as disparaging and/or disrespectful of your impressive faith and/or religious beliefs. Your comments and scriptural quotes are compelling and forceful in support of public prayer.

[This article was originally published in Free Inquiry, summer 1990.]

When you think of saints, you envision stained-glass pictures of piety. But the truth can be horribly different. Consider Pope Pius V:

When he was Grand Inquisitor, he sent Catholic troops to kill 2,000 Waldensian Protestants in Calabria in southern Italy.

After becoming pope, he sent Catholic troops to kill Huguenot Protestants in France. He ordered the commander to execute every prisoner taken.

Pius also launched the final crusade against the Muslims, sending a Christian naval armada to slaughter thousands in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571.

And he intensified the Roman Inquisition, torturing and burning Catholics whose beliefs varied from official dogma.

After his death, he was canonized a saint. He still is venerated by the church.
It is as if Adolf Hitler were elevated to sainthood.

Or consider Saint Dominic, the king of torture. He founded the Dominican order, whose priests were judges of the Inquisition. They presided while screaming victims were twisted and ripped on fiendish pain machines until they confessed to thinking unorthodox thoughts. Then the Dominicans led the broken "heretics" in grand processions to the stake.

The priests also tortured thousands of women into confessing they were witches who had sex with Satan, changed themselves into animals, flew through the sky, caused storms, and the like. The "witches" also were burned for their confessions.

Or consider Saint Cyril, whose monks and followers beat to death the great woman scientist, Hypatia, director of the Alexandria Library, for her scientific approach to nature.

Or Saint Pedro Arbries, a Spanish inquisitor who tortured and burned former Jews for harboring their old beliefs. An ex-Jew assassinated him, and he was canonized as a martyr.

I was a newspaper church columnist for many years. Endlessly, I heard ministers proclaim that religion instills love and compassion in believers. It's a universal message. Meanwhile, back at the paper, our headlines said:

"Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs Massacre Each Other in India"
"Protestant Gunmen Kill Catholics in Belfast, and Vice Versa"
"Shi'ites in Iran Hang Baha'i Teens Who Won't Convert"
"Christian Snipers Pin Down Muslim Machine-Gunners in Beirut"
"Hands and Feet Chopped Off Under Islamic Law in Sudan"

Politicians always call religion a mighty force for good. President Reagan labeled it "the bedrock of moral order." They say it builds brotherhood.

But Christians killed 3 million Jews during Europe's centuries of religious persecution, before Hitler secularized the process.

And the Reformation wars pitted Catholics and Protestants in a ghastly century of slaughter.

And the Third World today still sufferes bloodbaths caused by religious tribalism.

There's a tinge of the Twilight Zone in the constant declarations that religion creates love, when opposite results are everywhere.

Did religion make Saint Pius V loving as he killed Waldensians, Huguenots, Muslims and nonconforming Catholics?

Did it make the Ayatollah Khomeini compassionate as he ordered the hanging of Baha'is and demanded the assassination of a "blaspheming" British writer?
Did it make the Aztecs affectionate as they sacrificed and skinned maidens to appease a feathered serpent god?

Did it make brotherhood in Lebanon, where religious tribes wreak endless warfare?

Religion always is hailed as the cure for the world's evils. But, too often, it's the problem, not the solution.

"Murder in the Name of Religion" is copyright © 1990 by James A. Haught. All rights reserved.
The electronic version is copyright © 1997 by Internet Infidels with the written permission of James A. Haught. All rights reserved.


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Here are just a few examples of great christians killing in gods name