Organized Religion

Throughout history, people have sought religion as a way to find purpose and direction in their lives.  On the surface, turning to religion can seem like a much better alternative than a Godless and lonely existence.  For many, this is absolutely true.  And the majority of good people who choose this path are some of the best people you'l ever meet.  But for others, it's a different story.  Does organized religion truly offer the brightest path to follow in this existence?  Should we seek to live our lives according to the belief structures set out in Christianity's Bible or the Islam Quran?  Lets look at what has happened historically as a result of doing just that.

Throughout history, and in the name of religion, Christianity has killed roughly 6 million people:

• 4 million during the French Wars of Religion: 1562-1598
• 1.5 million killed during the Crusades to the Holy Land: 1095-1291
• 17,500 killed during various Christian Inquisitions: 1184-1860

Sound like a lot?  It is, but it doesn't compare to Islam, which accounts for more than 15 million:

• 12 million during the Panthay Rebellion in China: 1855-1877
• 3 million in the Bangladesh atrocities: 1971
• 3,000 in the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York: 2001

The real "winner" is an organized religion that insists there is no God.  Atheists have killed about 67 million:

• 10 million in Holodomor: 1932-1933
• 11 million during the Nazi genocides: 1941-1945
• 43 million in the Great Leap Forward famine: 1959-1962
• 3 million in the Khmer Rogue Repression: 1975-1979

Without even accounting for all historical killings, we already have a total of 88 million people killed in the name of someone's religion or God.  Of course, these stats are completely dwarfed in comparison to Democide (death by government), which has killed about 262 million people in the last century alone, but that is a side point.

If I was going by the numbers alone, I would avoid organized religion as though it were the city of Detroit.  But I know lots of people out there can easily dismiss cold hard numbers, so I decided to break out my Bible.  Here are a few of the hundreds of verses and stories I came across:

"Now Cain said to his brother Abel, 'Let's go out to the field.'  And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him [because God liked Abel's animal sacrifice more than Cain's vegetables]." -Genesis 4:8

"Every living substance that I have made will I destroy." -Genesis 7:4

"That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and lay with him.  He was not aware of it when she law down or when she got up.  The next day the older daughter said to the younger, 'Last night I lay with my father.  Let's get him to drink wine again tonight, and you go in and lie with him so we can preserve our family line through our father.'" Genesis 19:33-34

Because King Abimelech believed Abraham's lie that Sarah was his sister, and before he ever touches her, God comes to Abimelech and threatens to kill him and all his people.  To make penance for the crime he never committed, Abimelech is made to give sheep, oxen, slaves, silver, and land to Abraham. -Genesis 20:3-18

"But among the Israelites not a dog will bark at any man or animal.  Then you will know that the Lord makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel." -Exodus 11:7

"You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you." -Leviticus 26 (Reward for Obedience):7-8

"They (men, wives, and children) went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned: the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community [for questioning God]." -Numbers 16:33

"Now kill all the boys.  And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man." Numbers 31:17-18

"And when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally.  Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy." Deuteronomy 7:2

"But those enemies of mine who did not want me to be king over them - bring them here and kill them in front of me." Luke 19:27

"For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight." Ephesians 1:4

Most religious texts teach a lot of the same lessons seen in the above verses.  Looking through these, it makes sense that 88+ million people have been killed in the name of religion.  Christianity alone seems to condone (or at least not condemn) merciless murder, mass genocide, incest, slavery, dishonesty, extortion, division, rape, intolerance, a lack of personal responsibility,  and above all, unquestioning obedience.

Given the above, I would argue that organized religion has been used by those in power as a way to maintain a complacent and obedient population while they commit atrocities.  More recently, it seems religion is no longer adequate to maintain control, which is why the propaganda machine that is the mainstream media has stepped up to the plate.

The biggest mistake in Human history was to take God and Spirituality and build religious belief structures around them.  Hundreds of millions of people have died and killed "in the name of God."  People should be decent human beings because it's the right thing to do, not because they live in constant fear of purgatory if they do not.

It's time to remove the shackles of organized religion and wean yourself from the mainstream propaganda machine.  It's time to start thinking for yourself, accepting personal responsibility, and asking your own questions.

Rufus: "Are you saying you believe?"
Bethany: "No. But I have a good idea." -Dogma