The 12 worst ideas religion has unleashed on the world

Some of humanity’s technological innovations are things we would have been better off without: the medieval rack, the atomic bomb and powdered lead potions come to mind. Religions tend to invent ideas or concepts rather than technologies, but like every other creative human enterprise, they produce some really bad ones along with the good.

I’ve previously highlighted some of humanity’s best moral and spiritual concepts, our shared moral core. Here, by way of contrast, are some of the worst. These twelve dubious concepts promote conflict, cruelty, suffering and death rather than love and peace. To paraphrase Christopher Hitchens, they belong in the dustbin of history just as soon as we can get them there.

1. Chosen People –The term “Chosen People” typically refers to the Hebrew Bible and the ugly idea that God has given certain tribes a Promised Land (even though it is already occupied by other people). But in reality many sects endorse some version of this concept. The New Testament identifies Christians as the chosen ones. Calvinists talk about “God’s elect,” believing that they themselves are the special few who were chosen before the beginning of time. Jehovah’s witnesses believe that 144,000 souls will get a special place in the afterlife. In many cultures certain privileged and powerful bloodlines were thought to be descended directly from gods (in contrast to everyone else).

Religious sects are inherently tribal and divisive because they compete by making mutually exclusive truth claims and by promising blessings or afterlife rewards that no competing sect can offer. “Gang symbols” like special haircuts, attire, hand signals and jargon differentiate insiders from outsiders and subtly (or not so subtly) convey to both that insiders are inherently superior.

Heretics, kafir, or infidels (to use the medieval Catholic term) are not just outsiders,

Typical atheist sophistry, which depends upon lumping all religions together and or refusing to see the positive aspects of Biblical principals, while ignoring the beam that is in the eye of atheism and liberals regarding the faults Valerie finds.

1. Chosen People...convey to both that insiders are inherently superior: This is a necessary objection coming an atheists (brites) and or liberals since they are the ones who see themselves as the elite, who have all the answers, and tend toward dictatorships.

But in the Bible being the Chosen People did not mean you were inherently superior, though they many wrongly thought they were, but just the opposite. For God chose to reveal Himself to Israel and thus through them to the world not de to any inherent superiority them but due to His promise to faithful Abraham. In contrast, Moses testified to them, “Ye have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.” (Deuteronomy 9:24) And who were enjoined to care for strangers, since they had been strangers in a foreign land, while the Lord says does not favor those who exalt themselves, but looks to those who are of a poor and contrite spirit who reverence the word of God. (Is 66:2)

Likewise under the New Covenant, in which believers are reminded they were the children of disobedience, (Eph. 2:2) and have nothing which they did not receive, (1Co. 4:7) and that those who exalt themselves will be abased. (Lk. 18:14)

Thus the chosen people are chose not think they are inherently superior, and which never would have been chosen if they were, while God calls all mankind to be part of this people who are redeemed on His sacrificial expense and righteousness. (Jn. 3:16; Gal 2:20; Rm. 3:23-4:7ff)

Christianity blurs together the concepts of unbeliever and evildoer.

Rather, the Lord in the OT never warred against or destroyed a moral pagan culture, or merely because they were pagan. But immorality goes together with idolatry, and which peoples exampled what the Lord called believers not to do. Yet the NT affirms that Gentiles (unbelievers), which have not the law, can do by nature the things contained in the law,” (Romans 2:14) which leads them to Jesus Christ the righteous, whom good men seek, and Cornelius and household were such. (Acts 10)

Heretics, kafir, or infidels (to use the medieval Catholic term) are morally suspect and often seen as less than fully human....Those who don’t believe in a god are corrupt, doers of abominable deeds. “

As in other cases, Valerie's superficial theological understanding is showing, and even the Muslim source (they are often unreliable) she references states, “heretics and schismatics of divers confessions are not called infidels but non-Catholics....Infidels, on the contrary, are not members of the ecclesiastical society,.. they are entirely exempt from the canon law; they need to be enlightened and converted, not punished.

