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[David Minton <dminton AT mindspring.com>]

On 10/15/04 5:17 PM, "James Dasher" <jdasher AT ibiblio.org> wrote:

> On religious affiliation, I have to say, who cares?  Communism was and
> is evil - not a bad-so-I'll-exaggerate "evil", but downright
> exacerbating-the-worst-in-man, slaughter-anyone-who-disagrees evil.
> And yet, for years, people freely walked around advocating a system and
> philosophy that has killed more people, and in a shorter time, than any
> other ideology in history.  A guy having religious convictions is
> hardly going to faze me.

While I am no supporter of communism as a philosophy, I am pretty certain
that those that do would find exception in your point. The abuses of the old
Soviet Union, its satellites, and the mainland Chinese do not really have
much to do with communism as a philosophical movement, any more than
democracy can be criticized for the abuses of the now deposed, former
"democratically" elected ruler of Iraq (remember that Saddam called himself
the president, and held elections).

More to my point however, is remember all of the people who died in the name
of religious convictions, rather than economic philosophy. The Catholic
Church waged war against non-Christian countries, and brutally purged
non-Christians internally. Is Christianity evil?

David (now donning flame retardant garments)