America is the most 'Christianist' country and this nation has the most freedom that any government as ever allowed. Hmmm, go figure!
Well, the level of Christianity that a government has, is in no way directly related to the amount of freedoms that it allows...
About 100-200 years ago, before the United States began to smother the Earth, Great Britain was the most 'Christianist' country, with Queen Victoria whose title included "Empress of India" and "Defender of the Faith". Yet, although being a Christian nation, Great Britian spread its Empire, annihilating indigenous cultures, languages and peoples. Eventually admittedly leading to civilisation in some areas, but mostly leaving in its wake, broken nation-states such as India/Pakistan and most of war-torn, sub-Saharan Africa which are still trouble-spots to this day.
About 500 years ago, Spain was the most 'Christianist' country. Yet it travelled to the "New World" and murdered countless indiginous people, sometimes wiping out the whole population in a few years (eg. the original inhabitants of the Island of Xamaca, aka modern Jamaica). So don't you even dare come to me and say Christianity is an historicaly peaceful religion.
The real reason why America has allowed much freedom is quite the opposite from your claims of Christian influence. It has allowed more freedoms simply because it was based on *not* being so dogmatic about religion. It allowed people to choose what religion they wanted, if any... and this withdrawal from fundamentalism allowed people to embrace research, science and progress.
The freedoms gained by the French Revolution (although imperfect, but much better than the situation under the Catholic Church and the Monarchy of the "Kingdom of France") were also gained through a shedding of suffocating religious dictates and an embracing of religion as a mere cultural addition to society. This is the real reason Islam appears to be a dangerous religion, because the vast majority of its countries have not demoted Islam from an institution which runs the government to merely a precious, historical and cultural heritage. In my humble opinion, i can see a lot of existing problems resolved if the transition is run to its completion in the Western world.
I do believe that the roots of much Western morality is found in Chritianity, *but* in view of the fact that much was also taken from Greek and Roman paganism, it does not make Chritianity any more superior than any other religion. Religion was the vehicle of civilisation, not its driving force. Circumstances and political climate could just have easily made Islam the religion of civilisation, and Christianity a barbaric suicide bombers cult.
Violence is not necessarily an intrinsic part of any religion, otherwise you could claim that violence is intrinsic to Christiantiy which has indeed "gone wacky and killed people". It burned, murdered and arrested astronomers and scientists for publishing theses on why the Earth was round, or revolved around the sun, and during a more civilised age, merely slandered their findings on biology and evolution etc... Eventually though, the determination of European scientists, (some with and some without Christian beliefs) managed to break through this religiosity to bring about industry and technology. Many honestly believed they were making our world a better place, the nationalistic and religious governments used (and continue to use) that technology for their own gain.
What i also find strange is your rejection of the Old Testament, well, your New Testament god is the same as the Old Testament god is he not? Or did he just come into existance in the first century AD? How do you explain his personality change from a god who instructs people to rip foetuses out of pregnat pagan women, to a god of peace and love who saved us?
Don't whine to me about the middle ages, Old Testament or anything else about Chrsitianity.
Well i'm afraid i have to whine, because all these thing did take place if history is to be believed. All you seem to accept are the peaceful parts of Christian history: the early Church, when there was only a handful of peaceful followers, and the modern world, where the once great and powerful Church has little influence over world affairs. Everything inbetween that, and before that, you reject. You ignore Christianity's violent history, yet you attack the violence in Islam... and you do it when there are no Muslims here to defend their faith.
Listen to history, and do not reject "the middle ages, Old Testament or anything else about Chrsitianity" just because it does not fit into your world-view. The world is not black-and-white, so I'm not saying that faith and religion is always evil in every circumstance, no. What I am saying is that religion, like science, can sometimes be dangerous, and sometimes healing... but when it is dangerous, its bloody dangerous, and there is no difference between the potential dangerosity of Christianity and that of Islam.