And it also contradicts her statement regarding their nature: “infidels are not excluded from the moral order; they can perform acts of natural virtue...(http://callingchristians.com/tag/why-do-muslims-use-the-word-infidel/)

Thus the atheist “brite” confuses pagans/heathen with heretics

Ultimately, heretics are a threat that needs to be neutralized by conversion, conquest, isolation, domination, or—in worst cases—mass murder.

Which means Valerie fails to hold the NT as the standard for what defines Christianity and instead uses the progressively fundamentally deformed church of Rome as that. Next she will have NT Christians ordaining a separate class of sacerdotal “priests,” praying to angels and a special class of believes in Heaven called “saints,” and looking to Peter as the first of a line of infallible popes reigning supreme in Rome.

And among other things, (peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/deformation_of_new_testament_church.html) using the sword of men to deal with theological dissidents, and creating theocracies and requiring RC rulers to exterminate the heretics or else be deposed, and sanctioning torture even of suspected witnesses.

None of which the NT church is seen doing or supporting, as the Lord stated “My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.” (John 18:36) Thus “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12) “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh...” (2 Corinthians 10:3)

Meanwhile, liberals have their own inquisitions, persecuting (economic sanctions etc.) conscientious Christians or companies who cannot support homosexual relations, or climate change paranoia etc.

2. Holy War. If war can be holy, anything goes. The medieval Roman Catholic Church..

Indeed, but the above applies here. And which early Protestants had to unlearn. Meanwhile, some evangelical groups have even gone to the other extreme toward pacifism.

Sunni and Shia Muslims have slaughtered each other for centuries.

Indeed, And he [Ishmael] will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren. (Genesis 16:12)

Yet while it should not have been the church of Rome raising armies, but someone had to stop them from taking over Europe.

The Hebrew scriptures recount battle after battle in which their war God, Yahweh, helps them to not only defeat but also exterminate the shepherding cultures that occupy their “Promised Land.”

“Shepherding cultures?” oh how quaint, when these were terminally wicked peoples whom the Author of Life finally stopped from replicating and spreading, while rescuing the innocent from being like them by taking them to Himself. But when God does not deal with such wickedness then atheists charge Him with neglect.

And unlike Islam, these conquests were restricted to those of certain localized tribal peoples and areas, and only was enjoined after God made it unmistakable supernaturally clear that He was real and was leading them, whom the Hebrews then choose to obey, versus a man having visions which he originally worried were from demons, and which later accommodated his needs. His kingdom was of this world, and thus its means.

Meanwhile, atheism fosters “political religion” as man will always worship something, and Google “atheism's body count” or its “holy” wars.

Blasphemy – Blasphemy is the notion that some ideas are inviolable, off limits to criticism, satire, debate, or even question.

Which certainly has been my overall experience with online atheists, who seem entirely unable or unwilling to engage in objective analysis that would even allow for the possibility of God, or their manifestly skewed contruance of Bible texts.

And it is even more the case with liberals, who have zero tolerance of anything that impugns the acceptance of homosexual relations as valid and to be promoted, or debate about the dire warnings of climate change.

The idea that blasphemy must be prevented or avenged has caused millions of murders over the centuries and countless other horrors.

For which she cannot find much in Scripture, as it did not enjoin killing idolators simply for theological reasons, but for their resultant immoral effects, though under Moses blasphemy within Israel was a capital crime. Which resulted in the crucifixion of Christ and NT Christianity, under which blasphemers were only dealt with by spiritual power. (1Tim. 1:20)

3. Glorified suffering... A core premise of Christianity is that righteous torture—if it’s just intense and prolonged enough–can somehow fix the damage done by evil, sinful behavior. Millions of crucifixes litter the world as testaments to this belief.

Thus this atheist rejects crime and punishment? Or is this another example of the unlearned wresting a scriptures, unto their own destruction? (2 Peter 3:16) Well, what seems reasonable to them can be justified.

