LIVE WITHOUT HARMING!: UNDERSTANDING EVERY RELIGIOUS PRECEPT WITHIN THE CONTEXT IN WHICH IT WAS CREATED

Certain religions have caused and continue to cause suffering, sometimes on a massive scale, to hundreds or even thousands of millions of innocent people… read more… 

Therefore, to achieve a fairer and happier world to live in, it is necessary to change the root of such evils… read more…  

And for that, it is important to understand the origin of religious precepts. In this sense, the 4,250 religions that survive today, plus the thousands or tens of thousands that existed in the past (as researchers on this subject say that even Neanderthals had them), are usually an expression of the human race—specifically of the people who created them, with both their benign and malignant aspects.

For example, from an anthropological point of view, it is very typical that, from the Neolithic onwards, as increasingly hierarchical and patriarchal societies developed, religions were used to legitimize the power of chieftains, kings, and emperors. Thus, Roman emperors and Egyptian pharaohs convinced the people that they were gods, and Chinese emperors that they were sons of heaven.  

Religions also served to justify the privileges of the upper strata and castes made up of aristocrats (the leaders of the warriors) and the clergy, as well as the dominance of the paterfamilias over their wives and children. They also justified the new forms of exploitation and abuse that were appearing, such as slavery and servitude, conquest, looting, booty, and the plundering of the lands of the vanquished, as well as the rape of conquered women.

On the other hand, it has also been a classic occurrence that when someone held a simple opinion or a selfish interest, instead of saying they believed such a thing, they manipulatively masked it as a divine revelation. This is what Hammurabi did with his famous code of laws, so that people would believe it did not come from humans but from the will of God.

Since the cultural level of the vast majority of the population was previously very low, it was quite easy to deceive them; however, in today’s evolved societies of the first and second world, it makes no sense to maintain the former.

Furthermore, each religion is usually heavily influenced by the mentality of the place and era in which it was created. Thus, for example, Islam contains precepts from the polytheistic Arab tribes of Muhammad’s time, such as the pilgrimage to Mecca. But at the same time, this religious and military leader took many elements from Judaism and Christianity, with which he had contact because there were Arab tribes of the Jewish religion in the area where he lived, and because he had been a merchant who traveled and knew believers of those religions. The main influence he took from them was monotheism.

In turn, the authors of the books of the Old Testament incorporated elements from different cultures from which the Jews originated or with which they were in contact. Modern historians say that the Jewish people originate from Canaan, so it is not surprising to see the strong influence of the Canaanite civilization observed in the Old Testament, according to experts in biblical studies.

Later, the people of Israel were under the rule of Egypt, a period during which six books of the Bible were written. Contact with that kingdom not only left a considerable mark on those books. For example, in the Mosaic Law (Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), certain parallels with Egyptian laws and cultic practices can be observed.

Subsequently, the Jews were subjected to the Assyrian Empire, a period during which five books and part of two others of the Old Testament were written. Some of the many Assyrian influences within it are Divine Judgment and Punishment.

Later, the Israelites were dominated by the Babylonian Empire, which deported part of them to Babylon. During this time, five books and part of two others of the Bible were written. Prolonged contact with Babylonian culture left a cultural, religious, and literary impact, such as the biblical accounts of creation, the Great Flood and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, which present notable parallels with Mesopotamian myths such as the Enuma Elish and the Epic of Gilgamesh.

On the other hand, the Jews lived for two centuries under the rule of the Persian Empire, which left a lasting mark on Jewish culture and religion. During that time, ten books of the Old Testament and part of two others were probably written. The influence of Zoroastrianism, the official religion of the Persian Empire, can be seen in concepts such as the struggle between good and evil, angelology, and demonology, which appear more prominently in Jewish literature of the later period.

Not only do different books of the Bible have different cultural influences, but even some books, such as Genesis, Isaiah, or Psalms, were written by several authors with diverse influences and narrative styles, sometimes in very different eras.

Therefore, let us not consider all the verses of all the texts on which religions are based as the word of God, but rather as texts that were written by specific people of the past, influenced by the mentality of their time and by their own selfish interests.

Some will say that the integrity of the sacred books comes from God and that cannot be changed, but everyone has the right to think for themselves, to interpret the texts in their own way, and to reach their own conclusions.

Let us learn from a large part of the Jewish people belonging to progressive branches of Judaism, who consider that religious precepts were written by people influenced by their society and that a literalist interpretation should not be carried out, but rather one suited to the context. They also recognize individual freedom to interpret or even reject them.

This is the case with Reform Judaism, which defends individual autonomy regarding the interpretation of religious precepts, or Reconstructionist Judaism, which understands Judaism as a progressively evolving civilization.

IS THE PROBLEM THE TEXTS OR THEIR FOLLOWERS?

Some believe that it is not religion itself that induces outrages, but rather some people who apply it poorly or authorities who appropriate it to manipulate for their own interest. Occasionally this is true, as in Buddhism (which is actually a philosophy), where Buddha’s writings are contrary to violence, yet some of his followers throughout history have created violent and sectarian conflicts against other religious groups or between different branches of Buddhism. In some countries, there is also intolerant fanaticism that has nothing to do with the teachings of its founder, such as punishing people with Buddha tattoos.

But in many other cases, the malignancy lies within the precepts of the sacred texts, as we will see below with the three main religions; therefore, it is necessary to question and disapprove of these precepts to clean the doctrine from the root:

• CHRISTIANITY: read more…

• ISLAM: read more…

• HINDUISM: read more…

Thank you for sharing to forge a more pleasant world with less suffering to live in.