February 4, 2015 7:59 AM

Religion: The cause of, and (not) the solution to, most of the world's problems

Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize.

  • Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason (1792)

All one need do today to understand the timelessness and truth of Paine’s words is look around. Watch the news or read a newspaper, and it’s not hard to find a story about someone using their religious faith as a means to establish dominance and enrich themselves. It can be politicians claiming that God is on their side and therefore they can force their agenda on all, regardless of their spirituality (or lack of same). It can be those zealots who believe that God is on their side, which- in their minds, at least- gives Divine justification for killing those whose lack of similar belief renders them “less than” and therefore worthy only of destruction.

This is what religion is about these days? WTF??

It may have quite some time since my Sunday School days, but when did God- by whatever name you might know him or her- become such an angry, mean-spirited S.O.B.? When did this Supreme Being you worship grant license to torture, kill, and destroy in their name? When did going to war against those whose only crime is not sharing your flavor of Supreme Being become a thing? Why do Catholics kill Protestants kill one another in Northern Ireland? They’re all Christians, right? Why do Sunni and Shia declare jihad against one another? Are they not Muslims?

History is replete with examples of genocide being committed in the name of advancing their religion; Christianity is the biggest culprit. Somewhere along the line we forgot that religion at its core is really about peaceful coexistence. Allah is praised as merciful and compassionate. Jesus Christ taught forgiveness and tolerance. Religion is merely one expression of our collective spiritual journey. Killing in the name of [insert name of preferred deity here] should have no place in a civilized society, and it certainly doesn’t deserve to have a place in our public conversation.

I have to think that if Jesus Christ or Allah were to return to Earth in human form today, they’d run for the hills in disgust.

ISIS/ISIL militants have been beheading foreign nationals and distributing the videos for some time now as proof they and they alone now rule their “Caliphate.” That they given their rule the cover of Islam doesn’t hide the brutal, savage, anti-religious nature of their actions. Now they’ve burned a Jordanian fighter pilot alive on video, and all I really want is for someone to explain how such a barbaric and subhuman act can mesh with Islamic teachings in ANY conceivable way?

Radical Islam, what some call “Islamofascism,” is about the teaching of the Prophet in the same way Jeffrey Dahmer was about veganism. Right-wing Christians who blow up abortion clinics, harass women attempting to enter abortion clinics, and carry all manner of other terroristism on American soil are about the teachings of Jesus Christ in the same way Osama bin-Laden was about peaceful reconciliation of differences. My point is that NO ONE who carries out acts of violence in the name of their religion truly understands the first thing about that religion. It’s about violent thugs with anger management issues killing innocents in order to advance their hate-fueled, intolerant agenda. It’s about political power and the willingness to do anything, no matter how barbaric, in order to be able to hold sway and force their agenda on those who fall under their control.

ISIS/ISIL may control large swaths of Syria and Iraq, but most of what they control (or at least used to) has been reduced to rubble (like the Syrian border town of Kobani). They may be the dominant political force in the region, but how do you govern an area with no infrastructure- no water system, no garbage collection, no medical facilities, no communication system, no economic activity? Achieving what could only fairly be described as a Pyrrhic victory, ISIS/ISIL seems to have no real plan (and even less expertise) to govern their “empire.”

The truth, of course, is that ISIS/ISIL is not about Islam. Though it cloaks its barbarity in Islam as a means of legitimizing it’s reign of terror, ISIS/ISIL is little more than a cabal of ignorant, murderous thugs. It has no more in common with Islam that Rush Limbaugh does with compassion.

Modern Christianity may not have the grotesque displays of abject, heartless cruelty and disrespect for the rights of those they consider “less than,” but Christians can be barbaric in their own way.

A Christian- Scott Roeder- murdered Dr. George Tiller in the vestibule of his Wichita church because Tiller performed abortions. A Christian minister- Paul Hill- murdered Dr. Barnett Slepian, who also performed abortions, by shooting him his kitchen window. A Christian- Timothy McVeigh- killed 169 innocent civilians when he bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Christians bomb abortion clinics and harass women entering such clinics. Christian ministers preach “spiritual warfare” as if they’re preparing their flock for actual warfare.

I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point. Untold millions have been killed by Christians (see the Crusades) in the name of spreading the faith.

This is the single biggest reason I don’t believe in God. I want no part of a faith tradition so thoroughly steeped in blood and oppression. I can’t imagine this state of affairs is what God- or Allah- had in mind.

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on February 4, 2015 7:59 AM.

Vaccines work. Propaganda and disinformation don't. was the previous entry in this blog.

Sure, you'll die a horrible death from lung cancer...but at least you'll be thin! is the next entry in this blog.

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