Evil Religions

Religions which can be defined as the unholy legacy of Abraham, whose holy books are the Torah, Bible and Koran, are truly evil religions. They teach us that:

This short essay will discuss the proofs for these statements. As is polite and appropriate, I will begin with women first.

God hates women!

The texts of the Torah, Bible and Koran all propagate discrimination of women, degradation and subjugation of women, and even violence against women! In other words, the texts of these "holy books" systematically ensure a second-class status for one half of the world population - women! And all these things are forced upon us by a "loving God", and the prophets of this very same "loving God".

I am a man, and glad of it, when I think of what many women must endure in the name of these religions derived from these "holy books" which sanctify discrimination, degradation, and violence against women. Such discrimination is astounding! It is a shameless and horrid waste of human potential, and utterly revolting treatment of one half of the world population, who by virtue of their birth as women are relegated by the Torah, Bible and Koran to the level of subservient serfdom to men - who are not one whit more intelligent or better - just different.

Many people might say that sanctified subjugation of women, discrimination of women, and violence against women are things of the past. They are wrong! These things are alive and well today, and are becoming ever more common with the current increasing worldwide tendency towards religious fundamentalism. So let us examine how the texts of these perfidious books, and the evil religions derived from them, give rise to institutionalized and sanctified misogyny (this article is a supplement to the extensive chapter on "Holy Misogyny" in The Unholy Legacy of Abraham).

Violence against women

Jews, Christians, and Muslims all berate women for causing humanity to be driven out of paradise. As a result of the original sin of the first woman, people lost the gift of immortality, had to work hard to find food, and were no longer blessed by a direct interaction with God (Torah and Bible, Genesis, chapter 3). The fault of this first and original sin rests heavily upon the shoulders of womankind, justifying all manner of religion-justified nastiness directed against them. And so it is that while women are considered as friendly little creatures, they are nonetheless regarded with fear by men. Indeed, the Torah and Bible tell us, that while they may be useful to have about the house for fun, childbearing, cooking, and cleaning, they are also loathsome little creatures who try dragging men, (who are by implication holy and pure by nature), into the filthy pit of hell with them.

Many are the victims she has brought down; her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death. (Bible, Proverbs 7:26-27)

Women are considered by this verse as sinful, and many other other verses in the Torah and Bible also tell us that women are also unclean, such as this example:

Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not. And doth thou open thine eyes upon such an one, and bringest me into judgment with thee? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one. (Bible, Job 14:1-4)

In other words, humans are doomed to die because they are born out of unclean women! Original sin, inherent sinfulness, and uncleanliness are all used as justification for the atrocities perpetrated upon women throughout history. The evil religions founded upon the Torah and Bible are replete with examples.

In the book of Deuteronomy in the enlightened Christian Bible, as well as in the old Jewish Torah, God gave Moses clear instructions as to when his followers could rape their female captives after slaughtering their families …

When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the LORD thy God hath delivered them into thine hands, and thou hast taken them captive, And seest among the captives a beautiful woman, and hast a desire unto her, that thou wouldest have her to thy wife; Then thou shalt bring her home to thine house, and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails; And she shall put the raiment of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in thine house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and be her husband, and she shall be thy wife. And it shall be, if thou have no delight in her, then thou shalt let her go whither she will; but thou shalt not sell her at all for money, thou shalt not make merchandise of her, because thou hast humbled her. (Bible, Deuteronomy 21:10-14)

As if this were not enough, the God of the Jews and the Christians also sanctions killing infants and ripping open pregnant women during wars.

Samaria shall bear her guilt; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword; their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up. (Bible, Hosea 13:16)

Horrible, horrible. And to think that these are the everlasting laws of an eternal God, meant to be applied for all eternity! Religions with such instructions are truly evil religions! The Koran is not one bit better, telling the blessed followers of Islam that women are inferior to men, and require punishment for even suspected disobedience ...

