Are cultures all the same, should they be equally respected? The “woke” not being fully awake yet, assert this complete absurdity as their main directive. As nihilistic as one can get… But they never heard about evolution, progress! Respect for individuals who don’t know any better is one thing. Respect for perverse ideologies, knowing that they are perverse, another. It turns out that all and any religion one knows of was used and apparently devised as an ideology to control the naive, in service for a dominant class.
Moreover, higher thinkers will in the future distinguish re-ligions from super-stitions. Re-ligare, to tie up again is any ideology or practice that brings We The People together: it could be the cult of a form of music, and of course a spectacular sport, like chariot racing for centuries toward the end of the Roman state. Religions of the fascist type, such as Roman, US, or French republicanisms, with the fasces as symbols, are example. They bring a population together around the sword of justice.
Super-stitions stand (sta) above (super) reality: a superstition assert things that are not real, and present them as facts. This apparently strange approach, imposing and sharing a lie unify We The People by using as bricks for a common mind, these commonly shared follies.
The “Believer” is supposed to “believe” in these absurdities, and that’s what makes the “Believer” into a “Believer”. The more absurd, the better, because the aim is to have the state and its priests humiliate reason. Even better, one can best unite in committing together, or planning together, common crimes, for example burning women alive for prostitution. As they are represented naked while undergoing the well-deserved punishment, that beats any modern erotic show.
An example is the notion, presented as a fact, that the mythical Jesus and the real Muhammad invented space travel long ago, and took off from Jerusalem… so their followers could fight like dogs in the following millennia over the ruins of the Jewish temple in the Jews’ capital city… Muhammad also invented genetic engineering, as he had already traveled to Jerusalem in some sort of winged horse [1]…
Patriotism is a class of religions, Patriotism can be bad: contemplate the Aztecs, the Nazis, Putin’s thermonuclear tyranny. Abrahamism, a class of superstitions. Oftentimes patriotism and superstition mix, as in the Roman and Athenian city cult, or the Teutonic Knights. Another sort of perverse ideology is racism, which was another planetary phenomenon: were defined as “man” whoever like the beholder of the notion
State-imposed superstitions are a way for the states to train people to respect the irrationality of the state. The Abrahamist religion says one has to be ready to kill one’s child if the god promoted by the state says so. Or then the state promoted by the god: Roman emperors made sure to enforce the confusion there (Theodosius I’s decrees on heresy, 380-381 CE)
More than 99% of known superstitions practiced human sacrifices, not to say outright cannibalism. Captain Cook was cooked for religious reasons, we were told. The Romans of the Roman Republic didn’t respect that notion, and outlawed any superstition promoting human sacrifices. Although Abrahamism makes a show of not been quite cannibalistic, just symbolically cannibalistic, its fascist god’s books (Bible, Quran) reek of Jihad and genocides: https://patriceayme.wordpress.com/…/gods-imagination…/
To their consternation, the Romans found the Celts would mass-burn prisoners inside vast replica of a human body. Julius Caesar, who led the first Roman landing in Britain (55 BCE)., said the native Britons “believe that the gods delight in the slaughter of prisoners and criminals, and when the supply of captives runs short, they sacrifice even the innocent.” First-century historian Pliny the Elder suggested that the Celts practiced ritual cannibalism, eating their enemies’ flesh as a source of spiritual and physical strength. Archeology has uncovered direct evidence. Many of the tricks to inflict terror that the Druids used are reminscent of those used in the Americas (horrible costumes, etc.)
In India the Hindu practice of Sati (from the goddess Sati) was to burn alive the widow, generally much younger, of a wealthy man. Crowds of several thousands would gather for the shows, including Muslims, “for the amusement”. Widows would change their minds after the first caresses of the fire, and try to escape (there were means to prevent them)… questions of property were generally involved, and similarly for some old Viking religious practices… With the added benefit of using up the concubines before their fiery end… The Brits put a forceful end to these hot blockbusters… But it was not easy, and the practice kept on going for generations… People tend to stay attached to their religions and the more horrible, the better…
Patriotism is another matter: a nation will invent ways and means which are uniquely them, and may, or may not be respected. One may respect France for its 400 cheese, or then despise French cheese or cheese in general. But then one may adore Bizet or Joan of Arc, and revere Pasteur, Laplace, Abelard or Clovis. US citizens may feel, rightly so, that, by sticking together, and only then, will they survive and prosper… So patriotism is made of thousands of ways, means and traditions, and many of them are valuable for humanity, for example sushi, surfing or South American music. Siberia was conquered thanks to (potatoes… a tubercule from the Andes…).
