It's the Ideology, Stupid

Of course, religion's omnipresent defenders are swift to point out the comfort it provides for the sick, the weary, and the disappointed. Yes, true enough. But the Deity does not dawdle in the comfort zone!

Tom Robbins

Some years ago, someone sent out my essay entitled "Religion is Mental Illness/God is a Psychopath." The response was, needless to say, mixed. One individual claimed that no Catholic or Christian has ever killed anyone. Another person averred that if it weren't for Islam, the West wouldn't be civilized.

The sender and I were both personally attacked. These folks did not notice that neither he nor I had written the information in that essay but that I had compiled it from other books which were presenting facts, not opinions. With all of the tools humankind possesses, including the Internet, the lack of education displayed was pathetic and appalling.

Also, it appeared that those who were putting out the ideas that Christians have never killed anyone and that Islam civilized the West, were not even rebuked, while we were.

As proof of my thesis that religion is mental illness and that "God" is a psychopath, I offer up the following articles :

[8/23/97]

Militants Suspected as 64 Are Massacred

Armed men killed 64 people in an attack on a rural hamlet outside Algiers, the capital, reportedly crying, "God is great" at each slaying. Many of those killed had their throats slit, and 10 others were wounded, according to hospital sources who spoke on condition of anonymity. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, but suspicion fell on Muslim militants trying to topple the government. Two survivors said the attackers had long beards tinted red with henna and that they repeatedly cried out, "Allahu akbar," or "God is great," the sources said. A henna-dyed beard can be a sign that a man has made the pilgrimage to Islam's holiest sites of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Yes, God is great, if you like slit throats and decapitations. Religious moderates claim that such behavior is an aberration and that those involved are not really Muslim, or, in the case of the Crusades and Inquisitions, Christian. This argument is poppycock, as it is inherent in theideology of these "religions" to "kill the infidel/heathen." These murderers are actually the most religious people, in that they are following their ideology to the letter. It is those who are not doing such despicable and vile acts who are not "good" Christians, Muslims, etc., as the god of these "faiths" must constantly be appeased by blood sacrifice. According to Christianity, he even sacrificed himself as the scape-God Jesus, so obsessed with blood-atonement is he.

Here's another example. This appalling story took place in Los Angeles County, USA, in 1996, not the Dark Ages.

Tape Portrays Slain Girl's Role in Beating

• Courts: Recording reveals that youngster took part in violent ritual a few weeks before she was killed.

By GREG KRIKORIAN
TIMES STAFF WRITER

In a chilling prelude to a gruesome crime, a 5-year-old girl participated in a brutal, tape-recorded beating of another youngster only weeks before she was murdered in a ritual to rid her of the devil, a Los Angeles jury heard Monday.

The 45-minute recording, in which an 11-year-old's anguished cries could be heard amid a hellish chorus of "Jesus Loves Me," opened the third day of the trial of two women accused of killing Breeann Spickard in July 1996 at an apartment in Baldwin Hills....

Authorities allege that [Deborah Elizabeth] Reynolds paddled her daughter so savagely that the girl died of internal injuries, while [Julia Ann] Olivas and [Esther Rebecca] Griggs held the girl down during the beating, which spanned hours over the Fourth of July weekend. During the attack, Reynolds testified, Griggs shoved her foot in the young girl's mouth to stop her from crying and, at another point, the 180-pound Olivas jumped on the prone girl's back to "finish" her killing.

... Her lower body, other testimony showed, had been so ravaged by the beating that several layers of skin were stripped away from her buttocks.

Despite the grisly scene, Baldwin Hills police testified Monday, Griggs acted as if nothing was awry when they arrived at her apartment after being called by Reynolds, who fled after the beating to her parents' home....

Later, [homicide Det. John] View testified, he recovered not only the paddle used in the fatal beating but a recording of an earlier assault in which the dead girl used the same paddle to repeatedly beat Griggs' 11-year-old daughter at the direction of Olivas.

.... Then, for about 45 minutes, [the tape] consists of a long beating of Griggs' daughter by the 5-year-old, who is urged on by Olivas.

Asked repeatedly to explain the purpose of the beating, the young girl is told by Olivas that she is helping rid the 11-year-old girl of the devil.

"The devil just doesn't like you," Olivas tells the young girl.

"How come?" the girl asks.

"Because you're doing a good deed and he doesn't want to let [the 11-year-old girl] go, cuz he says she belongs to him," Olivas says.

Over time, the beating becomes progressively louder. So do the cries of the 11-year-old, who pleads time and again for the paddling to end.

Then, for almost 10 minutes, the attack continues as Olivas and several children, including the 5-year-old, can be heard singing several religious songs, including "Jesus Loves Me."

These were no doubt "good" Christians, in that they probably went to church regularly and hung onto every word the pastor said. Or perhaps they were just emulating their beloved Catholic Church, whose past deeds make these disgusting acts look petty. In any case, there is enormous precedent for this behavior within the hierarchy of various Christian organizations, which demonstrates that such behavior is well within the Christian ideology in general.