Men are in charge of women, because Allah has made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah has guarded. As for those from whom you fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High Exalted, Great. (Koran 4:34)

This verse in the Koran has done more than any other to justify Islamic discrimination of women, their inferior position, as well as violence against women. Mohammed himself knew as no other how to manage women, telling his followers to treat their women "kindly".

Narrated Abdullah bin Zam'a: The Prophet said, "None of you should flog his wife as he flogs a slave and then have sexual intercourse with her in the last part of the day." (Sunnah of Bukhari 62:132)

This is true evidence of divine inspiration of the last and best prophet of God! I am sure many generations of women have wept tears of joy and gratitude for this, among all the other clear proofs of "God's love" and "care" for women …

The situation of women in many fundamentalist communities, be they Jewish, Christian, or Islamic, has not changed from what is evident in these passages. Read more about similar topics in the The Unholy Legacy of Abraham. And the women living in such communities are still subject to the systems of thought originating from insane passages like these in the Torah, Bible and Koran.

Discrimination of women, and subjugation of women

The Torah, Bible and Koran promote discrimination of women. The evil religions derived from these holy texts justify female discrimination from these very texts. The Koran passage cited above (Koran 4:34) is one of the most perfidious and influential texts for subjugation of women in Islam. You can read more about these things in The Unholy Legacy of Abraham. However the Jews and Christians are no better. Many passages in the Torah and the Bible teach us that women are not only inferior, but also must obey men, because God tells us that men are their masters.

Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. (Bible, Genesis 3:16)

And if anyone thinks this ruling was abrogated by Jesus or his disciples, then think again. For we read that the holy Saint Paul himself said:

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. (Bible, Ephesians 5:22-24)

Ah, say many people but these are ancient laws that are no longer applied. My reply to this nonsense is very simple. These same people, Jews, Christians and Muslims, all claim their God is eternal, and that the laws of God are not temporary measures, but equally eternal, applying to all peoples for all ages (see The Unholy Legacy of Abraham). So do we see instances of this in modern countries? Yes indeed, is the sad answer. In the modern, almost totally agnostic country of the Netherlands, a fundamentalist Christian party called the SGP (Staatkundige Gereformeerde Partij) refuses to allow women party members to become members of parliament representing the SGP (read article on this subject), justifying this policy with the same eternal statements of God telling mankind that women are inferior to men.

This brings us to another fascinating example wondrous discrimination in the Torah and Bible - the stoning of girls who are not virgins on their wedding night …

The girl's father will say to the elders, "I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her. Now he has slandered her and said, 'I did not find your daughter to be a virgin.' But here is the proof of my daughter's virginity." Then her parents shall display the cloth before the elders of the town, and the elders shall take the man and punish him. They shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver [a] and give them to the girl's father, because this man has given an Israelite virgin a bad name. She shall continue to be his wife; he must not divorce her as long as he lives. If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the girl's virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father's house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done a disgraceful thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father's house. You must purge the evil from among you. (Bible, Deuteronomy 22:16-21)

Oh? And what about men who are not virgins on their wedding night? Why are only women stoned for not being virgins on their wedding night, and not men? Nowhere in the Torah or the Bible does God talk of punishing men for not being virgins on their wedding night - God only tells us in these books that women must be punished. This is but one extreme example of the many, many instances of discrimination of women in the texts of the Torah and Bible. We see other examples of such belief systems in present day rules for acceptable clothing in fundamentalist religious communities. So are women permitted by God to wear pants? In the Torah and Bible we read that:

The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God. (Bible, Deuteronomy 22:5)

The holy texts of Islam express a similar belief.

Narrated Ibn 'Abbas: Allah's Apostle cursed those men who are in the similitude (assume the manners) of women and those women who are in the similitude (assume the manners) of men. (Sunnah of Bukhari 72:773)

We read in the South African newspapers in the year 2007 CE, that women who dare to wear pants in some parts of Durban are stripped to their underwear or naked, beaten, and their houses burnt. All this for just daring to wear pants (read the newspaper report of this incident).

