re: #475 stabby

What Islam is vs. what Christianity is is a statistical question not a question of principle. It’s a question about the real world and what people’s actual attitudes are. It’s also a question about the dynamics of the books and teachings that lead to this real world situation.

Yep. It’s also a question of history, too, since both these religions have been around for a long time.

Claiming that the religions are equal is sophistry, it’s a statement of principle and wishful thinking that doesn’t accurately describe the situation in reality.

I didn’t claim they were equal. Historically, Christianity has been worse, but not by a ton. Arguably, a lot of what was wrong with Christian countries was actually a holdover from Roman society, and not directly attributable to Christianity. In the present day, there’s not a lot to choose between them— Islam currently has a lot more violent and dangerous radicals, but Christians, specifically Christians in the US, are following policies that are literally dooming human civilization, and directly using religion to defend their actions. I don’t have any illusions that if the religions of the countries of the West and the Middle East were reversed that the Christian Middle East wouldn’t use Christianity to justify terrorism.