How DO you respond to this?

[Maria1993]

I’ll put them below.

“when i hear jesus, well i think murder, destruction of cultures and genocide that the belief in him created. radical muslims have a way less death toll then any christains have. this doent work for me ahah”

and

" hey at least satanist never wiped out a whole culture of artist and smart people…"

When people ask me things like that, I don’t really know what to say. How do you respond to this? I’m not going to debate, but that’s the “logic” i tend to see and get. It’s irritating really…

Thank You and God bless.

 

[JRKH]

Start by asking them for their evidence. I mean hard evidence…Where die they get their information…that will give you time to develop responses based on their response…
More often than not…you’ll get some lame excuse of a reply like "everyone knows that blah blah blah…Or "I heard it from blah blah blah…
At which point you politely suggest that they broaden their horizons.

Then you can begin telling them about the fact that the university system was started by the Church. That much knowledge was preserved during the dark ages by the monasteries. That Churchmen actually developed the scientific system. That the Catholic Church is the largest charity on the planet. That Pope Benedict the 15th tried desperately to stop the first world war.

That is for starters…Of course you need to look this stuff up for yourself so that you HAVE sources to share.

Good luck

Peace
James

 

[interestedman]

I’ll put them below.

“when i hear jesus, well i think murder, destruction of cultures and genocide that the belief in him created. radical muslims have a way less death toll then any christains have. this doent work for me ahah”

and

" hey at least satanist never wiped out a whole culture of artist and smart people…"

When people ask me things like that, I don’t really know what to say. How do you respond to this? I’m not going to debate, but that’s the “logic” i tend to see and get. It’s irritating really…

Thank You and God bless.

Have Christians done bad things in the name of religion? Of course. From what I learned at college the crusaders were not the nicest bunch. Does that mean the whole religion is bad? No. It just means that certain interpretations of Christianity can be bad.

 

[AshJade]

Everyone is capable of evil.

How many millions died under the atheistic regimes of Stalin and Hitler? People use Jesus as an excuse to put forth their own agenda. Doesn’t mean the Christianity is the cause.

 

[Regina_Love]

Don’t believe anything you learn about the Catholic Church in College. It’s almost always wrong or lies.! Christians following the new testament are more peaceable, loving, and forgiving people.

Ask them if they knew that The Catholic Church brought them the university system of higher learning, developed the scientific method as a way of discovering God’s universe. Has educated more people, assisted more impovershed nations, and always been the embassador of the oppressed through out history. The Catholic Church lived, & wrote the New Testament! and gave the Bible to the world! Teaching 2000 years ago. That there is no difference in personal dignity between the slave or free, man or women, rich or poor! God’s love has made us all equal in dignity, and brothers & sisters. Truely revolutionary thinking!

If they want to be revolutionarys who are radically different then the mindless masses. Try being authenticly Catholic!!!

Did you know that Catholic couples who live the faith; courtship instead of hook ups, Natural Family Planning, instead of birth control & abortion, have a less than 3% divorce rate? They have happier marriages, and much better sex lives too! :yup:

 

[robwar]

You point out that millions more have been killed under atheistic communism than by any other religion. If they want to just point to Christianity, they are going to have to include Islam as well, which has spread itself by war and forced conversions. Usually people that espouse theses types of views do not really want to listen to reason and truth, they have made up their minds and show what empty minds they have. If they say that true Satanists have not killed like what they are trying to pin on Christianity, you can point out that the Native American cultures like the Mayans, Aztecs and Incas all practiced human sacrifice and were very much based on satan. It is estimated that 20 million were starved to death under Stalin. Mao killed just as many in China. Atheistic communism has killed more than any religion. Ask them if they every looked at Islam and how many right now are being killed in the name of that religion. I hope this helps. You probably won’t change their minds but you might plant a seed for later.

 

[PowderBear]

“when i hear jesus, well i think murder, destruction of cultures and genocide that the belief in him created. radical muslims have a way less death toll then any christains have. this doent work for me ahah”

As others have already said, violence is common to most longstanding groups in history. It is not good, and not justifiable. But if members of a certain religion chose to be violent, in direct opposition to what their religion teaches, it doesn’t mean the religion is bad. It means that the members are doing bad.

" hey at least satanist never wiped out a whole culture of artist and smart people…"

I don’t think this person has an accurate view of history. Perhaps this person was told this by someone else and just accepted it without researching it, or perhaps this person misheard something… Either way, from my understanding of history, it is the opposite.
The Catholic church essentially funded the Renaissance, which was an incredible chapter of human history renown for it’s masterpieces of sculpture, painting, and architecture. The Renaissance is arguably the most artistic period of history, and the driving force behind it was the Catholic Church. This is what I learned in Art History class in a secular university last year. It is factual knowledge that is provable by historical records.
Contrarily, there was a period of history called the “Iconoclast,” which was where *protestants *destroyed all the religious artwork and statuary that they could find, because they didn’t approve of it. So on one hand, yes, protestant Christians did have a period of art destroying. However, that was in rebellion against the Catholic Christians, who funded, housed, and passed along that artwork in the first place.

