Before we get started let me say the following: I, by no means want to attack believers. I do want to attack ideas in religions as a whole that I find to be dangerous. I’m aware, that most believers are genuinely good people but I want to outline that some ideas that their respective religion/holy book supports are morally reprehensible ( I define right and wrong in terms of (human) well being -> right = what maximizes well being; wrong = what minimizes it)
There are some ideas with religion in general that I find to be morally reprehensible:
One of those ideas would be the condemnation of certain people groups. Not all Christians (or even most) are homophobes etc. but the fact, that the Bible/Qu’ran supports those ideas is undeniable. I spare you the quoting of scripture but these doctrines are dangerousm because they seperate us. Those passages are extremely divisive, they alienate other people and they lead to atrocities. One such atrocity would of course be conversion therapy where people try to cure children of their sexual orientation oftentimes with rather radical methods. Staying on the topic, in some countries being gay is illegal yet in others, people get killed for being gay. These things are the direct result of positively evil verses within the respective texts.
But of course it doesn’t stop there. “Witches” are burned in Africa in the name of Christianity. In other Muslim countries people are hanged for the crime of Blasphemy (Ayaz Nizami).
Those of course were pretty ugly and pretty extreme cases. But I think another teaching, that far more Christians (not all) adhere to and that I also find immoral, is the concept of hell.
I think it is positively abusive, when you tell somebody he will be tortured for eternity if he doesn’t believe in a certain religious proposition. This is especially the case, when it happens to children. Yesterday in a conversation on Twitter somebody wrote the following:
“A nun held my finger over burning candle to give me experience of pain of hell!!”
It is morally evil to tell anybody to believe in anything, because if he/she doesn’t eternal torture awaits. It is a scandal, that other people traumatize children this way in the name of their religion. It is insulting, when I personally get told to go to hell or that I deserve hell, which has happened from time to time ever since I’ve been on Twitter. Can anybody here themselves say, and not feel ashamed about it? Not at least feeling a little bit embarassed , that you think a majority of the world deserve eternal torment for being born into the wrong part of the world, maybe even without ever having heard of Jesus or Allah, or staying ignorant of the right religious text?
Believing that and teaching it to other people, teaching it to children innocent and impressionable is in my mind morally reprehensible as are other aspects.
I’m not saying all religions as a whole are evil. As a good person, most people will find ways to reconcile these teachings or reject certain evil dogmas as a whole but we both Atheists and Theists need to recognize evil for what it is and fight these things and many others.
Goodbye from yours truly,
Rene von Boenninghausen @Renevelation
Tarsier Renevelations 