[Paleopsych] violence in quran and bible

[Lynn D. Johnson, Ph.D.]

Michael, where do you get these quotes? I am not getting emails with 
them in, then I see a commentary from you.
Lynn

Michael Christopher wrote:

>>>You will learn how Muhammad encouraged his handful
>>>      
>>>
>of
>followers to attack the caravans, kill the men, rape
>the women and bring the booty (20% for himself) to
>please Allah<<
>
>--I'd like to see more people talk about violence in
>the Quran AND the Bible. The acts attributed to
>Mohammad are similar to descriptions in Numbers and
>Deuteronomy of God-sanctioned violence, slavery and
>rape. I've met far too many Christians who excused
>such behavior, saying "God ordered it, therefore it
>was moral". That Christians in the US have not engaged
>in organized violence is not reassuring, given death
>threats against abortion providers and Michael Schiavo
>and the more prominent judge who sided with him, and
>the militia movement which went underground after the
>Oklahoma bombing. If the US falls on hard times
>economically, I do not fully trust extreme right-wing
>Christians to stay peaceful. Hate speech is already
>very common.
>
>I'd also avoid attaching all Christians or all Muslims
>to violence in holy books. It's clear that people CAN
>behave better than their scriptural "founding
>fathers", and that moderate believers need all the
>help they can get promoting a non-literal and merciful
>version of their faith. If all Christians believed
>that Moses really did order the murder of infants and
>kidnapping of virgin girls in war, and that God was
>responsible for giving Moses the idea, I'd condemn
>Christianity in no uncertain terms. But I've met many
>Christians who did not agree with those passages (or
>who simply didn't know about them) but lived genuinely
>humble and Christlike lives. I've met as many Muslims,
>at least online, who were similar. They all claimed to
>believe in the Bible/Quran, yet they somehow managed
>to emphasize the nonviolent passages and avoid
>endorsing the violent ones. Unfortunately, many
>Christians condemn Islam based on violence in the
>Quran without acknowledging historical violence by
>Christians who used the Bible to justify war crimes
>and slavery. It is not possible to destroy Islam or
>Christianity, only to make a clear distinction between
>the behavior of violent and nonviolent believers. That
>so many people seem to want to destroy one religion or
>another strikes me as a bad sign. It pushes moderates
>to either side passively with extremists, or to
>withdraw from confrontation, which does the small
>percentage of us who are atheists no good at all.
>
>Michael
>
>
>
>
>		
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