How Religion Promotes Intolerance and (Gulp!) — Even Murder
The Old Testament is a literary circus of ludicrous assertions and contradictions. But it’s also the basis of much of Western Civilization and the foundation of Judeo-Christian belief. Many even believe The Old Testament is the literal “word of God.” Here’s a closer examination of Biblical texts and their influence on our lives.
The Old Testament is the most destructive book ever written.
By “destructive,” I mean detrimental to humanity.
It’s the foundation for most Judeo-Christian faith. Many Jews and Christians believe The Old Testament is the literal word of God. Every letter, word, phrase, and paragraph was bolted to the printed page as a pronouncement straight from the deity. It’s what he wants. It’s his plan. It’s his “how-to” playbook.
If this horrible book really stands as the literal word of God, then someone’s got some explaining to do.
The Old Testament is a literary circus of ludicrous assertions and contradictions. If logic is our stick, The Old Testament can be busted open easier than a pinata at a Mexican birthday party. Filled with voluminous passages which flat out justify intolerance, racism, slavery, torture, and even murder, these noxious texts have served as guideposts of wickedness for centuries. They are in fact, perilous detours away from the highway of rationality and reason.
Before, these texts were cited to justify horrible crimes against humanity, including the Inquisition and the Crusades. Now, they’re used to deny equality, preserve monocracy, and inhibit science. But what stands far and away as the most troublesome fruition of these religions is the clear and compulsory stipulation of intolerance.
Consider one of many Old Testament passages which read as follows:
“If your brother, the son of your father or of your mother, or your son or daughter, or the spouse whom you embrace, or your most intimate friend, tries to secretly seduce you, saying ‘Let us go and serve other gods’ unknown to you or your ancestors before you, gods of the peoples surrounding you, whether near you or far away, anywhere throughout the world, you must not consent, you must not listen to him; you must show him no pity, you must not spare him or conceal his guilt. No, you must kill him, your hand must strike the first blow in putting him to death and the hands of all the rest of the people following. You must stone him to death since he has tried to divert you from Yahweh your God.” (Deuteronomy 13:7-11)
That’s got to be the vilest excerpt from any so-called “religious” book of anything on record.
You must kill him?
Your hand must strike the first blow?
You must stone him to death?
Gulp!
Death is the prescribed penalty for praying to a different God or no God at all? This is God talking?
Here’s the assumption of a rational person: If these really are indeed the words of the Jewish and Christian God, then he is a sick savage. A beast. A monster.
Anywho claims these preposterous Old Testament texts are really the “word of God” is a brainwashed lunatic. They, nor their bronze-age ideas, deserve the respect of a sane person. They don’t even deserve our pity given the centuries of destruction kindled by the application of their ideas and the chokehold they continue to have over education, culture, society, and even governments to this day.
Religion is not only anti-logic, anti-science, anti-equality, anti-individuality, and anti-humanity. It’s also anti-moral.
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On the plus side, nowhere in the text is the use of assault rifles encouraged.
NOLAN REPLIES:
You’re interrupting the coach in the middle of the first quarter.
That said, the vast majority of my readers are Christians and Jews (or former believers). The dominant religion in our society is Christianity. Islam shall indeed get its fair due and criticism. But for Christians or Jews to castigate Islam is in my judgement a “kettle=black” argument.
— ND
NOLAN REPLIES:
Human progress has occurred not because of religion, and specifically Old Testament guidance, but in spite of it. You undoubtedly agree advances in science, knowledge, arts, and so forth have been propelled by a humanist outlook, rather than a religious one.
Where you cite “other religions,” I presume you refer to Islam. While irrefutably the world’s biggest threat at the moment, the excesses of Islam are a late 20th Century phenomenon. Other than the the reach of the Ottomans (which was largely tolerant of other religions), Muslim societies have been peaceful and respected other sovereigns — unlike Christianity. No doubt, Islam has always repressed women and instilled codes which match the norms of the Dark Ages. That said, The Old Testament has wrought considerably more death, destruction, misery, and suffering than any book ever written. Park of this stems from having a 4,000-year head start perhaps, and maybe Islam will catch up the way its going. But if you body count what’s been done in the name of The Old Testament versus the Koran, the Judeo-Christian graveyard is considerably more crowded.
Finally, the time will come when I’ll write about Islam and other religions. This essay speaks exclusively to the point of promoting intolerance and murder, a point which (again) is irrefutable.
I’m writing a follow up to this, which will be posted shortly. Thank you for contributing and for the exchange.
— ND
Well I’m glad that’s settled. Let’s get rid of all religions and then there won’t ever be murderers or violence of any kind again. Why didn’t anyone ever think of this before?