LET US LIVE WITHOUT HARM! LET US REJECT THE BIBLICAL WRITINGS THAT IMPOSE CHILD ABUSE/MURDER, THE OBJECTIFICATION OF ANIMALS, AND THE DEVALUATION OF INNOCENTS

Among the multiple human rights violations exhorted by the Holy Scriptures (read in LIVING WITHOUT HARM: Let us contextualize the harmful verses of the Bible), are these three:

1. CHILD ABUSE AND INFANTICIDE

Old Testament:

Deuteronomy 21:18-21: mandates the murder by stoning of children who do not obey their parents.

Exodus 21:17: compels the infanticide of anyone who curses their father or mother.

Genesis 22:1-10: God commands Abraham to kill his son, without any reason, simply because God has the right to kill whomever He wants and parents to kill their children, as if they were mere property.

Proverbs 13:24: encourages parents to physically abuse their children.

Proverbs 29:15: ditto.

Proverbs 23:13: ditto, which proves that the author of this book was obsessed with child abuse.

New Testament:

Matthew 15:4: reaffirms the Old Testament precept of killing children who speak ill of their parents.

In reality, the conception that children are the property of their father and that he can therefore do with them as he pleases is not exclusive to the Bible; it was widespread in patriarchal societies across most of the world, regardless of religion, such as in Roman culture, where the Ius Vitae Necisque existed—the right of life and death over one’s children.

Read LIVING WITHOUT HARM: Not even to children

Before the Neolithic, all this did not usually happen; instead, these rules were created by those who held power to dominate and abuse others: slaves, servants, wives, children. Therefore, it is rational to understand these criminal verses within that historical context of stratified societies based on the subjugation of others, where those at the top mistreated those at the bottom, rather than as a doctrine proceeding from a good and compassionate God.

Read HOW TO LIVE WITHOUT HARMING? Let us understand religious precepts in their historical context

Read FOR A WORLD WITHOUT HARM: Let us look at the harmful side of religions

Therefore, it would be advisable for the Catechism and the doctrines of other Christian denominations to disapprove of these passages, especially considering that throughout history they have encouraged much child abuse.

Read THE ART OF LIVING WITHOUT HARMING: Let us reform the harmful part of Christianity

2. OBJECTIFICATION OF ANIMALS

Genesis 1:28: establishes human dominion over animals, as if they were property instead of beings with rights.

Genesis 9:2: prescribes a veritable dictatorship over animals.

Numbers 7:87: animals are made into a burnt offering as an offering to God.

Leviticus 22:17-25: speaks of sacrifices of animals as offerings, as if they were mere things.

And likewise in Leviticus 9:2, Numbers 6:12, Exodus 29:40, Leviticus 10:14, Exodus 29:22, Exodus 29:10-14, Exodus 29:19-22, Exodus 22:30, etc.

These verses have encouraged animal abuse in Christian societies, including cruel festivities such as bullfighting, hanging geese, and many others.

Read THE REVOLUTION OF LIVING WITHOUT HARM: Not even to non-human animals

Read LET US LIVE WITHOUT HARM! Let us not be supremacist speciesists

Read LIVING WITHOUT HARM: Let us say no to exploitative anthropocentrism

Once again, this conception is not only typical of traditionalist Christianity, but of almost all cultures originating from a certain phase of the Neolithic. In the Paleolithic, which constitutes most of human history, the worldview was very different: human beings were considered just one more element of nature, just another animal. And they hunted other species to obtain the protein they needed, but they felt much more respect for them, sometimes even asking their permission beforehand to hunt them.

The change in worldview came in the Neolithic with the formation of increasingly complex societies (simple and complex chiefdoms and kingdoms) and stratified societies based on war, domination, and the appropriation and objectification of animals, both human and non-human.

There has occasionally been an honorable exception, such as Saint Francis or Buddhism, which have shown more consideration toward other species, but the general rule has been the opposite. Therefore, it is logical to understand the previous verses in that historical and social context rather than as the order established by a compassionate God.

3. DEVALUATION OF INNOCENTS

Some paragraphs of the New Testament unjustly degrade people who do no harm to anyone:

Corinthians 6:9-10: Saint Paul defames by calling unjust and equating thieves and swindlers with those who drink a lot of alcohol, the stingy, or the “heretics” who exercise their religious freedom by choosing rites and beliefs that fall outside the orthodoxy Saint Paul wants to impose, despite all of them being innocents who do no harm to anyone.

Ephesians 5:5: further demeans them by stating that they are so reprehensible that God will reject them.

Revelation 21:8: the author of this book goes further and places the cowardly, followers of other religions, freethinkers, and those who practice witchcraft on the same level as murderers and the abominable, adding that all of them are so evil that they deserve to burn with fire and brimstone, even though they are innocent people who have done no harm to anyone.

These verses exude intolerance towards certain types of innocent people and reduce them to the category of social outcasts.

Read HOW TO LIVE WITHOUT HARMING? Let us respect others

Read FOR A WORLD WITHOUT HARM: Let us appreciate diversity

Read THE ART OF LIVING WITHOUT HARMING: Let us be tolerant

They do not seem to proceed from a tolerant God who loves his children, but from a Saint Paul who uses manipulation to pressure and frighten the members of the early Christian communities who did not give him the money he wanted or who did not obey him strictly as submissive proselytes. Or from an apostle John who did the same with those who did not dare to do what he desired (possibly for fear of punishment from Roman or Jewish authorities), did not follow him blindly, etc. That is to say, they considered that the faithful had to be their obedient little lambs who followed them wherever they said.

Let us reinterpret all of the above to purify religions into a kinder ethic, which will forge a happier world in which to live.

Thank you for collaborating in this mission and sharing,