Christianity is a religion of ... Islam is a religion of ...

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Sure, as long as we also talk about the MASSIVE reduction in death rates from science
and technology in the form of medicine and shelter and nutrition and communication
and quality of life improvements.

And then we can talk about all the ways religions have got in the way of those developments.

And then we can talk about the way that religions have no upsides to counter their downsides.

Or you could realise that we ALWAYS win this argument and not bother.

EDIT: Particularly as this argument is off topic for the thread you have posted it in.
If you want your ass whooped feel free to create your own thread on the topic.

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Can I take it that you have no opinion on the matter simply because you didn't make any such statement? Not even a negative opinion?

Sure we can discuss the contributions of scientific development to weaponisation. Although I am not sure what to say about it as the facts are fairly obvious to all and not in dispute. I think we are remarkably lucky that it takes more than just science to build a nuclear bomb.
I also think that modern warfare has almost nothing to do with science and everything to do with money. After all, science is a commodity that can be bought and so are weapons. The reason why terrorists must strap on suicide vests and go blow themselves up is because they lack the money to buy missiles - not because they lack the scientific know-how.

Similarly, although the development of guns had a massive impact on the history of war, current gun problems are all about culture and nothing whatsoever to do with science.

Are you perhaps anti-science? That would be interesting given that we are discussing this over the internet.

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I don't get it. In what way is my post 'an exercise in futility'? Can you be more specific rather than giving vague analogies?

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Quite the opposite infact.

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It seems to me that you agreed with my point but didn't really want to say so directly.

Originally posted by twhitehead
I have recently seen statements or debates along the lines of:
Islam is a religion of peace (or not).
What does it mean to say something about a religion, when it is well known that the adherent of any large religion have a wide diversity of beliefs or views.
Can anything be said about Christianity in the format: Christianity is a religion of ...?
Wou ...[text shortened]... u be talking about/for all Christians when you made the statement? The majority? Your own group?

I agree in so far that I'm skeptical about the formulation "<insert religion here> is a religion of peace", because I doubt that anyone can name a religion of war.

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Can the weapon making activities of homo erectus be classified as science? If not then weaponisation predates science. If it can then both science and weaponisation predate civilisation by a pretty large margin.