Why the Abrahamic Religions are So Violent

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Do you ever wonder why the Abrahamic religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism) are so rife with violence?

The violence of Islam is painfully obvious: even today, Islamic theocracies declare jihad (even between different schools of Islam, what to speak of other religions); death sentences for adultery and homosexuality as well as for Danish cartoonists who dare draw the image of Mohammed; even death sentences for those who convert to a non-Islamic religion.

Christianity's history is not much better, with the death sentences of the Inquisition; the Crusades; the witch hunts in America and Europe.

Judaism actually has more death penalties (at least 26, according to my reckoning) than any other religion. For example, the death penalty is called for disobedient children (Exodus 21:17); women who are not virgins when they marry (Deuteronomy 22:13-21); and collecting firewood during the Sabbath (Numbers 15:32-36). Any non-Jew entering the Solomon's Temple would be executed. Of course, there is the issue of non-stop animal sacrifices being performed in that Temple.

One may argue that Christianity and Judaism are no longer violent as they were in the past. Why? Did they find some obscure verse in their scriptures which condemns violence? No. They are no longer violent because these religions do not have the unlimited power that they once had. They now need to appear "warm and fuzzy" in order to attract followers.

If any country were to become a Christian or Jewish theocracy, rest assured that the violence would resume. A popular school of thought called "Christian Reconstructionism" advocates that returning to the Old Testament (Jewish) injunctions is necessary in order to usher in Jesus' Second Coming. Orthodox Jews wish to rebuild the Temple, and resume the animal sacrifices there in order that their Messiah can appear.

I believed that I have clearly shown the violence and barbarism of the Abrahamic religions. Now I will show where this violence comes from.

The Abrahamic religions all come from, by definition, the patriarch Abraham. And what is the defining moment of Abraham? From the 22nd chapter of Genesis, we learn that the minor desert deity, Yahweh, which claimed to be the Supreme God, commanded Abraham to sacrifice his own son, Isaac, as a test of faith. Abraham proceeded to do so, although an angel of Yahweh stopped him at the last second.

In other words, the test of faith from Yahweh is: "Will you kill for me?".

Understand this, and you will perfectly understand the violence of the Abrahamic religions since time immemorial.