Quote:
A good argument could be made that either book is the most violent and cruel book ever written. The award would go to one or the other, for neither has any close competitors. It is frightening to think that more than half of the world's population believes in one or the other."
Both Books are in large part accounts of Lineages and as such both are also types of History. Any Books of this type which didn't address themes such as war, murder, genocide and rape would simply be unrealistic and no longer believable reflections of the Human Experience (which on occasion has been less than entirely perfect, so they tell me...).
Further how can anyone - even God Himself - convince a group of desert nomad warriors such as the Arabs (or the Ancient Hebrews, for that matter) to worship God unless He is characterized as a Shade On The Harsh Side.... You can try as many peaceful smiling meditating deities holding lotus blossoms as you want... but desert nomads aren't
sissies and will happily trample any number of lotus blossoms into the ground along with any number of new age manuals, guides to emotional healing or manuals for getting in touch with your feelings.... but a Vengeful God smiting His enemies.... now you've got their attention!
This is called
upaya in Sanskrit - "skilful means" - the ability of the gods/Buddhas to find exactly the type of teaching to suit every temperament, however aggressive or low. For example, when the Tibetans converted the Mongols to Buddhism, they didn't use peaceful Buddhist deities to do the job - they selected the toughest, most aggressive-looking deities possible (decorated with necklaces of heads and skulls, trampling on slain sinners, etc.) - Khubilai Khan was convinced and the conversion of the Mongols began (much to Central Asia's relief). And some of those Buddhist texts are as hostile as they come - and are much more than merely "close competitors" of the Bible and Koran in the violence stakes.
By the way (just to bring Hinduism into it), the action of the Bhagavad-Gita takes place on a battlefield with everyone preparing for war, and Krishna explaining why war is sometimes regrettably necessary... when people just don't listen, for example... I mean, Goldman Sachs and JPM aren't going to give in and roll over just 'cos we ask them nicely, are they?
Oh and the Talmud isn't included, surely right up there in the "hate-literature" stakes and still blighting us to this day with its vicious tribalism. And what of its murderous offshoots
Marxism and Communism? That's tens of millions murdered in the name of No God At All.
And How Many Has God Killed? Answer: every mortal creature that He ever created.
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