Yeah exactly. If you look at the top bad guys of last century, the names that will roll into your head should be; stalin, mao, hitler, pol pot. And what you will notice as none of those guys had a paticular religion and were maybe even anti religion. So the idea that religion is the thing that causes the harm doesnt make any sense.
In the private Tabletalk interviews Hitler talked about his deep Christian beliefs, which he had always talked about publicly. He wanted to create a German National Christian church in the same model that England has its own national Christian Church with the King as the head. (Anglicans).
If Hitler wasn't Christian, then British Anglicans (the majority of all Christians in Britain and North Ireland) aren't Christian either.
If he wanted to create a national "church" then it would have been a church to use as a tool/organization, and he was still not a christian. Which would still be the attempted destruction of the church.
Building a German National Church so that German Christians would be free to practice their faith outside of foreign control is the opposite of destroying the church. Henry VIII didn't destroy the church.
Anglicans exist. George Bush Senior is a Christian.
Hitler was following the teachings of Martin Luther, the founder of Protestism.
I quoted Martin Luther. "We are at fault for not killing them." Was Martin Luther a Christian?
Hitler said he wanted to create a church in the model of the Church of England. He couldn't have been more clear. Wanting to create a Church of Germany exactly like Church of England isn't destroying a church.
Anglicans are Christians despite being members of the Church of England. Henry VIII didn't destroy Christianity in England.
I will tell you this once because I feel like I am going to waste my time, but maybe it will stick. Christianity has a bunch of rules, and it has nothing to do with controlling people, it has to do with the best functioning society and what is actually good for people. It is the reason why western civilization has done so well for so many centuries. Things like cheating on your wife is bad for society and for the individuals, that is why it is prohibited. My comment is an outside observation of what the religion of christianity does, other religions have different features.
There are some non-christian made up rules, paticularly with the catholics, but many of the things you are referring to are differences in interpretation.
No, the rules are in the bible but people can interpret them differently. I think the issue you are probably referring to are probably the cult types that twist and turn things to not mean what they mean.
That's why you're not allowed to eat shrimp or wear cotton polyester blends. It's also why you can beat your slaves but not kill them. It also caused the crusades, Salem witch trials, justified slavery in the US, justified the prohibition against interracial marriage, started the KKK, actively works to have women killed if they have a non viable fetus, actively works to kill homosexuals who won't stay in the closet, burns books, is currently committing genocide in Central Africa, molests little boys, caused the Bosnian Genocide, preaches "love thy neighbor" while lynching folks, celebrates when a trans person is shot, sends people to conversion camps that literally tortures them, molests even more kids, blames weather events on gay people, and comes to my fucking house, right to my fucking door, to try to tell me that I need to accept Yeshua ben Yosef or their magic fairy that they don't have any real evidence of is going to spank me.
I don't need that kind of hate to tell me not to go around murdering people. I already don't do that. I don't need it to tell me not to rape. The Bible says that's cool as long as I pay her dad but I'll go a step further and just not rape anyone. I certainly don't need that jackass Paul telling me anything because he didn't teach the same thing Yeshua ben Yosef taught, but there's a whole shit pile of his rules and regulations in the New Testament. And if I wanted a drugged out weirdo telling me about the end times I'd go listen to Crazy Tommy talk about his vision of the Neverending Story while he's dropping acid.
Practice your religion. If it keeps you from raping and killing then I'm all for it. But practice it in your closet, not on the digital street corner for all to see. Because if you do that then you already have your reward.