The trouble I have with religion was illustrated very clearly by an article I read in the Guardian Newspaper regarding the Yazidi girls. These are Christian, which in the eyes of Islamic fundamentalists means they are infidel unbelievers. When ISIS captured the Yazidi people they were instructed very clearly from their scriptures what was required. Allah wanted them to behead non-believers or convert them to Islam. Allah wanted these grown men to bind the young girls of ten or eleven, gag them and rape them. They could be used as sex slaves.
Now in our civilised world we would consider any grown men who tied up a young terrified girl of ten, gagged her and gang-raped her as being a depraved animals. If they used the excuse in court that they were merely carrying out the wishes of Allah that would be inexcusable. They would be rightly locked up for a long time as disgusting paedophile rapists and their actions considered more vile than anything Jimmy Saville had done.
Yet according to the Koran these things are permissible. Allah sanctions the beheadings, the terrorism and maiming of innocent people, the rape of young girls, the torture, the horrendous deaths, the cutting off of limbs, the destruction of pre-Islamic artifacts and the persecution of all non-believers. These are not perversions of Islam. They are contained in the scriptures.
The Koran is not unique. The Bible has similar gruesome and barbaric practices – particularly the Old Testament. There are instructions and sanctions for dashing babies heads against rocks, taking an eye for an eye and worse. Throughout history fundamentalists have focussed on the parts they wish to emphasise to sanction inquisitions, pogroms, crusades and the torture and burning alive of innocent people who simple disagreed.
Of course in the modern age where it is not considered polite to smash your next door neighbours baby’s brains out because they follow a different faith there has been a tendency for religious instruction to follow the ‘nicer’ texts. We are taught to love our neighbour, share our fish and turn the other cheek.
The hypocrisy, contradiction, blood, fire and intolerance is glossed over. But it is there.
These religious texts come from primitive cultures where misogyny, violence and retribution were the order of the day. They are seeped in it. It permeates the doctrine. When ever an extreme fundamental cult comes along they unearth the texts that support their doctrine and apply the dogma.
In Europe we had to fight for the enlightenment. It brought an end to centuries of religious tyranny with all its viciousness and augured a new age of science. We threw off the shackles of theocracy and separated politics from religion. It enabled a flourishing of science that has created all the wonders of the modern world from electricity to space exploration.
Without the enlightenment we would still be in the Dark Ages. Our women would be walking around in veils and we’d likely be riding about on horses. Now perhaps there is something to be said for that kind of society we see vestiges of in America with the Amish culture. They live happily without electricity, cars and modern conveniences. They wear quaint medieval costume.
Personally I’d prefer the choice and like my car, electricity and music.
ISIS, and other religious fundamentalist groups of all religions, are merely feeding off the sections of their doctrine that sanction their actions and justify their desires. They really wish to take the whole world back to the time of Mohamed, Jesus or Krishna and force everyone to live in that medieval culture described in those texts.
The problem as I see it lies in the basis of those religions. They were devised by men in a culture that was primitive and unpleasant. I do not subscribe to those values. I consider them flawed.
I wish to live in a world that has equality, tolerance, peace, freedom, respect, responsibility, justice, love and friendliness as its core values. I place caring, compassion and empathy as higher values, not just for people but all life and the planet. I value debate, differences and argument and deplore violence, hatred and cruelty.
That is why, without entering into any esoteric discussion regarding god, I reject all religion. As far as I am concerned all religions are outmoded, flawed and supporting a culture I despise.
The world has moved on and human beings, while still showing a great propensity for hatred, violence and callous cruelty, are a lot more civilised than we used to be. I would hate to see religion undo that.
You know, if I was asked what faith I subscribe to I would have a hard time putting a label on it. I happen to agree with you. And it has pissed my best friend off at me on certain occasions. I believe the Bible is a library. And I believe it is all cultural and doesn’t apply in most situations to our culture today (which is why religion, per se, is irrelevant). BUT, I do believe that Jesus was a master psychologist whose principles would make this a better world if we could only bring our lazy butts to follow them and stop obsessing on our baser instincts. I don’t believe there’s much hope for that, however. I often think our tendency is to put ourselves at the center of everyone else’s world. And if we’re not, we get angry and sometimes violent.
You are absolutely right. The problem with religion is removing the cultural baggage from the helpful views. If we regarded Jesus as a wise individual instead of a divinity we might be able to glean a lot from what he said. It is the people who take every word as literal and try to force their views on everyone else who terrify me. The world they are trying to create looks like a nightmare to me. Nice to hear from you – cheers – Opher
Very powerful post. I don’t dip into religion and politics on my blog because it can be such touchy topics, but I’m glad to see you speaking your thoughts out about it. I use to struggle a lot with religion when I was younger. I was told to believe in God, but no one told me what believing in him would do for me. I am now an atheist, and am content with being one.
Thanks for your comments. The main purpose of having a blog for me was to speak my mind. It is cathartic and I like to communicate. At least if we express what we feel we can affect things. We add to a zeitgeist. As an antitheist I find all this religious fundamentalism very primitive and worrying. The power of indoctrination astounds me. Cheers – Opher
I’m from middle east, and religion mixed with ignorance can be very dangerous. We are in 2015, and there are religious baboons like ISIS still exist in our world
I like baboons. They are interesting. They can be dangerous though. ISIS are a hideous throwback. Religion is a terrible drug – people who are drunk on its power think they are right, everybody else is wrong and God sanctions everything they do. They are blind fools. They do the most hideous things. I cannot believe they have faith is any god that evil.
