Quran vs Bible

Because I'm lazy, and Steve Wells kicks my ass at blogging, here are a couple of posts from Dwindling in Unbelief. First I thought I should link to them, but then why not just copy the whole thing? This is the first one, it asks

Which is more violent, the Bible or the Quran?  

The LORD is a man of war. Exodus 15:3

Fight in the way of Allah. Quran 2:244

Which is more violent, the Bible or the Quran? Is there a way to objectively answer such a question?
Well, it wouldn't be easy. But it is possible to compare the amount of cruelty and violence in the two books.
Here is a summary of the highlighted verses in the SAB and SAQ.

	Number of Cruel or Violent Passages
Bible	1121
Quran	520

So the Bible has more than twice as many cruel or violent passages as does the Quran. But the Bible is a much bigger book. How do they compare when size is taken into account?

	Violence and Cruelty	Total verses	Percent
Bible	1121	31173	3.60
Quran	520	6236	8.34

When expressed as a percentage of cruel or violent verses (at least as marked in the SAB/Q), the Quran has more than twice that of the Bible. (8.34 vs. 3.60%)

Of course this analysis does not consider the extent of the cruelty in the marked passages. And that is an important consideration. Is Numbers 31:14-18, for example, more cruel than Quran 5:34? That is something that each person must decide.
A good argument could be made that either book is the most violent and cruel book ever written. The award would go to one or the other, for neither has any close competitors.
It is frightening to think that more than half of the world's population believes in one or the other.

(all credit goes to Steve Wells at Dwindling in Unbelief. All I did was steal it)