Take the prod off a crossbow and what have you got? A BOW. A very short, very powerful bow, but it IS a bow. I think someone said it earlier; a crossbow is a bow-plus. Just like a compound is a bow-plus... plus cams, axles, cables...
Arthur,
If you can pull it back and hold it long enough to shoot it...........
Here's the thing
I can hold my 61# recurve back for just about 25 seconds and still make an accurate shot.
I can Hold my compound back at absolute top end for about 90 seconds with my arm extended, probably a little longer if I wanted to find a way to rest my bow arm.
You can hold a crossbow back for an entire 12hr day in stand and never have to pull it back.
The percentage of time you can keep each at the ready to shoot shows pretty plainly which are BOWS and which are not. I know history yadda yadda yadda.........but if in your head (which it is in mine) you need to pull it back when you want to shoot it, HOLD it back in order to aim as the definition of a BOW then a crossbow will never be a bow in my eyes.
Its not evil,they're actually pretty darn cool, and I would absolutely hunt with one if I had to but to me it will never be a bow in the spirit of what I consider a bow to be and if I was using one I would never feel like I was BOWhunting.