Historically, what is the cruelest religion? why?

Christian religion is the cruelest.

Good question. I've been struggling with that question for some years now. I am a recovering Catholic who no longer sees Roman Catholicism as a path to follow. Why? It would be easy to say "It's the pedophiles, Stupid!" or "They don't recognize the value of women as clergy," or some other facet of the program as espoused by the Vatican. It was none of these, and all of these, rolled together with the realization that the institutional Roman church is a monarchy complete with an earthly king who "knows" more than the rest of us, and is hell-bent on wielding that knowledge like a bludgeon to force the "faithful" to knuckle under to a prescribed way of thought, prayer and worship. To think otherwise is heresy, punishable by ex-communication at best. As a member of the congregation of the Roman church, i was obligated to "Pray, Pay and Obey", leaving my brain at the door as I went in to worship.

The history of Roman Catholicism is full of inconsistencies, crimes of passion, violence and bloodshed, so Roman Catholicism ranks high on the cruelty scale. However, I submit that any religion, Christian, Musiim, Jewish, or reformed Druid, that preaches exclusivity is cruel. In my vocabulary, exclusion is a four-letter word and damnable in concept and practice. Jesus was not an exclusivist in the end. His message engaged the high born and the lowly. It is now, and forever will be, institutionalized religions that become powers unto themselves in the name of someone's interpretation of God that has created 9/10s of the hatred and violence recorded or mis-recorded in the history of humanity. Witness the ongoing murderous violence across the world in the name of someone's God, of which the United States is a contributing agent.

In summary, I don't think there is one single cruelest religion. I think all have blood on their hands and will continue to do so whenever they preach "Us vs. Them".

All religions have had their periods of cruelty. The is a Baptist church in Kansas that protest at the funerals of soldiers and Marines, shouting to the grieving family that their son or daughter is burning in hell. There have been idiots in every religion in the world. Right now - today - the cruelest religion by fat is Islam. Google up Moslem Atrocities. This religion cuts off people heads, arms, legs, mutilates them. Read through the Hadith, a moslem guide book, if you will. Talk about cruelty!

Undoubtedly the Roman Catholic church. What other religion would torture women and burn them alive on the offchance that they were a witch, whatever that is?

the mayans with all their human sacrifices and stuff

Hitler was in fact Roman Catholic, not Neo-pagan. The nazis did have an interest in the occult, but that is not paganism. Occult means 'hidden' nothing more nothing less. I think you may have your facts mixed up, regarding Hitler, but i can't speak for Himmler. I think he used the 'Christ killer' philosophy to excuse his atrocities & i'm betting if he was a pagan, as you claim, the Catholic church wouldn't have turned a blind eye & even possibly funded them. He was extremely superstitous though & was obsessed with finding certain relics, in particular, the spear of destiny - the Roman spear which apparently peirced Christ's side on calvary. Pagans don't believe in God, or Christ, so i seriously doubt he was a pagan - once again, another smear on a religion that has been vilified by ignorant people for far too long.
From what i can see, it's got to be the Catholic church; the inquisition, the crusades, the silent support of the slave trade, the way they treat gays, whilst hiding peadophile priests. I could go on & on.
Paganism is probably the most misunderstood religion, but the cruelist? Nah. And it's Rastafarianism - with an 'R', not a 'P' lol

I personally think that all can be? You have to think of what you are hearing and if you believe half of the **** their telling you. It's the person their selves that make the world go around not the books you read, or something that was support to have happened years ago. Ask yourself this Question? Where is the proof? Also , you decide if you you believe?

Roman Catholic. Come on...any God who sacrifices his only son on a cross so that his people may be "saved" and ends up with a bunch of morons like us on his planet afterwards is not only cruel, but stupid to boot. (And this is coming from someone who was christened Catholic - so don't beat me up I am self flagellating here)

So hard to choose, but I think dubiousbt makes a good argument.

If I had to pick some alternates, JW's deprive their members of all holidays and birthdays (only allowed to celebrate wedding anniversaries, woohoo) and the Amish wear ridiculous clothes and shun technology, depriving their women the pleasures of vibrators.

That's cruelty.

ALL OF THEM

It all depends on which era your looking at.

Pagans used to sacrifice hundreds to the gods.

Christians and Muslims have been killing eachother since time immemorial.

Atheist Communist countries are infamous for their cruelty.

Even Buddhists have waged religious war on eachother, creating tons of needless bloodshed.

The answer to who's the most peaceful is a tie between Mormons and Sceintologists, and given another few hundred years, let's see if that holds up...

I wonder if instead of looking at various religious dialects, we should take a look at the split between Taker and Leaver cultures. But there aren't many Leavers left. The Takers were quite successful in wiping them off the planet.

Adolf Hitler was a deamon. He knew the bible inside and out and could quote scripture freely with out hesitation. He hated the Jews because he knew they were gods choosen people and he wanted to exterminate them from the earth. He also knew that in the world there were artifacts of the Lord that he wanted to posess. He would send his troops to searh them out and bring them back to him. Believe that some things in Raiders of the lost ark are true because they are. He was the devil in disguise and noone will ever be as cruel or evil as him.

Islam, and the Ottoman empire. They conducted the first religious crusades causing the christians to react with their own crusade. I would mich rather live my life by the ten commandments versus cutting my wifes **** off and stoning her to death if she leaves the house without her burka on. I also enjoy washing my hands and face in the sink and not my feet.