The Crusades were a series of military conflicts and wars that was "justified" by religious differences. It was waged by Christians from 1095 to 1291 and was usually sanctioned by the Pope in the name of Christendom, making countries into Christianity based territories. The main goal was the recapturing of Jerusalem and the sacred "Holy Land" from Muslim rule and was originally launched in response to a call from the Eastern Orthodox Byzantine Empire for help against the expansion of the Muslim Seljuq dynasty into Anatolia. The Crusades campaigned through the 16th century in territories outside the Levant and were usually against those that were considered by the Catholic Church to be heretics, a mixture of religious, economic, and political reasons.

The Crusades were an incredibly violent undertaking, even by medieval standards. In its early stages the crusades were less organized but quite bloody. Emich of Leisinged asserted that a cross miraculously appeared on his chest and that certified him for leadership in the Crusades. Before even heading out to kill the enemies of Yahweh, Emich first set out to eliminate the infidels in their midst. His group proceeded to massacre the Jews in German cities like Mainz and Worms and thousands of defenseless men, women and children were chopped, burned or otherwise slaughtered. This type of holy bloodshed was repeated through out Europe by a number of crusading campaigns. Jews however were given a last minute chance to convert to Christianity in accordance with Augustine's doctrines. When Peter the Hermit's army entered Yugoslavia, 4,000 Christian residents of the city of Zemun were massacred before they moved on to burn Belgrade.

As the campaigns began to be led by professional soldiers ordained bishops followed along to bless the atrocities and make sure they had official church approval. Crusaders took the heads of the slain and impaled them upon their weapons. A bishop referred to the impaled heads of the Muslims as a joyful spectacle for the people of Yahweh. It was standard procedure the all the inhabitants, no matter the age, to be killed when Muslim cities were captured by Christian crusaders. St. Bernard announced before the Second Crusade that "The Christian glories in the death of a pagan, because thereby Christ himself is glorified." This sort of tyranny and slaughtering in the name of religion continued on for 196 years.

The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 resulted in a number of convictions and executions for suppose witchcraft in Salem Massachusetts. The trials resulted in the executions of 20 innocent people (14 women, 6 men) and the imprisonment of between 175 and 200 people. In addition to those executed, at least five people died in prison. One man who refused to plead to the charges was pressed to death with rocks.

During the 17th century in Massachusetts most people were Puritans, a very religious group of colonists. They believed that all sins including everything from sleeping in church to stealing food should be punished. When a neighbor would suffer misfortune, such as a sick child or a failed crop, Puritans saw it as Yahweh's will and did not offer help. Puritans also believed that Satan would select the weakest individuals (women, children, the insane) to carry out his work. Those who followed Satan were considered witches and witchcraft was one of the greatest crimes a person could commit, punishable by death as demanded in Exodus 22:18.

European Witch Trials Over a period of 300 years, from 1450 to 1750, 40-60,000 women were accused of witchcraft and put to death due to religious superstition being taken as truth. Even Joan of Arc was suspected of practicing witchcraft although these charges were dropped and she was burned at the stake for other religious heresy convictions.

The French Wars of Religion, (1562 to 1598) were a series of conflicts fought between Catholics and Huguenots (Protestants) from the middle of the sixteenth century to the Edict of Nantes in 1598, including civil infighting as well as military operations. The war was primarily based on religious reasons and involved a struggle for control over the country between the Catholic House of Guise (Lorraine) and the Calvinist House of Bourbon on the other. Hundreds of thousands were killed as a result of this religious conflict.

The Saxon Wars were the campaigns and insurrections of the more than thirty years from 772, when Charlemagne first entered Saxony with the intent to conquer, to 804, when the last rebellion of disaffected tribesmen was crushed. In all, eighteen battles were fought in what is now northwestern Germany to force the monotheistic beliefs of Christianity onto people who had polytheistic religious beliefs.

An inquisition can be run by both civil and church authorities in order to root out non-believers from a nation or religion. The Spanish Inquisition was one of the most deadly inquisitions in history. It was established in 1478 by Catholic Monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella to maintain Catholic orthodoxy in their kingdoms and was under the direct control of the Spanish monarchy. It was not definitively abolished until 1834, during the reign of Isabel II. An estimated 2,000 people were burned at the stake. Over the course of its history, the Inquisition processed a total of 341,021 people, of whom at least 31,912 were executed.

The Reconquista was the seven and a half century long process by which the Christian kingdoms of northern Hispania (modern Portugal and Spain) conquered the Iberian peninsula from the Muslim and Moorish states of Al-Ándalus. The Umayyad conquest of Hispania from the Visigoths occurred during the early 8th century, and the Reconquista is commonly considered to have begun almost immediately in 722, with the Battle of Covadonga, and completed in 1492 with the Conquest of Granada.

