Religion
has slaughtered, tortured and mutilated more human beings than
any other force on earth. Despite this, there are people who
will argue that religion, even though it's not reality, serves
a valuable purpose in society. That it teaches us to be a good
person. People also argue that the lack of religion in modern
society is responsible for our present social problems. But the
facts contradict this view. In most countries where religion
is widely practiced there are more social problems and more crime
than in many other countries where religion is less practiced.
Saying that being religious equals being a good person is a long
way from being true. And by studying the facts of history we
find it has never worked that way.
In the year 1095 Pope Urban II called for the first crusade and
enlisted most of western Europe in his cause to rescue Jerusalem
from Muslim control. It was the largest army in the history of
the world. With the cry Deus vult! (God wills it), thousands
took the cross. Some began by massacring Jews in the Rhine valley.
Then in December of 1099, after a torturous march, the crusaders
launched an all out assault on the holy city of Jerusalem. The
carnage was so bad that there were accounts of men wading in
blood up to their ankles. After the slaughter, the soldiers of
Christ found an image of Jesus and wept for joy. Pope Urban had
promised that those who fought would be granted total forgiveness
for all their sins.
In 1209, Pope Innocent III called for a new crusade against the
Cathars in southern France. The Cathars saw women as the equals
of men. Women even preached the gospels. This was heresy so a
massive army was assembled to weed out the heretics. When it
reached the town, women and children fled to the church for sanctuary.
The crusaders stormed the church with a rallying cry, "kill
them all, God will know his own". The bloodthirsty crusaders
then marched on to the next town. Those suspected of heresy were
tied together on lines, their noses cut off, their eyes gouged
out and led to the next town to warn the people of what was coming.
In the massacre of the Cathars, ten times more Christians were
killed than the total number martyred in the old Roman colosseum.
In the middle of the 14th century Europe was hit by the plague,
or the black death. Many considered it God's retribution on a
sinful world. People attacked their Jewish neighbors, accusing
them of having poisoned the wells. Groups such as the flagellants
blamed the Jews for the spread of the disease and wiped out entire
Jewish populations. The flagellants were groups of Christians
who subjected themselves to ritualized whipping as atonement
for sin. The flagellants would assume the position of their worst
sin. Then the leaders would beat them with a whip. This whip
was a stick 2 or 3 feet long with leather thongs on the end of
it and metal embedded in the thongs. Ironically this did more
to spread the plague than to stop it because their bloody open
wounds were prone to infection.
 In 1486 Pope Innocent VIII authorized
the "Malleum Maleficarum" or Hammer Against the Witches.
It was a supplement to the scripture of Exodus 22:18; "Thou
shalt not suffer a witch to live." It was a book intended
to aid in identifying and destroying witches. This book had more
printings than any other book with the exception of the Bible
itself. It was distributed in half a dozen languages across Europe.
The accused were often tortured until they confessed or accused
others. The courtroom became a playground for the sexually suppressed
Christian community. Since a mole or birthmark was proof enough
the examiners were rarely disappointed. Proven guilty, the witch
was executed by hanging or beheading. Then the corpse was burned
at the stake. When Martin Luther and John Calvin split from the
Catholic church they were just as relentless at persecuting witches.
Prince Bishop Gregore II killed more than six hundred people.
But instead of burning the corpses, he burned the accused alive.
In the last legal witch trial, occurring in 1782, a Swiss woman
was beheaded. In all, over one hundred thousand people(mostly
women) were murdered in the name of God.
In the early stages, French Protestantism was largely inspired
by Martin Luther. However, by 1550 the movement spread so rapidly
it included one-fourth of all Frenchmen. After that date, the
leadership of the movement was increasingly taken over by John
Calvin. French Calvinists (Huguenots) were the targets of the
"Wars of Religion". These religious and political civil
wars were fought from 1562 to 1598 and were caused by opposing
religious lines between members of the Huguenots with ties to
nobility and two weak monarchs supporting Catholicism. The Huguenots
formed a strong and often aggressive minority in their conflict
with the Catholic crown. But on August 24, 1572, several thousand
Huguenots were killed in the Saint Bartholomew's Day Massacre.
The killing began in Paris and was extended to the provinces,
continuing until October. It is estimated that tens of thousands
were slaughtered.
Both Judaism and Christianity historically have viewed homosexuality
as sinful. Leviticus 20:13; "If a man also lie with mankind,
as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination:
they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon
them." This religious condemnation was put into written
law. As a result, homosexual activity became a crime, for which
the penalty in early courts was death. The Fleta, 1290AD, is
the first mention of criminal punishment for homosexual behavior
in the English common law tradition. It prescribed that sodomites
were to be buried alive, but may not have been adopted. The Britton,
1300, prescribes that sodomites are to be burned alive, but there
is little indication that this was carried out in England at
this time. However, such executions are known to have taken place
on the continent where their sanction derived from an enactment
of Justinian and served to link sodomites to heretics. The Buggery
Act, 1533, defines it as a felony punishable by hanging until
dead. The number of executions for buggery in Britain increased
at the end of the eighteenth century and into the second decade
of the nineteenth century. The death penalty for buggery was
not formally abolished in England and Wales until 1861.
These horrifying events unquestionably stand out in history.
And religious leaders would like us to forget that they ever
happened. Obviously we have forgotten them. Because today nothing
has changed. Arabs and Jews continue to kill each other throughout
the Middle East. Catholics and Protestants murder each other
on the streets of Northern Ireland. Hindus and Muslims kill each
other in India and Pakistan. Christians and Muslims murder each
other in Beirut. American religious cults often end in mass suicide.
White supremacists quote the Bible to justify their crimes of
hatred. Christians quote the scriptures in defense of their often
bloody war against abortion and homosexuality. On September 11,
2001, Muslims clearly demonstrated that a belief in religion
and the reward of an afterlife encourages a devaluation of this
life. To justify these irrational acts one must only subscribe
to the fantasy of religion. Clearly there is a danger not being
in touch with reality. |
