RCAlyra2004

People who "believe" in a higher power are the ones who find it easiest to kill others, especially in the sense of war. A structured belief in the supernatural has also caused many religious people to kill others when they think some one else is "evil" in spite of the fact that there is a general lack evidence. Our ability to dehumanize each other using common religious texts is a flaw of the religions themselves (as indicated in their scriptures).

For this debate I am only using Christianity and Islam to make my point. There are thousands of religions, many of which are peaceful (and even more which have justified killing others in the course of their history).

*Evidence to support my point:

Sept 11 2001 - World trade centre was bombed by Islamic Fundamentalists who believe that USA is in league with the devil.

Salem Witch Trials - Christians Kill alleged Witches in USA (no need to explain)

Nazi Germany - 1936 - 1945 The ruling Nazi party (religion?) exterminated 12 million people in the name of Aryan Supremacy(religion!) and the perception of a threat against their motherland. Millions of Jews were exterminated after being deemed "less than human".

Iraq/Kuwait - 1990's Thousands were killed when Saddam Hussein sent troops into Kuwait to take back land that was believed to be Iraqi territory as promised by God. (This one is open to debate; it is Saddam's beliefs that are in question here not ours)

Israel – The ongoing conflict between Palestinians and Israelites, who both believe that they have a right to the holy land and have defended it. While the Israelites support the concept that Palestinians have a right to access to the holy areas, the Palestinians generally do not support the concept that Israel as a nation, has the right to exist. Both sides have dirty hands.

A few Bible verses that support the killing of unbelievers: Deuteronomy Chapter 3 - Kill all unbelievers (even your children if necessary), Psalm 110, Numbers 16:32-35, Acts 5:29, Psalm 58:10. There are many that I haven't listed here!

Note: There are many New Testament scriptures that, if taken out of context can be used to justify killing. It is not fair to use these to make my point. BUT it is important to note that they have been taken out of context and HAVE been used to justify killing in Jesus name during the Spanish inquisition and other such events. During the inquisition there were also rules of evidence (from spanish courts) that made it easier to take these scriptures out of context. E.g. "We saw a woman turn into a cat and run away, therefore she is a witch" would not be accepted as evidence in any North American court today, although it was good enough evidence at the time.

Koran Verses that support the concept of eliminating those who do not believe:
Koran -2:15, 2:85, 2:89, 2:90, 2:122, 2:154 (skip about 20 quotes) 3:5, 3:10, 3:12, 3:19, 3:28,3:118, 5:57, 5:67, 55:69 5:80-82 (skip a few) 6:5-8, 6:21, 6:23-27(skip some more) 6:125... Ok you get the point... Flip open you copy of the Koran to see what I mean. I only picked the obvious quotes where "kill the unbeliever" or "God will kill the unbeliever" or "unbelievers will burn in hell" was the theme.

Conclusion:
It is important to point out that both Holy Books contain moderate viewpoints along with fundamentalist views. The flaw that I am pointing out here is that people continually fall back to the fundamentalist view as a result of use of the religious text. This is indeed a major flaw of each religion. Once people are able to devalue another human according to the belief system it becomes quite easy to take the next step. Murder!

An example of de-valuing a human is this: “You are sinful according to my beliefs and you will contaminate the beliefs of my children, wife, community, etc. therefore I must remove you in order to protect their afterlife”

Does anyone care to debate this? "Those who are believers most often find justification to kill."

p.s You do not need to quote scripture to show me that each text says good things too, I know this, it is not the point of this debate.

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Living on the edge of sanity