Was Hitler an atheist? Some Christians claim that he was and use him as an example of how the "lack of religion" can ruin a person. Many of the largest Christian organizations such as Kent Hovind's Creation Science Evangelists convince their followers that atheism (the lack of belief in a god) is responsible for Hitler's actions. Adolf Hitler was in fact, not an atheist. In reality it was his religious beliefs that played a major role in making him a face of evil across the world.

So what religion was he part of? Hitler was born of a Catholic family but grew to reject his parents' religion when he converted to, you guessed it, Christianity. Hitler was a christian! He even started a new sect of christianity called "Positive Christianity" that he felt followed the Bible closer than Orthodox Christianity did. At various points in the Nazi regime he made attempts to replace Orthodox Christianity with his "positive" alternative and many Nazi soldiers had "Gott Mit Uns" ("God With Us") on their uniforms. Hitler was only trying to do what he thought was right in the name of the Christian God but belief in the Bible gave him the evil label he is known for. Hitler took a personal vendetta toward the Jewish community because the biblical stories said they were the ones who turned their back on Jesus Christ.

Hitler did mention a dislike for "Christians" but only in reference to the sect of christians that simply and unoriginally refer to themselves as "Christians." He himself though was in fact a christian in the sense that he was a devoted follower of Jesus Christ. Just to make it clear, Christianity is divided up into many different sects including the Catholics, Mormons and the sect known as Christians (which was not one of the earliest christian sects). Hitler hated all of these different sects of Christ followers, hence why he made his own sect.

"Christianity [the sect] is an invention of sick brains: one could imagine nothing more senseless, nor any more indecent way of turning the idea of the Godhead into a mockery....When all is said, we have no reason to wish that the Italians and Spaniards should free themselves from the drug of Christianity [the sect]. Let's be the only people who are immunised against the disease."

- From the book "Hitler's Table Talk" by H.R. Trevor-Roper

Many religious apologists blame "darwinism" and the teachings of evolution for Hitler and the holocaust. They do this in hopes of making parents afraid of letting their children learn a field of science that discredits ancient myths contained in their "sacred" religious texts. Whether or not the knowledge of evolution inspired the actions of Hitler does not by any means change the fact that evolution is true. Regardless, lets still take a look at this claim for the sakes of exposing yet again the dishonest agenda of leading apologists.

The teachings of Darwin and the knowledge of evolution did not inspire Hitler. In fact, Hitler's beliefs were opposite to Darwin's. Darwin made popular the knowledge that nature undergoes a selection process this is NOT goal-oriented and that evolution FAVORS diversity. Hitler's actions were closely related to eugenics which was made popular by not Darwin, but Herbert Spencer. It is from this, not Darwin, that we get the phrase "survival of the fittest." Darwin did not equate evolution with upwardly-mobile progress. Eugenics is based on Lamarckism which is the discredited idea (replaced by Darwin's ideas) that an organism can pass on characteristics that it acquired during its lifetime to its offsprings. Unlike what Darwin helped teach us about evolution, Lamarckism is progressive and goal-oriented.

Not only did Adolf Hitler worship Jesus Christ and was not influenced by Darwin or evolution but on the list of banned books in Nazi Germany were any books that belittled faith in Jesus Christ or any books that supported the claims by Charles Darwin. The following two passages are from the list of books to be banned in Nazi Germany.

"6. Writings of a philosophical and social nature whose content deals with the false scientific enlightenment of primitive Darwinism and Monism (Haeckel)." - Guidelines from Die Bücherei 2:6 (1935), page 279. (Source: Strothman, pp. 143-144)

"c) All writings that ridicule, belittle or besmirch the Christian religion and its institution, faith in God, or other things that are holy to the healthy sentiments of the Volk." - Blacklist for Public Libraries and Commercial Lending Libraries Fighting League for German Culture: Guidelines (Source: Stadtbibliothek Koblenz, 1993; pp. 5-7)

”Therefore, I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews. I am doing the Lord's work.”
- Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf

”Christ was the greatest early fighter in the battle against the world enemy, the Jews . . . The work that Christ started but could not finish, I--Adolf Hitler--will conclude.”
- Adolf Hitler, Nazi Christmas celebration 1926

”I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews, I am fighting for the Lord's work.”
- Adolf Hitler, Reichstag speech 1938

”The judgment whether a people is virtuous or not virtuous can hardly be passed by a human being. That should be left to God.”
- Adolf Hitler,Wilhelmshaven speech 1939

Hitler greets a Catholic Cardinal	Hitler greets Müller the "Bishop of the Reich" and Abbot Schachleitner
Hitler leaves the Marine Church in Wilhelmshaven.	Hitler in front of "Church of our Lady" in Nuremberg, Sept. 1934. Photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann.
Hitler signing his autograph for a Christian fan	Hitler's Brown Army attending and leaving church services. These photos were published by Nazis during Hitler's reign. Source: Das Braune Heer: mit einem geleitwort von Adolf Hitler (Translation: The Brown Army: with a foreword by Adolf Hitler), Photos by Heinrich Hoffmann