That justice requires satisfaction for a crime is basic jurisprudence, so why disallow God from defining and engaging in it? The atonement of Christ did not “fix the damage done by evil” as meaning a corporate repristinated earth the moment He died, but it enabled forgiveness and reconciliation with God on His own expense and “credit,” enabling a better world via those who are more like Him, insofar as they are.

Self-denial in the form of asceticism and fasting is a part of both Eastern and Western religions, not only because deprivation induces altered states but also because people believe suffering somehow brings us closer to divinity.

The purpose of asceticism in Scripture is not to induce altered states, as meaning delusional, and instead abstaining from food or certain other things for a time can help clear the senses for better perception, as even secular people can attest. And suffering can help one feel the pain of others and help them better. But which is in contrast to the claimed of Anorexia mirabilis attributed to certain Cath.”saints.”

5, Genital mutilation... Infant circumcision in Judaism serves as a sign of tribal membership

And which is healthy, and signifies the heart.

(While the men lie incapacitated, the whole town is then slain by the Israelites.)

And which was due to dealing with a sister as with an harlot, but this response not commanded and was contrary to Israel/Jacob's desire. “Ye have troubled me to make me to stink among the inhabitants of the land...” (Gn. 34:30)

in some Muslim cultures cutting away or burning the female clitoris

Which is nowhere seen or commanded in the Bible.

6. Blood sacrifice... many believed that they were literally feeding supernatural beings.

Which is nowhere seen or commanded in the Bible.

The residual child sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible (yes it is there)

This one really gets the prize as an example of how desperate and or careless and or ignorant some atheists can be, though charging God with rape for the consensual and requested supernatural impregnation of Mary was quite creative by Valerie also. Here Valerie resorts to using a poor agenda-driven anti-Christ web site to confirm her assertion that child sacrifice is commanded in the Hebrew Bible, which cites Exodus 22:29-30, “the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me...“ but which is easily manifest to be an absolutely absurd understanding of this text.

Which text, among other things, has to do with the offering of the first born to God, but which even a cursory amount of cross referencing (which is a standard work in exegesis) would show that this refers dedicating the child to the service of God, as Hannah did — and the virgin Mary!

Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatsoever openeth the womb among the children of Israel, both of man and of beast: it is mine. (Exo 13:2)

And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord; (As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;) (Luk 2:22-23) And which could be redeemed. (Num_18:15-17)

And God's thoughts on the child sacrifice Valarie changes are, “And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.” (Jeremiah 32:35)

But some atheists seem to be all too willing to believe anything negative they can use against the God they are at war with.

Meanwhile, Christ maturely laid His life down freely, supporting His Father's will, in case someone wants to raise that. (Jn. 10:17,18)

7. Hell

It is not surprising Valerie would want to deny this, but in the atheistic construct there is no ultimate justice, despite their often objectively baseless self-righteous moralizing, and a Hitler or a Stalin will have the same end as the most moral, selfless, loving philanthropist.

But in God's economy, then there is both eternal life and eternal punishment, in contradistinction to each other, and with different degrees for both, relative to sins committed and in the light of benefits/abilities given, (Mt. 23:14) and with salvation being on God's expense, and the lost being those who did not want to obey the light they had, which would have led them to Christ. (Jn. 3:19-21; 12:34ff)

Meanwhile under atheists such as Mao Zedong, Pol Pot and others who effectively acted as atheists, you have a degree of Hell on earth. If God did not restrain evil to some degree, the whole earth would be as North Korea.

8. Karma – Like hell, the concept of karma offers a selfish incentive for good behavior—it’ll come back at you later—but it has enormous costs. Chief among these is a tremendous weight of cultural passivity in the face of harm and suffering.

This is consistent with the superficial one-size-fits-all atheistic approach to religion, and fails to describe how the proven Biblical principal of sowing and reaping fosters evil rather than having a deterrent effect.

9. Eternal Life..But it doesn’t take much analysis to realize how quickly eternal paradise would become hellish—an endless repetition of never changing groundhog days (because how could they change if they were perfect).