As for “wiping out a whole culture of smart people,” that also seems misinformed. The religious of the Catholic Church invented the scientific method, which is the method that scientists use to this day to test hypothesis. A Catholic monk named Gregor Mendel started the field of research in genetics. The Jesuits, a Catholic religious order, are famous for their consistent contributions to scientific research and discovery. One example of their work is the Mount Graham Observatory/Vatican Advanced Technology Telescope. This is an observatory for Jesuit astronomers. The Vatican funds them with about $1 million every year… These are just a few examples from the Church’s history. Catholics have had a a few problems along the way, but we have had far more success stories. It is possible that many people only look at the few bad moments and overlook the good ones. It is also possible that people confuse the Catholic church’s history with the Protestant’s history. I am not sure if the Protestants even had an issue with “wiping out a whole culture of smart people”-- perhaps they did, and the accusing commenter is thinking of them instead? Or perhaps they didn’t, and the accusing commenter is just repeating accusations that he just heard one day. People do that.

 

[Crescentinus]

Don’t believe anything you learn about the Catholic Church in College. It’s almost always wrong or lies.! Christians following the new testament are more peaceable, loving, and forgiving people.

Ask them if they knew that The Catholic Church brought them the university system of higher learning, developed the scientific method as a way of discovering God’s universe. Has educated more people, assisted more impovershed nations, and always been the embassador of the oppressed through out history. The Catholic Church lived, & wrote the New Testament! and gave the Bible to the world! Teaching 2000 years ago. That there is no difference in personal dignity between the slave or free, man or women, rich or poor! God’s love has made us all equal in dignity, and brothers & sisters. Truely revolutionary thinking!

If they want to be revolutionarys who are radically different then the mindless masses. Try being authenticly Catholic!!!

Did you know that Catholic couples who live the faith; courtship instead of hook ups, Natural Family Planning, instead of birth control & abortion, have a less than 3% divorce rate? They have happier marriages, and much better sex lives too! :yup:

 

[VeritasLuxMea]

Don’t believe anything you learn about the Catholic Church in College. It’s almost always wrong or lies.! Christians following the new testament are more peaceable, loving, and forgiving people.

Is this like a No True Scotsman type of thing going on here?

The Christians that are good = Christian?
The Christians that are not good = not Christian?

Perhaps we can just say that all people, Christian or not, Catholic or not, are sinners and all have a chance at redemption?

Ask them if they knew that The Catholic Church brought them the university system of higher learning, developed the scientific method as a way of discovering God’s universe. Has educated more people, assisted more impovershed nations, and always been the embassador of the oppressed through out history. The Catholic Church lived, & wrote the New Testament! and gave the Bible to the world! Teaching 2000 years ago.

Agree with most of this.

That there is no difference in personal dignity between the slave or free, man or women, rich or poor! God’s love has made us all equal in dignity,

However, while there may have been some lip-service given to the so-called ‘equality in dignity’ of the slave, slavery was nevertheless something that the Church was very late to the party on. For example, it was the Catholic nations of Spain and Portugal that pioneered and spread the institution of slavery across the Western Hemisphere. It’s probably better to just not have chattel slaves to begin with, rather than talking nonsense about their so called ‘equality in dignity’ while you’re whipping, beating and raping them.

and brothers & sisters. Truely revolutionary thinking!

I hardly think the discussions that we have here about the husband being the master of the house would qualify as ‘revolutionary.’ Do you?

If they want to be revolutionarys who are radically different then the mindless masses. Try being authenticly Catholic!!!

Cool.

Did you know that Catholic couples who live the faith; courtship instead of hook ups, Natural Family Planning, instead of birth control & abortion, have a less than 3% divorce rate?

Hey, if true, that’s cool. Divorce is a terrible thing, and this is great to have on the record.

The only thing I wish we could do better is support those in struggling marriages a little more. In other words, we’re all glad when couples do not divorce, yet there’s probably a lot of suffering going on behind closed doors because they did not divorce. Just a little reminder to myself more than anyone else, I would love to do something more to help those struggling couples who choose not to divorce yet have miserable or painful relationships.

They have happier marriages, and much better sex lives too! :yup:

That’s interesting, because based on anecdotal evidence alone, I’m inclined to think that Catholics are more likely to have boring and unfulfilling sex lives.

So, if you have evidence that is NOT just anecdotal (e.g., “mine is good, so…”) or poetic (e.g., “faithful Catholic couples practice ‘true’ and ‘holy’ relations, so they are given grace from God,”) then I would be absolutely thrilled to read about it. I would really be quite thrilled to read any kind of support for the claim you made. Please share!!!

PowderBear:

As for “wiping out a whole culture of smart people,” that also seems misinformed.

Are you saying that the people we wiped out were stupid? Let’s not add insult to injury.

 

[St_Francis]

I say, look at the teachings and look at those who followed the teachings, the persons those in the tradition look up to and admire.

I do not see how a person who does NOT follow the teachings can be used as an example for not following that tradition.

Satanists presumably look up to Satan, a liar and deceiver from the beginning.

Catholics look up to Mother Teresa, St Maximilian Kolbe, and those who give up their lives for Christ.

Communists give their lives for an illusion of some future which never arrives and are willing to force their people to into the illusion, sometimes to the point of death. K, 10,000,000 times in the Soviet Union alone.