Danes feel Obama is greater than Jesus

[kandrathe]

Sorry, but I'm going to have to agree with Jester on this one. If any group acts at all, it does so by the action of the individual members since the group is a collective, abstract, entity. Thus, it is trivially true that no group has ever done anything, good or evil. But, ultimately, a group 'does' what its members do. So, to say that something was done by Christians but not by Christianity is both trivially true and totally wrong.

So we can blame the atrocities of Stalin, Pol Pot, and Mao on all Atheists? The atrocities committed by these authorities were related to Papal Monarchy and the intolerance of weak men, and not to teaching the philosophies of Christ. Again, one rotten apple doesn't make all apples rotten. However, if the preponderance of apples are rotten, one can draw conclusions based on probabilities. I can have an opinion on someone who identifies them self as a skinhead, because entry into that group requires a world view that is detestable. In that way, the "No True Scotsmen" fallacy applies. What Christian philosophy allows for the murder and torture of innocents, or the enslavement of their fellow men? None. It is only the twisting of the words, or intentional strict literal misinterpretations that power hungry greedy men used as an instrument of state. It is the same process which perverts Islam, and justifies terrorism. I would still maintain that many of the early Popes were not holy men, but rather petty dictators worse than any we've seen in the past few hundred years. That perversion began with Constantine, and descended from there. There may have been some true Christian bishops and cardinals in the Vatican at times, however, in the early times the station had more to do with politics than their Christian beliefs.

I think we agree though, that mixing (religious or other) ideology, with government power has historically been detrimental for society.