Perhaps these women were a few of the sadistic Inquisitors themselves come back for some more fun! No, their acts were too tame for Inquisitors. Perhaps these evil deeds were the most these sick individuals could get away with in this day and age, since the public now frowns upon that sort of thing. Not so back in the good old days, when the Vatican reigned supreme. Back then, these women would have received recognition and a pay raise. During the various Inquisitions, which went on for centuries, hundreds of thousands or millions of men, women and children were killed in this and more hideous manners, all for the "glory of Rome" and "in God's name." And mobs mindlessly went along with the carnage, frequently calling for blood through their toothless, slitty mouths. This is what religious fanatics look like to the rest of the world: deranged and depraved. For a further look at the behavior of the "good, God-fearing" Christians, it is recommended that one watch Ken Russell's "The Devils," a great depiction of life during the Inquisition in France under Cardinal Richelieu.

Now, let's go back to Islam:

[2/28/98]

AFGHANISTAN

Thousands Watch as Girl is Lashed

Thousands of people watched while a teenage girl, shrouded in a head-to-toe veil, received 100 lashes for walking with a man who was not her relative. The Taliban religious army also publicly amputated the hands of two men convicted of stealing $500 from a shop. Their hands were later displayed to the crowd in the sports arena of Kabul, the capital. Over a loudspeaker a local Taliban leader warned: "This is the fate of anyone who steals." Roving bands of Taliban soldiers routinely beat women for not covering themselves completely and beat men who appear to have shaven - both are crimes under Taliban law.

From Times Wire Reports

In addition, women in Afghanistan are starving to death, because they are not allowed to work, scrambling around looking for grass, and are developing bone diseases because of being compelled to wear head-to-toe coverage that prevents them from getting sunlight. These psychopaths need to be removed and placed in asylums for the criminally insane, before their depravity spreads. When will the international community step in and stop this evil behavior? (Note that this essay was written years before the invasion of Afghanistan. Unfortunately, in many places the Taliban are still in power.)

And here's yet more nauseating garbage from the divisive world of religion:

[5/11/98]

Bishop Buried in Pakistan; Muslims Attack Village

FAISALBAD, Pakistan--A bishop who killed himself in protest of Pakistan's blasphemy law was buried Sunday in a ceremony attended by thousands while militant Muslims attacked a Christian village to demand that the law remain.

Bishop John Joseph was laid to rest on the grounds of his Faisalabad cathedral as thousands of grieving Christians packed every approach to the building, demanding the repeal of the blasphemy legislation.

During the service, 400 to 500 militant Muslims attacked a nearby village called Christian Town and burned several shops and houses, clamoring for the law, under which offenders can be executed, to remain on the statute books, witnesses said.

Young Christian women took refuge in nearby houses until security forces arrived, residents said. Police fired tear gas and live bullets to disperse Christians who attacked them after returning to find their buildings ransacked, the witnesses said.

Reuters

Here's another example of religious dementia. (The Acharya in this story is no relation. In addition to being a popular last name, "Acharya" is a title held by Indian religious hierarchs.)

Hindu zealots attack Valentine couples

United Press International - February 15, 2000 22:15
NEW DELHI, India, Feb. 15 (UPI)--

Right-wing Hindu zealots attacked and humiliated dozens of couples celebrating Valentine's Day in northern India, saying the festival was an incursion of western culture.

The Hindustan Times newspaper reported that two girls with their faces bruised from beatings were paraded on a crowded mall Road in Kanpur city. Newspaper reports identified the attackers as the activists of a students' group affiliated with hard-line nationalist organization called RSS, which claimed Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee as a member.

At least 250 couples were attacked in restaurants, hotels or while buying flowers and greeting cards Monday. Scores of shops selling Valentine's Day gifts were attacked and ransacked in Kanpur city. Police have arrested dozens of people for arson.

The Indian Express said that several couples were punished publicly. Men were beaten and women were paraded in the streets with their faces blackened with bruises.

The right-wing students had warned people not to celebrate Valentine's Day, which has become very popular in India in recent years.

"This Valentine mania is an attack on the Hindu culture," the secretary of World Hindu Council, Acharya Giriraj Kishore said.

Now, is it clear yet why I have chosen to critique religion? Is there really any good in this behavior? Is this truly the will of any good deity? Do you still think there's someone in charge here? And these countries are now moving into the nuclear arms race, a frightening prospect indeed.

All in all, intelligent, healthy people do not go along with ideologies and organizations that have as a large part of their history vicious and violent persecutions of others whom they deem to be "strange" and "demonic." No sane person proudly declares him or herself to be a member of the Nazi party, but billions are mighty pleased with belonging to and supporting other murderous and barbaric institutions and ideologies, demonstrating that a large percentage of the human species is both brainwashed and mentally ill. And only a psychopathic "god" would be interested in such behavior.

The point is, why belong to any of these ridiculous and bloodthirsty cults? Just be a person. Any god that would require such beliefs, which make people stupid, as is evidenced by the stories above, or such behavior, which is vicious and evil, is not a god at all and is certainly not worthy of serving in any way, shape or form. And those who do worship such a vainglorious and psychopathic tyrant are, indeed, mentally ill.

If humanity is to survive the next century, it simply must drop all these divisive ideologies and become enlightened to the formless, genderless truth behind all creation, so that it will know that all is one and that it is one family and one being.

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