(March 27, 2017 at 8:07 am)SteveII Wrote:(March 24, 2017 at 10:00 am)Isis Wrote: Maybe I am just being pedantic here, but I really don't see how a religion can be deadly. That's like saying atheism is deadly due to the high body count of dictators like Stalin and Mao.
I agree with your point, but would add that to claim a religion is deadly, you would have to look at the religious teachings themselves to make a determination. Do the teachings promote violence? If not, the religion is not 'deadly' and any deaths that may have occurred in it's name should be laid at the feet of the people committing them.
There are surface readings which reinforce your point. But religion isn't a surface phenomena, nor is it exclusively contained within the writings of the faith. Messages about purity and defilement are interwoven throughout Christianity and support things like xenophobia, us versus them mentality, and purification regimes. The deeper, structural meaning of Christianity does indeed support violence, in spite of your attempt to misdirect by only focusing on "the teachings." The violence of the first millennia didn't just spring unbidden from individual actors. It had a source in the themes of the religion. Horrors like the albigensian crusade spring whole cloth from the themes of Christianity.