Which dark-basement perception presumes being perfect in character and being prevents varied activity, or that such is necessary to always be joyous in knowing perfect beauty and perfection, and that such would be boring. So atheists attack God for allowing an imperfect world, then attack Him for having a perfect Heaven. Implacable.

The real reason that the notion of eternal life is such a bad invention, though, is the degree to which it diminishes and degrades existence on this earthly plane. With eyes lifted heavenward, we can’t see the intricate beauty beneath our feet. Devout believers put their spiritual energy into preparing for a world to come rather than cherishing and stewarding the one wild and precious world we have been given.

Rather, it is those of faith who behold the wondrous irreducible complexity of creation, and Christians are instructed to occupy till the Lord comes, seeking to make earth more like Heaven, and give far far more resources to that end. The amount that churches are giving overseas in goods and services to developing (“Third World”) countries amounts to $8.8 billion. This figures out to be nearly 40 percent of the foreign aid provided by the United States to the same region. (Carol Adelman of the Hudson Institute, from Notre Dame University study.)

Meanwhile atheists are among the least charitable, and atheists and agnostics religious skeptics were also much less likely to be driven to have a clear sense of purpose in life (55%, compared to 77% of all American adults) (peacebyjesus.witnesstoday.org/RevealingStatistics.html#Atheists)

10. Male Ownership of Female Fertility...that if a woman should die of childbearing “she was made to do it,” most certainly did.

Oh yes, we celebrate it. Not. But while liberals attack groups as Focus on the Family, we do see women as having a privileged status as being the bearer of life, while liberals and atheists overwhelmingly favor terminating pregnancies if not convenient.

Traditional religions variously assert that men have a god-ordained right to give women in marriage,

Yes, while they are to work as a team, the male is to ultimately, normatively call the signals.

take them in war,

So an OT situational allowance of taking such a wives rather than leaving them as homeless means Christians are to do so?

exclude them from heaven,

Which is nowhere taught in Scripture.

and kill them if the origins of their offspring can’t be assured.

Translated meaning if you are pregnant with no husband that he must take you as a wife and provide for you, unless one was married, which adultery was a capital offense and rare, and worked against fatherless kids, and strengthened family and society.

Hence Catholicism’s maniacal obsession with the virginity of Mary and female martyrs.

Again, Catholicism is serious deformation of not NT Christianity, but i think many atheists need to confess they just do not like kid or pregnant women. At least not most feminist ones.

We now know that resource scarcity is a conflict trigger and that demand for water and arable land is growing even as both resources decline

Yes, we have head this sky-is-falling, power-grabbing tactic for decades, which meant there would be no more oil by now and no ice on the N. pole. In reality, WW poverty has been decreasing as well as the birth rate, though the later is not the cause of the former. And global warming, if real, and which is not new, could ultimately produce more food. But atheistic Communism has served to eliminate millions.

11. Bibliolatry (aka Book Worship)...The sacred texts of Judaism, Christianity and Islam forbid idol worship, but over time the texts themselves became idols,

Non-sense. Judges who judge things in the light of the Constitution are not worshiping it.

Religious apologists often try to deny, minimize, or explain away the sins of scripture and the evils of religious history.

Which can be entirely valid, unlike atheists trying to absolve atheism from being implicated in the atrocities of men who were atheists or who effectively operated as such.

Such platitudes may offer comfort, but denying problems doesn’t solve them. Quite the opposite, in fact. Change comes with introspection and insight, a willingness to acknowledge our faults and flaws while still embracing our strengths and potential for growth.

Which is what we can do, as we have a transcendent supreme standard by which to judge things by, even if often interpretive to some degree, unlike atheism which has none and thus what it immoral to one can be and has been reasoned as moral to another.

we need real reformation, as radical as that of the 16th Century and much, much broader.

Oh yes, the brave new world of atheism, in which what is right or wrong is simply what seems reasonable to each atheist. Should children be removed from all evangelical Christian homes by the state? Depends on which atheist you ask.

The last century already exampled the wonderful paradise of atheistic communism. We need not more of it. But more souls like Christ is what is.

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"Salon"; eh?