By their very nature Christianity and other religions are based on an absolute belief in the correctness of their faith. Thats why they are called faiths and not opinions. As much as it upsets the PC multi-cultural crowd, if one believes in a religious faith, then one must, by definition believe that all other religions are in error. In addition, if you truly have faith that your particular religion is the path to salvation, it can be argued that you have a moral duty to convert others to your faith. The other side of that particular coin is the attitude of some throughout history ,that those who oppose your particular dogma are doing the work of the devil.

Many horrific things have happened over the centuries in many parts of the world as a result of religious zeal. To think that this was only true of Western Christianity is an error (read the Koran for an example).

rikimaru- I'm glad that you have an interest in history. Having taught ancient and medieval history along with modern world history for 30 years I obviously share your interest. For a few more examples of religious based violence read the Old Testament. You will see that a lot of religious based smiting was going on. For more examples read about the Aztecs and other meso -American civilizations, whose reason for war was to gain captives for human sacrifice. The treatment of early Christians by the pagan Romans, and later by the Odin worshiping Vikings are other examples of note. Moving east, you can read about the Muslim - Hindu violence in India. Both sides were more than willing to massacre their opponents. I could go on, but I think that I have made my point. Throughout history, and in all parts of the world, religious based violence has been a constant thread woven into the tapestry of civilization.

People with faith are annoyed by others who don't think all crazy like they do.  Those other people believe something else and that might make the christians question their faith.  So, they have to die.

Convert and think like we do or die.  Its your choice.  God be praised.

The colisseum was still in use well into Christodoms taking over of Rome.

That said and to be honest, the only acts of killing others in the name of God was well before the 1st millenium. After that it was pretty much as a act of defense/conquest as in the Crusades, Indians were never killed becuase God told someone to do it, they were killed becuase they were in the way.

Whats your address?

Link?

On a side note, Native American tribes were killing each other long before the Europeans showed up.  I'm not justifying the settlers, or the horrible treatment Native Americans received, but just to show that humans have been killing each other since the Stone Age. 

That's one side of the story.  Go read up on England's history.  Whenever the Catholic royal family was in charge, they killed Protestants.  And then whenever the Protestant family was in charge, they killed Catholics. 

PRAY WITH US OR DIE!

People have been killing each other since the stone ages. In one of my text books I saw  photos of pre-historic cave paintings of groups fighting each other. Religion, any religion, is just one more excuse to kill the people on the other side of the river or the other side of the hill. Monotheistic faiths may be more inclined to view other faiths unfavorably as they believe that if my God is the God, then others must be false. Polytheistic religions, by their very nature , may be more forgiving of other faiths. After all, if you believe in many gods, it is reasonable to suppose that the other guys  god is as real as yours.

One should not however, blame a faith (Christianity) for the misuse of that faith. Some religions, such as Islam, do advocate war against and killing of those of other faiths. If you read the New Testament you will find no such call.

This is not true, there are many examples.  For one example, look into John Calvin burning his enemy Servetus to the stake.

Good thread and question.  And when people ask me this question, I respond with a question. 

Does this disprove Christianity as the only true religion? 

Also riki, you are protraying Jesus as a Pacificst, which he was not.  That was not his reason for coming.  He was quite clear that he left his glory in Heaven to come save his people from their sins.  He built up the 12 disciples to spread the Gospel and that was to repent and believe. 

As far as the controlling people theory, anybody who has studied the whole bible and the history of the bible(old and New testament), could see how over a few thousand years it would be impossible for the writings to be in agreement with each other without contradictions.  The Old Testament prophesized the coming of the Messiah, the Gospels record the life of the Messiah, the rest of the new testament shows the spread of the gospel message of the Messiah.  If there was a master plan to deceive people with a book called the bible, it would have been properly planned out and carried over a few thousand years, which obviously didn't happen.  Plus the Patriots weren't even around back then.(Probably only riki will get my MGS reference )