It Burns

[poliphilo]

Religion is corrosive stuff.

This is the time of year when the Jews bang on about the seven plagues of Egypt and Christians bang on about a God who was crucified.

Violence, smiting, dead babies, torture, betrayal, death, vengeance; our lot against your lot.

We got saved and you didn't.

Like the tipping over of a barrel full of toxic waste.

Acid reflux.

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

We had a college chaplain once who put a positive spin on it by saying that religion forces us to face up to the parts of ourselves we like least and is therefore cathartic and therapeutic. He had taken as his text that verse from the Psalms about breaking children's heads against the stones.

[solar-diablo.livejournal.com]

Along a similar line, I recently read a work by a Christian apologist who responded to the question as to why God demanded a blood sacrifice as part of his plan for redeeming humanity. His answer was that God didn't; humanity did. Sad to say, it makes a certain amount of sense to me. Violence and barbarism existed long before the Abrahamic faiths arrived on the scene, and they'll exist long after they're gone. Humans are hardwired for violence; religion simply provides a handy outlet/justification.

Wow, I'm depressing before my morning caffeine.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

It's my opinion, of course, that God too is a human invention.

[red-girl-42.livejournal.com]

Humans are hardwired for violence, and God created us, supposedly in his image.

[bodhibird.livejournal.com]

That psalm is referenced twice in the rule of St. Benedict. He interprets it as meaning that we should destroy our impulses to sin while they are still only incipient, and not allow them to grow into actual sins--to dash them against "the rock that is Christ".

That doesn't change the fact that the psalmist who wrote those words meant them *literally*, and wanted to see little Babylonian kids smashed to death.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

St Benedict was being evasive.

But I guess he was being evasive in the service of civilised and humane values.

[bodhibird.livejournal.com]

Yes, I remain rather fond of St. Benedict. He *was* a very humane and compassionate person; you can see that in the Rule.