Rational defense of Christianity?

[abaris]

Those things you mentioned are important issues too, but I don't see how we can blame Christianity for all those things. I agree that Christianity (along with industrialization) created the belief that Europeans were God's chosen people who needed to civilize and Christianize the savage heathens around them.

But you have to blame christianity of that time for those things, since many of them were done in the name of christianity. The Crusades, the witchhunts, the inquisition. The lines get blured when it comes to the so called reconquista in Spain and the ensuing conquest of the Americas. These were primarily politically motivated, but with a strong religious element of converting the heathens. The lines are also blure when it comes to the 30 years wars. It was as political as it was religious.