re: #93 bosforus

Millions seem to have lived its principles in peace. You could apply your line of thinking to any institution (not just religion) and it would be just as invalid.

The overwhelming majority of Muslims do not obey the Koranic injunction to “make wide slaughter in the land”, for the same reason the overwhelming majority of Christians do not give away their possessions to the poor and become mendicant missionaries. It’s unnatural, and at odds with what people normally want to do with their lives. But the precepts are still there, and they are planted in the hearts of the respective religions’ adherents. And occasionally they are acted upon.