During 2007 CE in Pakistan a fanatical fundamentalist gunman killed a female politician for violating the Islamic dress code (read the newspaper report of this incident).

During 2002 CE a fire broke out in a large girl's school in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The Religious police prevented girls who were improperly dressed, (according to the Islamic dress code), from leaving the burning school. The result was that 14 girls burned to death because they were improperly dressed according to the religious police, who actively prevented the fire brigade and police from helping these unfortunate girls. Shame! Unspeakable! Such monsters are no more than unspeakable instruments of a truly evil religion (read the true report of this "incident").

Joan of Arc was a French national heroine (1412-1431 CE). After leading the French armies against the English, she was finally betrayed, and captured by the English who promptly let her be tried by a religious court. The main, and provable charge levied against her was that she wore men's clothing. Accordingly, she was burnt at the stake for the heresy of wearing trousers, which proved she was a heretic, which proved that her statements about hearing voices from the Christian saints and God were also vile heresies (see the whole story in The Unholy Legacy of Abraham). So who says Jesus did away with the old laws of Moses? In the Bible-belts of the USA and the Netherlands, many women still do not wear, or are not permitted to wear pants or trousers because of this passage in the Torah and Bible (Bible, Deuteronomy 22:5).

These are but some of the many totally insane rules used to justify discrimination of women, as well as the subjugation of women. The list and examples of all these things is as horrid as it is long. Judaism, Christianity and Islam are evil religions whose holy texts, the Torah, Bible and Koran, have perverted what otherwise would have been grand and uplifting philosophies into vile instruments of oppression of one half of the people unfortunate enough to come under their influence - women. The only conclusion able to be drawn from all this is that God hates everyone!

God hates everyone!

The evil religions called Judaism, Christianity, and Islam also violently discourage all free and critical thought. For example, the Jewish Torah clearly states that that fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.

The fear of Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all they that do his commandments: His praise endureth for ever. (Bible, Psalms 111:10)

And as if that were not enough, those who are not terrified enough to slavishly carry out every law, wish, and whim of this same so-called loving and merciful Jehovah or God must be killed.

And they entered into the covenant to seek Jehovah, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul; and that whosoever would not seek Jehovah, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. And they sware unto Jehovah with a loud voice, and with shouting, and with trumpets, and with cornets. And all Judah rejoiced at the oath; for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire; and he was found of them: and Jehovah gave them rest round about. (Bible, 2 Chronicles 15:12-15)

The logical conclusion of this chain of thought is that killing apostates and unbelievers is a good and holy deed, presumably because God can begin torturing them in hell sooner than if they were allowed to die of old age. You can read all about these things and more in The Unholy Legacy of Abraham.

There is also the matter of deceit on the part of God, because God admits to deceiving individual Jews and non-Jews alike, even to deceiving whole populations of Jews and non-Jewish peoples.

O Jehovah, why dost thou make us to err from thy ways, and hardenest our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance. (Bible, Isaiah 63:17)

Then this same deceitful and so-called merciful God of the Jews tells of punishing those he deceives, Jews and non-Jews alike! This doesn't seem to me like the way a loving God treats his chosen people, and is certainly a very unpleasant God for those who are not Jewish. So much for the loving nature of the God of the Jews.

Then there is the God of Christianity, which also happens to be the same God as that of the Jews, but with the one true and improved message of God - at least according to the Christians. Yet when you look at the mercy displayed by this God, you find absolutely no difference to that displayed by the God of the Jews. This is not at all surprising, because the God of the Jews is the same eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-pervading God of the Christians. So you would not expect to find any significant differences in the behaviour of this God between these two religions. You can read the proof of this in the New Testament. To begin with, Jesus and the prophets of Christianity all profess the reality of predestination (Bible, Acts 13:45, Romans 8:29-30). Then this merciful God threatens all manner of dire punishments for heinous crimes such as intellectual freedom, freedom of thought, and criticism: all of which were predestined by God anyway!

