Yes. Hanson is correct.

Thanks for the link. I had to chuckle when I got to the first full page of the article. Halfway down, there is an ad which pictures a plate with bacon and eggs...!

I agree that such lists are excellent propaganda tools or even, to take a lighter view of lists like that, just an excellent way to introduce someone to a position that is foreign to them. It is very useful to be able to say: "Look not every Muslim is a homicidal, bomb-carrying maniac; some are rather intelligent, urbane and come from positions in normal life where they excelled. Indeed, some are just like you or like people who have made some good impression on you." Similar lists exist for other religions, and often are assembled on position papers. Whenever actors, scientists, politicians, religious leaders, etc. put their names on position papers, it seems to me that they want to do the same thing; groups other than Muslims use lists like this for that same reason.

The challenge to Christianity from Islam is great; not however because they can assemble lists of names names like this, but rather because the historic Christian churches in Europe and America are struggling due to theological confusion, lack of confidence of their members - especially clergy, failed or compromised catechesis and a host of other problems. Modern Evangelicalism, while containing a good deal of energy, is more or less the emotional wing of Protestantism. As such, it cannot offer a consistent or strong intellectual answer to Islamic apologists; and so the uneducated, lacking a coherent and intellectual religious framework, are more susceptible to their proselytizing. Add to this the confidence, simplicity, and facade of unity in Islam and it poses a significant challenge indeed.

Not a very large list, and spread through a number of centuries for the priests and missionaries section. Also, at least one of those listed there, i.e. the "Coptic Cardinal" is fraudulent. Goethe, at the end of his life, reportedly identified not with Islam, but with the Hypsistarians.

For the Cardinal, see: http://www.answering-islam.org/Hoaxes/abuishaq.html

An interesting (if true) but not often cited figure about conversion to and from Islam in Russia is found in this news story: http://www.interfax-religion.com/?act=news&div=513

Speak for yourself.Christianity is alive and well across the globe.
Shut up for the rest. Living in Sweden, you probably have to wait until the breakfast time to have your gonades finally handed back to you by the Lady of the House.

Poland:
Religions:
Roman Catholic 89.8% (about 75% practicing), Eastern Orthodox 1.3%, Protestant 0.3%, other 0.3%, unspecified 8.3% (2002)

Phillipines:
Roman Catholic 80.9%, Muslim 5%, Evangelical 2.8%, Iglesia ni Kristo 2.3%, Aglipayan 2%, other Christian 4.5%, other 1.8%, unspecified 0.6%, none 0.1% (2000 census)

Croats, Montenegrins, Serbs, Slovenians, all of them mostly Christians. Czech, Slovaks, Slovenians, Austrians......

For example, Hungary is very similar in size of the population compared to Sweden, and to be honest it's just a bit more populated country and the number of declared Christians is around 75% compared to Swedish Lutherans hovering around 87%. Yet, they don't feel the need to meet in the pub and discuss how opressed they are.
Maybe Swedish (men, - a loose definition) should focus on defending their own turf instead of blaming everyone else for the demise of Vikings sans Gonades....

"In check" is an odd way to refer to an institution that has had such widespread and diverse activities; anything from running the local hospital or school or college to ending slavery (Yes, in northern Europe too, and after Martin Luther). Not that these or any of the other countless examples matter. . . Of course, "lack of development" in southern Europe has only lead to France, Spain and Italy being among the top ten economies in the world. "Lack of development" has been responsible for Latin America moving from nothing to at least more than nothing. "Lack of development" has only produced a large array of scientists and mathematicians both religious and secular. Even if there is a manifest difference in degrees of development (e.g. Italy having an economy roughly 2/3 the value of Germany while having 7/10 the population), of course climate, resource base and national temperament could not have anything to do with that.

Strangely enough, the doctors prescribing the antidote that you prescribe, have always tended to be the most extreme of all (at least if we measure extremity in terms of resulting body count).

The comment from Monty Python is nice as well, it adds great weight to your argument.

Being personally convinced that there was a body of "Greek and Roman scientists" is an odd thing; it is probably just an example of a historiography that is consistent with a somewhat narrow secularist and scientistic prejudice. There are few examples of outright persecution of natural philosophers in the classical world. Hypatia's death and the closing of the Academy in Athens (if one can consider that to be even remotely "scientific") being the biggest ones. This sort of thing plus the lack of tolerance of other religions is supposed to have brought down the Roman Empire (the event ushering in the Dark Ages)? It seems more likely that the standard litany is more correct: incessant warfare exhausting natural and human resources, barbarian invasion, more barbarian invasion, the replacement of Romans by friendly barbarian groups, affluence weakening the native Romans, etc.

Heck, believing that lead piping ALONE brought about the Dark Ages is more reasonable.

Of course, Amsterdamsky, you go ahead and believe your personal concoction of history. After you've finished smoking that crack in your pipe, perhaps you could crack open a real history book and read about why Rome fell.

I guess every blog has to have its village idiot.