Discussions on Various Religious Dogmas, Canons and Decrees...
...and Why ALL Religious Fanatics Are Dangerous
During the Middle Ages, what made high Inquisitors in the Catholic church condemn thousands of people to be burned alive at the stake, for the crime of “heresy”, i.e., daring to disagree with the established Catholic doctrine of the era? What inspired the Crusaders to ride through the present-day Middle East, murdering Muslim men, women and children by the tens of thousands?
In colonial America, what made the Protestant Puritans condemn thousands of women to also be burned alive at the stake for being “witches”, and all for the great Sin of having, for example, an epileptic fit?
What makes a young Muslim man (or woman, for that matter) decide to strap explosives to his belly and then, once among people he doesn’t even know, detonate the device, thereby blowing himself and many innocent unknowns into orbit? What makes this now-dead young Muslim man believe that by carrying out this savage act and killing Infidels, i.e., Unbelievers, he will go straight to Paradise and be in the company of Allah, i.e., God, for eternity, not to mention all the Virgins he could ever hope to deflower?
Why must Muslim women be swaddled head to toe in heavy fabric, with only their eyes showing, else they are an affront to Allah and worthy only of death? Why is it sinful for a devout Muslim woman to be educated? Why must she obey her husband’s every utterance? Why must she never leave the house without a male relative accompanying her, and to do so is considered “disgracing the family”? Why are Muslim women barred from praying alongside men? Are only men fit for Paradise, is that it? What about those Virgins, then, how did they get there? Did Allah figure to Himself, “Oh, well we need SOME women in Paradise to serve Our Martyrs, even though they’re nothing but filthy swine"?
What makes an otherwise rational-appearing young couple refuse medical treatment for their gravely ill child, believing that “Jesus will heal him”, thereby sentencing the child to certain death?
Why are some fundamentalist Protestant Christian children taught that all other religions (including other Christian denominations like Catholicism) are “false”, that they are either headed by false gods or they are following false interpretations of God, and that they all need to be wiped out because they're "from Satan"? This is in symmetry with Muslim parents who teach their children to kill non-Muslims. The words “wiped out” and “kill” pretty much mean the same thing…the former merely sounds less threatening, but the premise is the same.
What makes some Christians eager to see the world explode in nuclear conflagration? Why do some of them insist on aiding/defending Israel at any and all costs, even though to them a Jew is a member of one of those aforementioned “false” religions?
Why do some Christians insist on a literal interpretation of the Bible…only as it suits their present agendas? In other words, why are some parts of the Bible interpreted literally, and other parts are merely “allegories”? How do they know which is which? Did God tell them personally?
Why do some Christians insist that they earth is only 6,000 years old, and that God physically created the planet and all life on it, that He created it all out of nothing, and that he accomplished all this in only 6 days? Why do some Christians persist in their belief that dinosaurs roamed the Garden of Eden along with Adam and Eve? Why do these same Christians insist on teaching this dogma in public schools, where no religion should ever hold sway, including theirs?
Why is the American Religious Right actively trying to legislate what American adults are allowed to see, read, and hear? In addition to actively trying to sanitize network and cable television through their incessant boycotting campaigns, why do they also seek to criminalize adult programming that adults may wish to view privately in their own homes or in their own hotel rooms?
Why is it such a great sin for a Jew to eat pork or shellfish? Why do Jews consider menstruating women to be “dirty”, and should be avoided? Why is incest considered one of the greatest sins in Judeo-Christianity, even to this day, yet God supposedly excused Lot when he got drunk and had sex with not one but both of his daughters, in order to produce “heirs” after his wife was turned into a pillar of salt? Does God, like, have days when he thinks to Himself, “well, I’m in a good mood today…so I think I’ll allow incest. But only for today…”?
The answer to all of these questions and countless others, is a mere single word:
RELIGION
Yep, that’s it. Religion.
It has always astonished me when I think of just how many people have either willingly died or been murdered in the name of some religion or another, or some deity or another, throughout the centuries. The number is staggering. In the tens of millions, surely. Maybe hundreds of millions.
And when I think of the endless oppression and tyranny that religion has caused through the centuries, I need to take a Xanax and lie down.
I wonder if God or Allah or Jesus or Yahweh or (fill in name of deity here) is pleased at all of this death and suffering?
I think…perhaps not.
I am not anti-God or anti-Jesus or anti-religion or anti-deity, before you come to that incorrect conclusion. Absolutely not. I have my own beliefs and way of life that I hold with. But I assure you…my beliefs and way of life does not impede on anyone else’s beliefs or way of life nor would they cause anyone’s death.
So how do some religious adherents get to that point? I am clueless. Isn’t it enough to believe in your beliefs and rejoice in them, and live your life the way you think you should, or the way you think that your religion says that you must, without wishing to impose your beliefs and way of life on the unwilling, or, if that is unsuccessful, murder the unwilling as being heretics, infidels or unbelievers?
What makes these people think that their version of an Almighty would be happy with this?
I haven’t got the answer to this question. But I can pretty much guarantee that people have been killing in the name of religion ever since Ong bashed Ang on the head with his club 50,000 years ago, because Ang refused to acknowledge that big fiery ball in the sky as Almighty God.
On this site, I’d like to explore some of the irrational and illogical doctrines and dogmas of the three “great religions”…Judaism, Christianity, and Islam…and try to make some sense of why some of their adherents act so unreasonably.
Is religion by nature irrational and illogical? Some say yes. Why, then, do some adherents to the three great religions happily live their lives in devotion to their God, and neither causing nor wishing any harm to anyone else? That is why I say no, religion is not by nature irrational, although I do lean toward the agreement that it is illogical. The existence of God cannot be proved, it has never been proved, and never will be proved. Belief is solely based on faith. And faith is inherently illogical because it is based on a wish or a hope that something is true without seeing physical evidence of it. But I digress. Religion is not inherently irrational, but humans have the propensity to make it that way. I believe that humans make it that way because of their competitive tendency to want to be the “biggest and the best” in everything, even when it comes to religion. The “my God can beat up your God” syndrome.
The endless trail of dead bodies stretching back thousands of years and continuing in the present time attests to this unfortunate syndrome.
I began this site to discuss religious themes of the three great religions of the day…Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. My intent is to post a series of essays addressing these concerns. But they don’t only have to be my essays. If you’d like to contribute one, please email me at linnzey36@yahoo.com. Opposing views are always welcome, but please spare me the “Yer goin’ t’hell!” comments, ok? I’ve heard them all before, and believe me, if I’m doomed to hell because I’d like peace in this world and wish all religions would play nicely, then I really don’t want to spend eternity with your version of God anyway.
"Freedom of speech and freedom of action are meaningless without freedom to think. And there is no freedom of thought without doubt."
- Bergen Baldwin Evans, American author (1904-1978).