Religion: The Second Great Evil

RELIGION: THE SECOND GREAT EVIL

Brenton Williams

Copyright © 2018 by Brenton Williams

All rights reserved, including translation. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means, electronic, mechanical, electrostatic photocopying, or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the permission of Brenton Williams.

Published by Brenton Williams,

6 King Street,

Petone,

Wellington 5012,

New Zealand.

Unless otherwise stated, scriptures are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishers. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Cover artwork by Stefan Jurczenko

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ISBN: 978-0-473-44199-9

CONTENTS

1. Introduction

2. When did religion start?

3. Religion spreads

4. Religion - a bridge to God?

5. Religion or relationship?

6. The obligatory relationship chapter

7. Religion kills the dream

8. Religion infiltrates the church

9. What religion did to the church

10. An overview

11. Faith and religion

12. Religion and a personal faith

13. Can religion bring people closer to God?

14. Religion and the law

15. Religion and judgement

16. Religion creates barriers to friendship

17. Religion and conformity

18. Religion and pyramid structure

19. Religion and the state

20. Religion and wealth

21 Religion never helps

22 Religion in summary

Afterword

Other books by Brenton Williams

Chapter 1

Introduction

Karl Marx, the famous German philosopher, is well-known for his saying ‘Religion … is the opium of the people.’ That doesn’t mean he was opposed to religion as those who later followed his economic teachings were. The communist movement, which arose from Marx’s teachings, was violently anti-religion and persecuted religious practice and belief. But communist regimes have since discovered that religion is impossible to stamp out. It goes underground and surfaces again when the persecution eases.

If he wasn’t opposed to religion then what did he mean by his remark? Marx saw masses of people struggling and labouring under great duress. Their hardship and difficulties made life almost intolerable. He saw religion as a kind of medicine that tried to ease the pain of that existence. If nothing else it held out hope for a better life beyond this one. It could ease the pain by giving hope.

Opiates are effective drugs for controlling pain. We all have had some experience of opiates. Codeine is the most common and eases aches and pains of all kinds. We’ve used it to ease pain from a toothache to a headache. Morphine and heroin are also opiates and are used for more extreme pain. These opiates have some dangerous side-effects. While effective, they are also dangerously addictive. An overdose can kill.

Religion is like that. It promises to ease the pain of life but it quickly becomes addictive and too much kills any chance of a true faith. Those hooked on it can’t see anything else. Everything is coloured by the flavour of religion that they’ve bought in to. The classic example is that of the Pharisees and Sadducees of Jesus’ day. Their commitment to religion meant that they couldn’t hear what he had to say and, although they had prayed fervently for his coming, they didn’t recognise him.

Jesus said to them: ‘You study the scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.’ [John 5:39-40]

Religion is perhaps the most successful product in the world.

According to some estimates there are roughly 4200 religions in the world. That’s an awful lot of religions! And each one differs from all the others.

Religion isn’t a franchise with each expression looking like all the others. The wonderful thing about franchises like McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and others is that you know what you’re going to get wherever you go to one. A Big Mac in Washington, D.C., is the same as a Big Mac in Brasov, Romania. I know. I’ve had one in both places and many others, as well. A Big Mac is always a Big Mac even if you can’t speak the local language.

Religion isn’t like that. Each flavour differs from all the others. Even those that seem very similar are fundamentally different. Just ask a Sunni or a Shia Muslim. They might both be Muslim but their religion differs widely [enough to happily kill each other]. The same is true of Christian religions. Catholics and Protestants are poles apart when it comes to religion. They might not kill each other in this present age but they have fervently done so in the past.

Religion keeps growing and growing. Often that happens by division. Like amoebae dividing themselves in half, religions grow by splitting off from other religions. The Christian church started out as one. When religion came along it started splitting in all directions. Now there are an enormous number of Christian religions. The same is true of the other major faiths.

Occasionally a new religion rises. Someone has a vision, or a bright idea, or a supposed encounter with a supernatural being. The result? A new religion. Some are aggressive and actively canvass for new members. Others are quiet but still seek to spread their particular ‘ism’ to as many people as possible.

It’s like cancer. All cancers fit into the same general classification but there are many distinct kinds. Ultimately they all do the same thing - kill the host. Gene mutations are what usually give rise to cancers. Normal cells follow a path of growth, division, and death. Mutated cancer cells grow and divide but don’t die. Religion is like that. In a normal, healthy world there is no place for religion. All it takes is for one person to turn religious and the cancer starts. That happened long ago and now the world is full of religious cancers - 4200 of them.

Religion is everywhere. It’s impossible to travel and not meet up with it. Every country has its own list of religious holidays or observances. Each religion has its own form of temple with strict behaviour codes. Each religion has its own priesthood often defined by wearing different clothing from everyone else. Every important city has a palace and a temple and they are usually the most extravagant buildings in town.

My wife and I have travelled extensively and when going to a new country I always research its customs and religious observances. You can get into deep trouble if you disregard local religious practices. Mosques require different behaviour from churches, which are different again from Hindu or Buddhist temples. Shoes stay on or come off according to the local religion. Arms and legs must be covered or not. Washing is important in some places and not others. It can be dangerous to offend religious practices.

Religion colours everything. It’s in our speech and behaviour. It influences our government - some of the worst wars were between the church and the state.

Historically, religion is responsible for some of the worst atrocities. The Crusades and the Catholic Inquisitions are examples of terrible things being done in the name of Christianity. During the middle ages - between 1550 and 1700 - 80,000 people were tried for witchcraft in Europe and 43,000 were executed. All were innocent people because there is no such thing as witchcraft.

Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs in India and Pakistan are just as guilty. They massacred hundreds of thousands of each other particularly about the time of partition in August 1947. Why? Religion.

Make no mistake. Religion is not some benign form of belief that wouldn’t hurt a fly. It is a virulent, evil thing just waiting for its next chance to come out and wreak havoc.

The greatest evil in the world is the sinful nature that infects all humans and leads them to commit sin. Religion is the second great evil. It has caused more heartache and pain than it has ever brought comfort and hope.

Paul said this about the sinful nature: ‘For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.’ [Romans 7:18 - NASB] If he were to say a similar thing about religion he might have said: ‘For I know that nothing good dwells in religion; it promises life but delivers death.’

So we start our study of religion. We will concentrate on the Christian religion. What we learn will apply to all religions. Remember, although the religious flavours differ the ingredients are all the same.

Quotes:

‘Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.’ Steven Weinberg [an American theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics] addressing the Conference on Cosmic Design, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, D.C., April 1999.

‘Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.’ Attributed to Blaise Pascal [A French mathematician, physicist, inventor, writer and Catholic theologian. 1623 - 1662]

Chapter 2

When did religion start?

At the start of this chapter I should explain that its content is conjectural. What I have written can’t be backed by facts or scripture. The content is full of my own ideas and opinions. It is my attempt to try to make sense of things for which there is very little evidence. You can freely agree or disagree with it. I suggest that you let the Holy Spirit guide you as you read. He will witness to what is truth and what isn’t. [John 16:13]

Why conjecture? And what is that anyway? Conjecture means that the things in this chapter are my best guesses at the truth. It’s like trying to build a concrete legal