My beliefs were definitely influenced by Sam Harris&#x27; writing (on religion anyhow, not a fan of his views on statism and torture).<p>You&#x27;re right that other religions have similarly violent claims (like Christianity), but we generally don&#x27;t see people going around committing violent acts and using the Bible as justification for them.<p>Here&#x27;s how I account for the difference -- most Christians no longer deeply believe in the more violent passages in the Bible anymore. For example, what would the average Christian say if you asked that person, &quot;should adulterers be put to death?&quot; [1] The far majority of Christians will say no. You don&#x27;t see many pastors and priests preaching fire and brimstone anymore. All their parishioners have gone elsewhere (but those verses are still in the Bible!) Nonetheless, Christians certainly had their turn in senselessly murdering people (e.g. the Crusades), and those people rationalized their actions using actual verses in the Bible.<p>However, if you ask the average Muslim, &quot;Can suicide bombing of civilian targets to defend Islam be justified?&quot; A large percentage of them will say yes! [2] Even if it&#x27;s not a majority of Muslims, the fact that there are double-digit percentages who either &quot;sometimes&quot; or &quot;rarely&quot; say such actions are justified is scary.<p>Now as for the question of WHY do most Christians no longer believe in violence while Muslims do, I don&#x27;t have a fully formed opinion on that matter, so I&#x27;ll withhold it. But I still think it&#x27;s valid to claim that religious texts can and are used as justification for violence.<p>[1] Leviticus 20:10 &quot;If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death.&quot;<p>[2] Using the numbering at the bottom of the page, see the table on page 53 --<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pewresearch.org&#x2F;files&#x2F;old-assets&#x2F;pdf&#x2F;muslim-americans.pdf#page=60" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pewresearch.org&#x2F;files&#x2F;old-assets&#x2F;pdf&#x2F;muslim-ameri...</a>