As Karl Marx said: religion is the opium of the masses
If it were opium all this ODing would have sorted the problem!
Hi Opher,,
I get what you’re saying but …
You’re way too generous and hopeful and all the things we should be, but I differ and am knee-deep in the reality of it all and the realisation that we have to do something radical, too.
Ref paragraph 7 – I think that should be “tried” to throw off the shackles of theocracy and “completely failed” to separate politics from religion. Messrs Blair & Bush did their very best in destroying all development in these areas and we’ll be living with such consequences for decades to come. Also I’m fairly sure that Islam is politics, as there does not exist one without the other in any Islamic country.
I’m also sure you didn’t fail to notice the USA government sucking up to the pope recently.
We’re going around in circles with one arm fencing off organised religion, whilst the other shakes it’s hand.
Ref the Amish – I think the viewpoint that they “live happily” is rather misguided given the numbers of their youth faction doing a runner as soon as able, particularly their young women folk, and it’s got nothing to do with the quaint medieval costume and a lot more to do with forced sex and marriage to a bloke from whom you need permission to speak to. Despite them being a spot in the ocean in terms of numbers, I can’t think of anything to be said for them.
I had said to friends some 5 years ago that Germany will be the first European country to revolt and it’s very much looking that way today, with France possibly a close 2nd. Unfortunately in UK, we’ve got far too many wooly-mouthed left-wing moochers (Guardian reader types – I jest, but you know what I mean) and most of them are very good at the act of inertia. It would be very easy to smash the rise of Islam in UK, but for some reason the softly-softly approach is being engaged and this is very much a political decision.
I’m fairly certain we’ll see some action from the streets if there is indeed another co-ordinated attack – and as some reports presume, it will be much greater and widespread than those previous.
Why do governments and the press always underestimate People Power! Thatcher did so with attempts at the Poll Tax and look what happened. I’m not actually a Thatcher-hater, she did do some good stuff – the Falklands conflict was a necessity and the decision to close down these filthy mines was an excellent one. And in defence of that I’d ask how many 45 year old men are today dying from Pneumoconiosis?
A couple of days ago, a BBC news report had a couple of Jewish men (normal blokes, not Jesuits with the black suits, hat and ringlets) whom were expressing their fears with living here in London.
Perhaps this is asking too much, but how about them just asking any citizen anywhere in UK (within reason) and they’d get the same answer.
Christianity in UK has (thankfully as far as I’m concerned) lost it’s grip with numbers of followers dwindling down to about 10% – according to official statistics – which are usually total BS – so it’s probably less than 10. This figure still greatly outnumbers those of the Islamic faith, however, numbers of isn’t the issue.
Whilst I can completely agree with your wish list, you can never attain this with Islam breathing down your neck.
It is the single most dangerous scourge in our society, and their crazed radicals make the IRA look like part-time postmen.
I want to be hearing a hell of a lot more about what their community leaders and so-called mullah’s are doing to smash this nonsense out of their stupid youths, those intent on carnage against us.
Alas, not even the Guardian can report such promise.
We’ve had smidgen’s of info stating that good works are being done in this area, but nothing cohesive or in black and white has so far emerged. Therefore, safe to assume this is all just yet more BS.
Nothing will stop the rapid rise of Islam in the west, except brute force. Again.
Hmmm. I share some of your concern. I am exceptionally concerned with the Madrassas and huge indoctrination of young children. I am also concerned with the intolerance and violence of Islam. It is hard to be tolerant of anyone who wishes to destroy your culture and force you to follow their doctrine. I am greatly concerned that the whole Islamic moderate community doesn’t rise up and shout their disgust at the barbarism and savagery being carried out in their name. However, as a pacifist I always think violence is a very last resort. I do not advocate it. To me acts of violence create martyrs, fury and traumatised people full of hate.
Before all the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan I used to have Islamic friends who were very westernised. Not we seem to have created a harder fundamentalist attitude.
I think there are lots of things we can do to counter this threat. We could address all the nonsense of religious schools, the indoctrination of children and fully integrate people into values of tolerance, freedom, compassion, respect and empathy. We could look at burqas and start a debate.
We can start looking at all religion being fantasy and dispel notions of Allah and God; counter the idea that Korans, Bibles, Torahs and Bahagavad Gitas and any other text is the word of god; start discussing where these ideas of heaven, hell, paradise came from. If people did not believe this medieval story they might not be so keen on blowing themselves up.
Unfortunately I think it will all come to a head and result in huge turmoil and death.
Thanks for contributing Andy.
Reblogged this on Opher's World and commented:
ISIS have not gone away. Fundamentalist doctrines in all religions are an evil. To take literally the words written by archaic people thousands of years ago is madness. We have moved on. We have far better sensibilities now.
Reblogged this on Words To Captivate ~ by John Fioravanti and commented:
Opher Goodwin explains his views about religion and the reasons for these views. It is an important and interesting read. Please share…
My turn to thank you for the reblog and kind words.
You’re most welcome, Opher.
I agree with your position here, Opher. I believe we have outgrown religion and the world would be better off if they disappeared. Having said that, I have friends and family who are devoutly religious and I respect their right to worship as they choose. I don’t discuss religion with them except to say I am a heretic and am proud of it. Well said, good sir!
I also practice that tolerance towards people who hold faith – unless they are fundamentalists, indoctrinate children or argue for paedophilia, intolerance, rape, slavery or violence. Faith is a personal thing and it should not be imposed on others.
Religious parents will always teach their children in the ways of their faith. There’s no way to prevent that.
Yes John but we do not have to condone indoctrination by allowing Faith Schools and Madrassas.