Software engineer analyzed the Quran and the Bible to see which was more violent — Read his findings
An
analysis into whether the Quran is more violent than the Bible found
that killing and destruction occur more frequently in the Christian
texts than the Islamic.
Investigating whether the Quran really is more violent than its
Judeo-Christian counterparts, software engineer Tom Anderson processed
the text of the Holy books to find which contained the most violence.
In a blog post,
Mr Anderson explains: "The project was inspired by the ongoing public
debate around whether or not terrorism connected with Islamic
fundamentalism reflects something inherently and distinctly violent
about Islam compared to other major religions."
Using text analytics software he had developed, named Odin Text, he
analysed both the New International Version of both the Old and New
Testaments as well as an English-language version of the Quran from
1957.
It took just two minutes for his software to read and analyse the three books.
By categorising words into eight emotions — Joy, Anticipation, Anger,
Disgust, Sadness, Surprise, Fear/Anxiety and Trust — the analysis found
the Bible scored higher for anger and much lower for trust than the
Quran.
Further analysis found the Old Testament was more violent than the New Testament, and more than twice as violent as the Quran.
Mr Anderson summarises: "Of the three texts, the content in the Old Testament appears to be the most violent.
"Killing and destruction are referenced slightly more often in the
New Testament (2.8%) than in the Quran (2.1%), but the Old Testament
clearly leads—more than twice that of the Quran—in mentions of
destruction and killing (5.3%)."
However, he adds: "First, I want to make very clear that we have not
set out to prove or disprove that Islam is more violent than other
religions.
"Moreover, we realize that the Old and New Testaments and the Quran
are neither the only literature in Islam, Christianity and Judaism, nor
do they constitute the sum of these religions’ teachings and protocols.
"I must also reemphasize that this analysis is superficial and the
findings are by no means intended to be conclusive. Ours is a 30,000-ft,
cursory view of three texts: the Quran and the Old and New Testaments,
respectively."
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