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Evil and the Satan Hypothesis
Christianity and Civilization
Religious indoctrination is child abuse
If it is the devil that makes me do it why can't he get me to set fire to churches, drop litter when nobody is watching, park my car on zebra crossings or have sex with boys? And why can Mafioso steal, pimp and murder people but never miss Mass? |
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The Devil hypothesis is surely more thoroughly discredited than the Phlogiston Theory. There are people who don't know anything about the Hebrew tribal god and his nemesis but still they live lives of simple purity obeying arduous rules and living in harmony with man and nature. How can such people resist Satan with no power of faith in the resurrection of Jesus? What about all the unbaptized children? How come so many children around the world know the difference between right and wrong without knowing that Jesus is their savior and Satan is out to tempt them? Surely such children should be wide open to every temptation to each and every form of sin. And yet that isn't the way the world is. The reality is that everywhere children have a sense of morality and know what is right and wrong. You might not agree with all their morals but you will agree with lots of them.
What does the Hebrew god bring to the table that is special? A special distrust of sex and exaggerated shame in nudity. Prohibitions on eating certain foods and keeping certain animals. A very anal attitude to keeping things in neat categories, I have no doubt that if the ancient Hebrews knew anything about the duckbilled platypus a whole chapter of Leviticus would be devoted to the abomination of it. Of the fowls of the air and of the water all ye shall eat but the foul abomination that hath a bill like a duck yet hath fur treat the same as an abomination unto me. Eateth not its flesh. Drive it away unto the ends of the Earth.
The Hebrews were not the first people to invent marriage or marital fidelity and indeed they permitted polygyny and the keeping of concubines for many centuries. The Hebrews didn't invent the prohibition on theft although they did invent a prohibition on coveting (wanting stuff that isn't yours) which seems to have been conveniently forgotten by American Christians. Where would half of American TV be if that commandment actually was incorporated into American law? Many Christians claim the Ten Commandments are the basis of all laws, an assertion so outrageously arrogant and at odds with reality that only an American could possibly hope to carry it off with a straight face.
The idea that decency, civilization, morality, sophistication and Christianity are the same thing is laughable. The most sophisticated, civilized and decent societies these days are western, liberal secular states. While some of them have Christian communities that clearly is not what makes them sophisticated or civilized, as non christian Japan fits well into the group but devoutly Christian countries in Africa don't. Western culture and capitalism seems to be able to export civilized values far better than Christian missionaries. Japan seems to be happy with democracy, the rule of law, Coca Cola, baseball and human rights The mass acceptance of Christianity doesn't seem to be a prerequisite for running a society that is thoroughly civilized. I don't think Christianity was ever synonymous with civilization and decency and it certainly isn't now.