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh (for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds), casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ; and being in readiness to avenge all disobedience, when your obedience shall be made full. (Bible, 2 Corinthians 10:3-6)

In other words, because all these things were predestined, God was the originator of the very sins and disobedience that God avenges! There is one difference though, people who stray from the true religion of Christianity, or whom were not Christian at all were never punished on earth. Instead, God and Jesus promise everlasting vengeance and torment in the fires of hell during an eternal life after death.

He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned. (Bible, Mark 16:16)

All these texts mean that if you're not a baptized Christian you're doomed to go to the eternal fires of hell. In other words, the followers of Christianity say the same about sinners and the followers of Judaism as the Jews say about the Christians. So the Torah and Bible are horrid religious texts of truly evil religions! To make matters worse, the Christian God also deceives the wicked, deluding them to make sure they stay wicked, so that they may be punished with eternal torment in hell!

And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (Bible, 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12)

Now this God claims to be a God of mercy and love. So why doesn't this God try to save the evil and the sinners from themselves? Instead, this spiteful God of an equally evil religion apparently spares no effort to ensure their eternal damnation by sending them delusions to make sure they continue their evil ways! God's arrogance and lust for earthly glory and power is revealed by another passage where God tells the prophets that it is God who determines what happens to the souls of people after death - telling us in no uncertain terms that it does not matter how people think, how they speak, or how they act - God determines their fate in a life after death. God even tells us that some people are specially created so that they can function as bad examples.

Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why didst thou make me thus? Or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one part a vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he afore prepared unto glory, … (Bible, Romans 9:20-23)

So not only does God ensure the eternal damnation of many people, but God also actually creates people whose function is to live lives of sinful wickedness and evil, and who are automatically doomed to eternal torment in a life after death so they can function as examples revealing the "glory of God"! When you read passages like this you realize that this eternal, all-powerful, all-knowing and all-pervading God has some decidedly strange and even human traits: such as a lust for human recognition of the power of God, a refusal to accept other points of view, and a very malignant lust for vengeance. Only one conclusion is possible - Judaism and Christianity are truly evil religions!

This brings us to the situation of Islam. Allah, or God, is the same eternal, all-pervading, all-powerful, and all-knowing God as is worshipped by the Jews and the Christians. The followers of Islam claim the revelations of God through the prophet Mohammed are the final and true revelations of God, even though this same claim was also made by the Jews and the Christians many centuries before the birth of Mohammed. Who knows which of these three religions is correct? In any case, Islam also propounds the philosophy of predestination, and Islam also requires the death of apostates, and says that all who are not believers in Islam are destined to suffer the horrors of everlasting torment in hell. In other words, Islam is as fundamentally intolerant of other religions as are Judaism and Christianity. No real difference there at all. Furthermore, just as in Judaism and Christianity, the God of Islam also leads people astray so that they can later undergo ghastly torments in hell for all eternity.

And We never sent a messenger save with the language of his folk, that he might make (the message) clear for them. Then Allah sendeth whom He will astray, and guideth whom He will. He is the Mighty, the Wise. (Koran 14:4)

In other words, Islam, Christianity and Judaism are all incredibly evil religions whose God is trying to get as many people as possible into hell where they may undergo indescribable torments for all eternity! This is proven by the texts of the Torah, Bible and Koran. The God of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, is one and the same God. All three religions propound the philosophy of predestination, so whether one is a Jew, a Christian, or a Muslim, is predestined. Yet this same "loving" God tells Muslims that Jews and Christians will all go to hell. This same "loving" God also tells Christians that Muslims and Jews will all go to hell. Finally, this same "loving God tells Jews that Muslims and Christians will all go to hell! This is proof that this malignant and deceiving God is trying to get as many people as possible into hell where they may be horribly tortured for all eternity! So God really does hate everyone! Read about all these things and more in The Unholy Legacy of Abraham.

