MM posts:
I hate to break this to you but more people have been killed in the name of G-d than any other reason.
MM POSTS:
so the crusades was just a bunch of Christians out to blacken the name of G-d?
AD POSTS:
and the lovely Inquisition.
ARTYSIM POSTS:
people kill for the dominant belief system of their time
ARTYSIM POSTS:
The crusades, for example, were largely about political control and gaining as much wealth as possible, it was a means for medieval Europe to try it's hand at empire building like the Romans had done in the past. However, the average king couldn't very well go out to his subjects and say
"hey guys, I know you're dirt poor but I want to have more land and power for my family line, so how do you feel about leaving your entire life behind to go and kill other poor people for my benefit? Oh, and, by the way the chances of ever seeing your home again are so-so at best!"
So, they took a political cause and wrapped it in the cloth of religion. Liberating the holy land from the saracen scourge of course! Many of the nobles and monarchs that embarked on the crusades DID believe that they were doing the work of God, but that essentially means that they bought into the big lie, or even worse started believing the lie that they were perpetuating.
Thank you Artysim, as GrGuy said, Damn good comment.
At the first mention of killing in the name of God or religion, and in the hope of demonstrating the Catholic Church is hypocritical or illegitimate, the Crusades and the Inquisition will come up. They have always been handy sticks with which to bash the Catholic Church as the setting for killing more people than in any other war or system of totalitarianism.
Although the Crusades were rightly established to defend Christendom after 400 years of Muhammadism jihad by the sword, it's true that some groups of crusaders actuated by motives of gain targeted Jews on several occasions. In doing so, according to the historical record, they diverted from the mission Pope Urban had given them and were severely condemned for those attacks. He knew that it was much wiser to see the Jews, fellow dhimmis, as natural allies in the resistance to the Islamic jihad.
Of the Inquisition, there is no Catholic who would not wish the undeniable bad elements of it had never happened. After all is said, what does this prove about the Catholic Chruch. That the Church contains sinners. Guilty as charged.
But we are in the here and now....and that brings us back to Artysim's excellent point namely
Once again, recurring pattern. People will always kill for the dominant belief system of their time
What's the dominant belief sytem today that is killing more lives than all the world's wars put together?.......It's abortion on demand.
