“ It would be more consistent if we called Bible the work of the demon than the work of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind” -Thomas Paine
“Prudent men should marry those women who are free from bodily defects, with beautiful names, grace like an elephant, moderate hair on the head and body, soft limbs and small teeth.”- Manusmriti (Hindu scripture)
” Women, true to their character, are capable of leading men – a fool and a learned man alike – astray in this world. Both become slaves of desire”- Manusmriti (Hindu scripture)
“When your Lord revealed to the angels, ‘Truly I am with you. So, keep firm those who have believed. I will strike terror into the hearts of those who have disbelieved. So, strike them at the necks and cut off their fingers.’” 8:12- Quran
“And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shill ye eat”-(Leviticus 26:30)
The scriptures; ancient texts of most contemporary religions were written thousands of years ago. They have become the prime target; the moot talking point for the atheists’ noisy tirade against religion today. Today’s non-believers have become militant atheists, so incensed they are by their apparent inanities. Logical absurdities, immeasurable cruelty and moral depravity seem to mark all them, even the seemingly peaceful ones.
The book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible hints at vast landscapes of depravity and evil, ordered and endorsed by God himself. The God of the Bible was sexist, he wished for women to live in the ignorance and silent subjugation to their husbands. He ordered racial cleansing of the promised land reserved for the Israelites, allowed massive genocides. This God did not oppose slavery, and declared that killing one’s slaves was justified, if (in an ironical twist of mercy), they did not die on that day itself! This God was clearly racist because he shunned marriage among people of different religions and punished such the transgression with death.
The moral landscape of the Hindu scriptures is not even a bit more redeeming, with its own class of decadence. The unspeakable atrocities of a hugely unbalanced caste system has left its echoes in modern society too, giving Hinduism a bad name in the entire world for this particular perversion. Vedic poets speak of the fair skinned Aryans gaining control over dark-skinned Dasas with strong vehemence, and one easily suspects it must be a case of ethnic cleansing. Strong racism apart, the ostensible sexual perversion of the Hindu scriptures appears unparalleled. The Kamasutra while talking explicitly of conjugal relations between husband and wife, seems to unabashedly advise on strategies to lure prostitutes and wives of other men. Gaining popularity in almost the entire world now, at least in its mention, is an entire section of the Tantra tradition, which worships the Goddess principle as its deity. It is scandalous because it seems to delineate sexual rituals for the union of the worshipper’s soul with the Goddess’s. The sacrificial ceremonies to propitiate God and gain his favours as described in the Vedas feel alarmingly degenerate too. Bestiality seems to have been a common element in the sacrificial ceremonies, and to make matters worse, human sacrifice was a feature too.
Even the first syllable of the word Islam could send tremors of terror down one’s spine. It takes a spot on a list of the most feared ‘things’ on the planet today. Islamic state, fatwa, Sharia; these terms evoke wide eyed, curious alarm in the least. This notorious condition of one of the largest religions in the world may have come to pass due to various factors, malignant geo-politics being significant among them. However its scriptures come across as equally if not more malicious. The Quran carries a belligerent tone, especially in the matter of the fate of the unbelievers and apostates, those called the infidels. It talks of killing and beheading infidels and advises against taking the Jews and Christians as friends. It endorses superlative degrees of misogyny. Allah seems terrifyingly wrathful, for the Quran too is brimming with examples of torture, enslavement, beheading, stoning to death and countless other cruelties. Allah seems to have sanctioned slavery, rape and paedophilia for Muhammed, while he himself could take a share in the plundered booty of conquests.
If Islam has arrived at its acme of disrepute today, it will be fair to listen to what its apologists want to say, more than to others. Reza Aslan, Iranian born American is a charming Muslim apologist, who makes a case for Islam, as a matter of fact for any religion, in a manner which is surprisingly pacifying. In a simple yet cogent argument, he says most Muslims or most people do not derive their moral values from scriptures, they bring their own values to the interpretation of scriptures. He disarms a listener when he says his religion is just a chosen language to satisfy his existential cravings. All religions are metaphors and symbols, with faith as the root, he suggests. Also, interpreting the scriptures literally is an ‘unsophisticated’ way of reading them.
Well, could be.
Say we were to concede to Mr. Aslan that these revered scriptures carry deeper metaphorical meanings. But then, what good have scriptures done for belief, by being presented in this repugnant, disagreeable form? Would not most of us run the other way as we do? What is the point?
This unpleasantness around God will automatically create atheists out of us, like it has. Aslan also says there is utter contradiction in scriptures, with some passages espousing the exact opposite ideas of others. Your interpretation depends on which scriptures you take seriously.
How helpful is that?
If my interpretation depends on my arbitrary cherry picking, what validity does it give scriptures at all?
Why such confusion and arbitrariness?
Then you possibly cannot blame religious fundamentalists for choosing the verses they do, or atheists for picking the ones to substantiate their arguments, as they do.
Why this haziness? How can there be any more hope of coming closer to God through the scriptures when it purposefully seems to push most sane people away? The believers among us are motivated by fear more than by any benevolent reason and the logic for belief, if it exists, is utterly unconvincing. As for the non-believers among us, they are raging madly at this God.
A lose-lose situation either way, for scriptures, and for God. There seems to be no point of it.
Is there any, at all?