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Originally Posted by Robert
I think you're taking a very few, limited personal experiences and making them into huge generalizations.
Secondly, Islam supports terrorism including the use of suicide bombers; Christianity does not.
The two religions are far apart from eachother in too many ways to say they are similar.
Finally if you want to see an example of God telling a 'King' to goto war read the bible. I cannot speak for Bushes comment, I dont know. However there are other Biblical examples of war being waged on behalf of God. Remember God does not say 'do not kill' he says 'do not murder' these two are very different.
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Well Rob...honestly...you're also making generalizations. Sure, there are sects of islam that endorse bombings (can we all stop calling them "suicide bombings"? They're intent is to kill everyone, not just the asshole carrying the bomb) but to say that islam supports them is really just plain false. I'm sure the number of muslims that would denounce such bombings would vastly outweigh the number who would support it. It's much the same as a small number of radical "christians" (quotations used because their actions hardly embody the teachings of christ) would praise Eric Rudolph or Tim McVeigh for bombing abortion clinics and federal buildings respectively. If you get a chance, I strongly suggest watching a documentary called "Soldiers In The Army Of God". It follows members of the terroristic arm of the anti-abortion movement and their actions eerily parallel radical muslim violence.
As for wars fought for god, that's pretty ambiguous. Who gets to decide which wars are "for god" let alone if god would really want you to kill anyone? Wouldn't it make more sense for god to do the killing and leave you out of the loop and with a clear conscience? He is, after all, supposed to be omnipotent. The one major flaw in all religious conflict is man. No matter what a certain religion teaches, if there's someone out there that can twist it into a violent context they will and then claim to be the bringers of righteous justice. Man comes standard with biases, bigotries, and prejudices and (most) religion does not. The bible commands christians to convert and/or kill non-believers the same way the Qu ran does...they just seem to take it more seriously than christians do. And really, the only difference between dictionary definitions of "murder" and "killing" are that murder has to be committed with malice aforethought. I'd say sending thousands of troops off to convert people totally unprovoked (like in the crusades) definitely qualifies as malice aforethought since it has to be planned and prepared for on a pretty big scale. And really, I'm pretty sure "thou shalt not KILL" is a commandment...one of only two that are actually laws (which shows you how seriously we take religion in this country). I can covet the hell out of my neighbor's wife, I can disrespect my parents all I want, and I can even worship false idols...but stealing and killing are the only legal no-nos.