Are Christians discriminated against more than those of other faiths?

[DeistPaladin]

Religions are invented by men for men. They do not cause ignorance or superstition per se. Religion thrives in ignorance and poverty as preconditions. It dwindles with education and affluence.

I would argue that it's a feedback loop, that the two both thrive upon and promote each other.

Religion is born of ignorance and the desire for easy certainty about the world, that is true. However, once clergy is established, you have a group of people with a vested interest in maintaining the dogma. Now, some religions are more detailed and strict than others and some have more elaborate levels of hierarchical clergy while others are unstructured, so consequently some religions will be more reactionary than others.

As an example, the Roman Catholic faith reacted against the blasphemy of Galileo in suggesting the earth revolved around the sun. Cardinal Foscarini of the Inquisition wrote to Cardinal Bellermine at the time worrying, "if it is true, we shall have great difficulty explaining the parts of scripture that say otherwise." Their wealth and power were too heavily tied into the credibility of the Church, which in turn was tied to their false concepts of the universe. Consequently, they did "promote ignorance" by preventing scientific inquiry. Further, these were not the actions of some bad apples in the Church but rather an expected outcome given the clergy's best interests. You get what you reward.

Religion also fosters ignorance on social issues as well. The entire debate we're having over same gender marriage and gay service in the military would be a no-brainer were it not for scriptural taboos against same-gender affections.

The influence of religion did not and has not withered away once people became more enlightened. The church's power first had to be broken to make such enlightenment possible. While Protestantism has proven to be as bad as Catholicism, the fracturing of Church power enabled reason the breathing room it needed. Even once heretics were no longer burned at the stake, religion found other ways of fighting against science. Elaborate apologetics and pseudo-science are born of the efforts of the defenders of the faith.

So I would argue that religion is born of ignorance and actively promotes it.