What then? Alternatives to religion.

The evil inherent in all religions derived from holy texts such as the Torah, Bible and Koran is such that all normal thinking people should reject these evil religions out of hand. But what then? What philosophy is able to sustain people in life?

The answer is to be found in atheism and secular humanism. All agnostics and atheists reject the concept of sycophantic fawning and groveling before the imaginary God of the fundamentally evil religions propounded in the Torah, Bible and Koran. Instead they propose an enlightened philosophy of humanism. Humanism and secular humanism is a philosophy acknowledging that there is no proof for the existence or non-existence of God, but that humans certainly do exist, and accordingly places the human condition first.

Several humanist organizations have expressed the humanist creed very eloquently.

The American Humanists.

The Center for Inquiry International.

As the writer of this piece, I know that all humanist principles can be summarized in the three precepts underpinning my being, and their consequences as expressed in the end of chapter 18 of the book "Mortal Minds".

1. There is no life before birth, and there is no life after death. Life and consciousness exist only between birth and death.
2. Life and mind have a biological basis, because each person is a biological mechanism formed and sustained by food, water, and air. Accordingly, all thoughts, emotions, sensations, perceptions, speech, actions, and experiences are rooted in the biological nature of the body.
3. Each person is immortal, because of the fact of their existence, the effects of their existence, and the memories they leave behind them.

To understand these three precepts is to know the basis of my individual being. So I celebrate and honour my body, thoughts, senses, emotions, and desires. All these things make me a unique individual, because I am the sum of all these things. This understanding gives me freedom. Indeed, true freedom comes from an understanding of the knowledge revealed in this book. This knowledge frees me from the tyranny of repeated reincarnations in a succession of bodies: for I have no soul, so I cannot be reincarnated in a succession of mortal bodies. This knowledge frees me from all fear of the drear horror of an eternal life after death as threatened by all evil religions: for I have no soul, so there is no life after death. This knowledge frees me from the necessity to conduct my life in the expectation of eternal punishment or reward in a life after death: for I have no soul, so I will undergo no punishment or reward in a life after death. This knowledge frees me from the toils of religions, religious dogmas, and religious fanaticism: for I have no soul, so I am free of any enslavement to expectations of reward or punishment in a life after death as determined by religion, religious dogma, or religious fanatics. This knowledge frees me from mental enslavement to my fellows: for I know they are as mortal as I am, and are driven by the same emotions, lusts, and desires. This knowledge frees me from uncertainty as to my place in this universe: for by explaining the nature and meaning of my life and death, this knowledge clarifies my relationship to the universe. This knowledge frees my thoughts, because I now have a more complete understanding of my own nature and my being.

Yet this does not mean Friedrich Nietzsche was correct when he wrote, "All gods are dead!" The gods are far from dead. I cannot prove the reality, or the non-existence of a God, or of many gods. Who knows, there may be a God, there may even be many gods. The idea of a God, or of many gods, may be no more than a phantasm born of a desire for parental protection and comfort in a harsh, and otherwise seemingly empty universe. But I cannot prove this. I can only believe or not believe. Either I live in a universe together with a God, or many gods, or I live in a universe in which there is only a belief in a God, or many gods. Nonetheless, these possible realities are irrelevant to me, because I have no soul, and this single fact frees me from the fetters of the gods. So the gods are not dead, instead, the gods are irrelevant! No gods determine my destiny. I am the master of my own destiny.

I know I am a product of my upbringing, the functioning of my body, and my interactions with the world. I know I will eventually die. I know that upon my death I will pass from a state of conscious awareness into a state of nothingness and bodily dissolution. I hope that those who survive me will treat my remains with respect, that they will remember me, and honour my achievements. Yet, even though my consciousness will cease upon my death, and even though my body will decay into its component elements, I am alive now, and my existence is forever imprinted upon the fabric of the universe. This means I am alive now and forever. I am immortal!

The workings of my body and the universe teach me these things. I accept this knowledge and am content.