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Originally Posted by Jesus  I do not believe atheists don't kill people. People with messed up beliefs or extreme ideologies in general, kill people (and some special cases like mental disadvantages, etc.). Come on, I'm not stupid. So that is not "my logic", because I did not claim any such thing, so that would be your generalization of my statement. |
No, it is not. Your statement is that because of certain radicals, you can make the claim that religion kills. Well, yes, religion kills, but so does any other cause for which people can become radicals. It's foolish then to blame religion when the cause, radicalism, is right under your nose. Just like you wouldn't say that atheism, or even the desire for social justice and equality, are to blame for the deaths of Stalin's victims, you can't say that religion is to blame for any of the deaths you have described.
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Originally Posted by Jesus But when a priest of an organized and generally respected church/ branch of christianity (for example), says "If you use condoms you will go to hell.", then if those words reflect the official standpoint of that religion, then it is not the priest that kills (well, only a little at least), it is not AIDS that kills (but a little more than the priest), it is the religion (to the largest degree). And this is a religion that is not considered "radical", in general. |
It is not the religion that is to blame, but the radical priests that claim that condoms are evil. I assure you that the majority of Christians do not believe this, are quite happy with using condoms, or at least approve of others using them if it prevents AIDS. When a kid takes a gun and shoots people in his school, do we blame the computer games he was playing? Likewise, when a priest preaches foolish and harmful things, do we blame his religion?
Of course, if the harmful doctrines are at the very heart of the religion, you could have a case (and this is why we generally don't tolerate religions like Satanism and ideologies like Nazism, but in this case you are generalizing.