More often than not, when I try to explain how Christianity is tolerant, atheists bring up the crusades over and over again. What they do not understand is that:
1. The crusades were never backed by the Bible.
2. A defensive war for Europeans.
Now first things first, the crusades were not Biblical. This is easy to see from First John 4:11 and the parable of the Good Samaritan.
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
The Muslims were quite clearly the neighbors of the Christians. (Most of) The crusades went against the Bible. In fact the cause of the Crusades was not the Bible, but the Popes at the time. Those popes declared that attacking the Muslims was righteous, even though the Bible said otherwise.
Secondly, the Muslims stared the war. Thy began attacking the Byzantium empire, and the allies of the Byzantium empire rushed to help. This led to the crusades.
Any questions or comments?
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The seljuks at one point had a peace treaty with byzantium.
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And this is why Christians should be Protestant. We never did stuff on a scale such as this. *Remembers European wars between Catholics and Protestants* Wait a minute...
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Muslims have been attacking & invading different lands/people since, what, the 6th century? and westerners have always killed each other & neighbors as well, so whats ur point here?
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Hmm.. Rather than imagine the Crusades were one singular thing with a wholly positive or negative impact, I'd suggest that the Crusades were incredibly complicated and full of nuance. We can't boil several hundred years of warfare down to a simple answer. History is complicated. Humans are complicated. Good and evil is complicated...
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This just shows what part of the problem with todays world is. No one bothers to research and get the whole picture, they either go entirely on someone elses word or they just find a piece and run with it, ignoring the rest of the picture
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Whenever atheists bring up the crusades they use it to attack religion, not specifically christianity. [spoiler]how is christianity innocent in the Spanish inquisition[/spoiler]
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Actually the crusades were largely for money. The religious part was just for recruiting.
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You should do a part 4 where you explain the blasphemous heresy that is the Catholic Church.
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I personally don't mind the idea of the crusades, freeing Jerusalem. But the unnecessary killing, that's the bad part imo. Nice post Jolly! Was wondering when you're going to put up p3!
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The crusades were catholic
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1 Samuel 15:3 [i]Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and аss.[/i] #in the bible
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Tbf, if you want everyone alive to follow your ideology, killing anyone who doesn't would technically work.
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Holy war instigated by Pope Urban II. You can say it's not biblical all you want but your god glassed entire cities and committed a global genocide........a holy war seems pretty tame by comparison. Your move.
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Religion itself isn't really the issue, it's people's interpretation of it that causes issues.
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Good shitpost
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Crusades were just another war with God smacked across it because the church was also pretty much the same as the government
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I'm not gonna read this yet, but I will tell you a story about this time period Once upon a time, the Jews that inhabited the Middle-Eastern region were conquered by the great Islamic Empires. Many Jews would flee, and they would seek refugee in Western Europe. What the Catholic Christians of Europe did was push them out just as the Muslims had, and the fleeing Jews were forced settle themselves in the Slavic lands controlled by the Byzantine Empire. How tolerant.
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How can someone justify the crusades or any other form of medieval violence? It's like justifying 9/11 because the Quran didn't specifically say that you can't crash planes into towers.
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[b]DEUS VULT[/b]
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The truth about Christianity 4: what Christians really are ------- People who exploit the minds of lesser intelligent beings by making them believe in the events and characters in a two millennia old fantasy novel, and make them follow the teachings of it
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The Crusades? Yeah, they [i]started[/i] in defense, but took it way farther than the Muslims had. They went through the Middle East, slaughtering everyone in their path, regardless of innocence. Now, of course, one could say that the Muslims would've done the same, and you'd be right. Does that justify the actions of the Christians? The fact remains that they did it for the Bible. Yeah, it defies what's written in the Bible. You think they cared, and most Christians care now? Hell no. Just because it's in the Bible not to do doesn't mean Christians aren't going to do it. They did it for their religion. What the Bible says about it is irrelevant.
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Christianity as a whole is definitely not tolerant, but they are better than Catholics. Tolerance would imply being accepting all other religions, sexual choices, or personal choices.
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Edited by Ibluewarfare: 4/9/2017 11:01:45 AMThe crusades are not the only example that atheists use to tear down religion. Quite honestly, religion is just an outdated explanation for things that cannot be explained. Such as, Thor "using his anvil" was a nordic explanation for why they heard thunder in the sky. Ancient greece and rome literally had a god for why the sun moved across the sky. The only reason Christianity survived this long is because that (and other) religions supporters havent been wiped out. And this world is engaged in war, to wipe out a certain sect of religion(s) for religious disputes. Edit: to your point, Christianity is tolerant to a degree, but you cant argue they are completely tolerant when one of Americas biggest dispute is over abortion.
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Edited by Xeno: 4/9/2017 3:03:37 PM[b]DEUS VULT, INFIDEL[/b]
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Catholisim isnt christian either.