I've gone back and forth dozens of times about how much religion is responsible for the awful stuff in history vs. just a bunch of selfish and/or very stupid people using it to justify what they wanted to do anyway.
It's easy to say "Deuteronomy says to murder all non believers!" and then point to an example of a Christian killing a Muslim (or something) and assume that that was their motivation, and maybe it was, but also maybe it was just a homicidal maniac who gravitated to this book specifically because they could use it to justify what they were going to do anyway.
It's really tough to say, and I'm not going to pretend I know the answer.
Suicide bombers (e.g. the 9/11 terrorists) might be an example in your favor though. You're probably not driving airplanes into buildings if you don't really believe in what you're doing.
I don't know. As I said, I've gone back and forth.
It's easy to say "Deuteronomy says to murder all non believers!" and then point to an example of a Christian killing a Muslim (or something) and assume that that was their motivation, and maybe it was, but also maybe it was just a homicidal maniac who gravitated to this book specifically because they could use it to justify what they were going to do anyway.
It's really tough to say, and I'm not going to pretend I know the answer.
Suicide bombers (e.g. the 9/11 terrorists) might be an example in your favor though. You're probably not driving airplanes into buildings if you don't really believe in what you're doing.
I don't know. As I said, I've gone back and forth.