all 9 comments

[–]3andfro 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Does anyone really want to start a battle of warring holy books across religions, with the most extreme content written in earlier times held up with the suggestion that's what the bulk of modern practitioners believe and follow?

[–]Maniak🥃😾[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Obviously it doesn't mean that this one is bad and others are good. They're all bad. And just as obviously it's not what the bulk of modern practitioners follow, because fortunately the vast majority of people don't use those things as a morality guide.

Those who do, however, end up doing what's they're doing now in Palestine, and pointing out what those people use as justification seems relevant right about now.

There are other just as shitty people doing just as shitty things using other just as shitty religions, but the genocide going on right now is related to this one, so it's the one getting highlighted.

[–]3andfro 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I can go with that. What I can't support is any version of "my god's better than your god." There's no shortage of atrocities committed in the name of religions and against people because of religion, theirs or someone else's. Extremism and fanaticism on any topic are dangerous. When they involve religions, they don't--can't--allow for tolerance or reason because each side believes its deity is the one true god and must prevail. What ensues then becomes a fight to the death. More and more, though, what's happening in Israel and Gaza looks like a resource war.

Every time I think we, as a species, must by now be able to rise above that baseness and irrationality, I'm reminded that religious brainwashing is one of the most common smokescreens for the underlying linked causes of large-scale human aggression: power, resources, and profit.

[–]MeganDelacroix🤡🌎 detainee 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

Most people on this forum think it's very cool and edgy to attack Judaism and Christianity, while studiously avoiding any criticism of certain other religions. Either because they fetishize brown skin just like the shitlibs they otherwise deride, or because in certain cases there's a nonzero chance your edge will get your head cut off.

Well, you might only lose an eye, I suppose.

[–]CaelianPost No Toasties 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Speaking of lesser-known one-eyed gods, one of my favorite works is A Night at an Inn (1916), a one-act play by the inventive Lord Dunsany.

Even the cast of characters brings a chill:

A. E. Scott-Fortesque (The Toff), a dilapidated gentleman
William Jones (Bill), Albert Thomas, Jacob Smith (Sniggers), merchant sailors
First Priest of Klesh
Second Priest of Klesh
Third Priest of Klesh
Klesh

Available at Gutenberg

[–]Maniak🥃😾[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Next in thread:

Slaughter every man, woman, and child for worshipping the wrong god, but keep the virginal young girls to rape.

Rip open pregnant women. Kill babies by smashing their heads on the ground.

Again, for basically not being Jewish.

This is starting to sound very familiar.

It's fine to slaughter people who are "at peace and secure" if you need a place to live.

Other translations say "quiet and unsuspecting", or "quiet and trusting".

Again, this is sounding very familiar.

Rape, genocide, theft, and the slaughter of babies is OK if the people you're doing it to don't worship your god in the right way.

This is starting to sound like a Zionist instruction manual.

Murder any mixed-race couple to keep the Israeli bloodlines pure, and God will reward you handsomely.

Burning your own daughter to death is just fine if it's a sacrifice to your god.

Anyone not worshipping Yahweh properly should be forced to eat their own children.

Women who get too uppity should be raped.

Another one advocating sexual assault as a way to keep uppity women in line.

Be happy and celebrate bashing babies' heads on rocks.

Disobedient children should be killed.

Any woman who has sex outside of marriage must be stoned to death.

So this kinda sounds like the blueprint for what you terrorists are doing to Gaza right now.

Any thoughts?

Oh, and many of these images come from Dan Barker's article on the worst bits of the OT.

[–]sdl5 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

This also bears striking similarity to the more extreme takes in Islam...

No surprise though- Mohammed was instructed on religion by the local merchants, who were Jewish.

[–]CaelianPost No Toasties 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Yikes!

That's really awful. But so is the Malleus Maleficarum a 15th Century manual written by two Catholic inquisitors on how to identify and dispatch witches.

"Blimey, I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!"

The Malleus Maleficarum is featured in the superb 1922 Swedish documentary Häxan (The Witch), with excellent reenactments of Medieval witch inquisition, and its similarity to modern treatment of female "hysteria".

[–]Maniak🥃😾[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Makes sense, given what they were starting from and what they themselves were :)