State, or para-state imposed superstitions are, instead, fundamentally assaults against the foundation of humanity… respect for rationality.
So superstition based religions basically deserve no respect, and can be viewed as crimes against the foundation of humanity. That does not mean that their practitioners deserve no respect. A priori, they do, as all human beings do, especially when they try to stretch their minds beyond themselves. But when those practitioners brandish the absurdities they make a show to believe in so as submitting us… the way of the warrior imposes itself.
So from the so-called “human rights” category will whine that freedom of religion is a sacred principle. But they are hypocrites, and overlook history and the notion of civilizational progress. After the Roman defeat at Cannae, two couples, one of Gauls and the other of Greeks were buried under the Forum Boarium. Livy‘s description of these sacrifices, rejects them as “wholly alien to the Roman spirit“. Human sacrifices were formally outlawed in 97 BCE. Sulla’s Lex Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis in 82 BC included punishments for human sacrifice.
So there never was any freedom for most religions, and that’s how we progress enough to survive, although now we all live under the Mage of the Kremlin apocalyptically looming overall hope and normality with his Russian religion… In his latest pronouncement, the Muhammad of the Kremlin declared that Belgium was created… by Russia [2].
It is essential to approach religions with an open mind, respect for diversity, and a willingness to engage in dialogue and understanding, through space and time. This allows for a more nuanced appreciation of different religious perspectives and realize that there is absolutely no limit to how vicious human beings can become if the reward is power and mustering enough excitement to forget the mediocrity of the human condition (see the Hadiths below for further nuance…).
You want woke? I have a human sacrifice to show you. And if you want eight billion of them, just look up at the Mage of the Kremlin.
Patrice Ayme
Five years before the apparition of the Conquistadores, a new temple was inaugurated in the capital city, Technoticlan, and it is claimed that more than 80,000 prisoners suffered heart extraction over four days of celebration. Still, the Aztecs pretended to be horrified by the tortures the Conquistadores could inflict, such as overnight roasting…
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[1] Yes, the Catholic Inquisition would do the same, centuries later… But now its followers would be arrested… Muhammad burned people alive
According to narrations, Muhammad intended to burn Muslims alive along with their houses just because they failed to go outside for a prayer session. That’s how the prophet of the religion of peace behaved
1 [Sahih Bukhari Volume 1, Book 11, Number 626]
Narrated Abu Huraira: The Prophet said, “No prayer is harder for the hypocrites than the Fajr and the ‘Isha’ prayers and if they knew the reward for these prayers at their respective times, they would certainly present themselves (in the mosques) even if they had to crawl.” The Prophet added, “Certainly I decided to order the Mu’adh-dhin (call-maker) to pronounce Iqama and order a man to lead the prayer and then take a fire flame to burn all those who had not left their houses so far for the prayer along with their houses.”
2. [Sahih Bukhari Volume 4, Book 52, Number 260] Narrated Ikrima: Ali burnt some people and this news reached Ibn ‘Abbas, who said, “Had I been in his place I would not have burnt them, as the Prophet said, ‘Don’t punish (anybody) with Allah’s Punishment.’ No doubt, I would have killed them, for the Prophet said, ‘If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him.’
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[2] According to Russia’s historian-in-chief, at the World Youth Festival, 03/13/2024, Belgium first “appeared on the world map as an independent state, largely thanks to Russia and Russia’s position,” As most Putinism it’s an outrageous lie with a grain of truth. First the lie: Nicholas I raised an army to crush a revolted Belgium and reintegrate it by force into the just made-up kingdom of the Netherlands in 1830. But then the Poles revolted and Nicholas’ army got busy killing and terrorizing Poles instead (plus Polish officers fled to Belgium to toughen it up militarily).
The grain of truth is that, in conjunction with the UK, and Prussia, Russia did its best to keep France as small as possible, and so many parts of northern France … Gallic and Frankish since the beginning of time (Caesar), were removed from France…