Extremist members of every religion have gone on holy wars to exterminate non-believers at some point. Christians get the most attention because they were the most successful, but they’re by no means the only ones. Even if Christians didn’t exist, extremists of the next biggest group would step up to do the exact same thing.
Every major world religion is built on holy texts that advise people to love one another. Inevitably, extremists will (sometimes willfully) misinterpret these texts to lend justification to atrocities. This tendency belongs to humans, not religion. Religion is the means to the end, but it isn’t inherently harmful. Just as knives don’t stab people, religions don’t go on crusades; people do.
Extremist members of every religion have gone on holy wars to exterminate non-believers at some point. Christians get the most attention because they were the most successful, but they’re by no means the only ones. Even if Christians didn’t exist, extremists of the next biggest group would step up to do the exact same thing.
Every major world religion is built on holy texts that advise people to love one another. Inevitably, extremists will (sometimes willfully) misinterpret these texts to lend justification to atrocities. This tendency belongs to humans, not religion. Religion is the means to the end, but it isn’t inherently harmful. Just as knives don’t stab people, religions don’t go on crusades; people do.