Definition of Christian

[EricTheRed]

To me Christianity means love and sacrifice. Jesus spread love and only love. Unfortunately, churches and rulers didn't follow the path of love. Jesus sacrificed his life for his ideology and as a result he is most probably the most short-lived prophet. Even he could not went many places to spread Christianity as can be seen from his tour map on wikitour. Its astonishing how his followers have been use a path of hatred, how they tortured Galileo and other scientists!

I dont agree at all with this characterization of Christianity. The vast majority of Christians and Christian teaching extols loving others as yourself, being charitable, reaping what you (rather than others) sow (ie personal responsibility and accountability), and generally leading an ethical, productive life. This usually results in success in life for its practioners and a resultant pleasant life for their offspring and surrounding community. A neighborhood filled with such people in any western country is a peaceful, pleasant, safe place to live. Characterizing such an overwhelmingly benevolent group of people as following "a path of hatred" is irresponsible and false.

The evil people from the church in the past 2 thousand years, were in reality, a very tiny percentage. They were not true Christians but were evil, ambitious sociopaths who used religion and any other tool as their disposal to gain power. For example, the overall number of people actually killed during the inquisition (which was clearly wrong, but was usually done for political reasons disguised as religious reasons) over hundreds of years, added together, was but a tiny fraction of the people killed IN ONE YEAR by communists including Stalin and Pol Pot, by dictators including Hitler, by intellectuals including Robespierre during the French Revolution, by the Dictator controlled Japanese army during the Nanking massacre, or even by the Hutus in the recent conflict in Rwanda. By contrast, the overall number of people who have been helped by Christianity throughout history numbers in the billions...

My point is Christianity and any other religion that preaches love and responsibility has a positive effect on society and should not be hated because of the bad actions of a tiny percentage of the religion. When dealing with any large group of people, their will always be a few bad apples, but remember to not throw the baby out with the bathwater.