Image by Al Bar via FlickrBy MelvinWhat if there was a group of people that believed that leprechauns were real. They believed in them so much that they believed that the Leprechaun was the key to eternal happiness. They not only believed in them, but they even built idols and places of worship to praise the magical creatures. The Leprechauns dictated how they should live their lives, and even had a set of moral codes to live by. If any one strays from the code or doesn’t believe in leprechauns all together, then they are source of evil, out to destroy the leprechauns and their faithful.
The very reason that there are people who aren’t leprechaunites, and there is evil in the world, is because of Belgabesh the eternal enemy of the leprechauns. To a leprechaun believer anyone who isn’t faithful is under the spell of Belgabesh and must be destroyed. So, eventually, these lovers of rainbows, potatoes, and pots of gold get the word from the leprechauns to kill any one who strays from the flock, or any one who is just a non-believer.
They take to the streets find all the non-believers and burn them at the stake. Some of this congregation even straps bombs to themselves and blow up buildings full of infidels.
At this point any one reading this must be thinking, "Wow, these people are not only extremists, but they are in need of some psychological help. Why would any one do such horrible things for something that has no physical proof to back it up?"
The sad thing is, this situation has gone on since the beginning of time. It is called organized religion, and the author of this rant believes it is very dangerous.
The Aztec people gained most of their religious beliefs from nations that they conquered. They believed that to feed and pacify their gods, they needed to provide an offering of blood. Some of these ceremonies included the priests cutting themselves, or piercing there tongues, ears, extremities or even their genitals.
The thing that pacified the gods most was a human sacrifice and the offering of a human heart.
In Springfield Massachusetts, the Roman Catholic Diocese paid 4.5 million dollars to 59 people who all claimed that they were sexually abused by Catholic priests. Some of the rituals were on a minor scale, only killing one or two slaves. The sacrifice was held down by multiple priests. The priest would cut the victims open under the rib cage and pull out their hearts. The hearts were then roasted on a fire and the victims' bodies were hurled down the steps like a piece of trash.
Their god, Huehueteotl, must have been a real kind, loving god, because his sacrifices were thrown in to the fire, then drug out with hooks before they died so they could cut out the poor souls heart while it still beat, and thrown back in to the fire (Hooker).
In 1076 A.D., the Muslims took over a town called Jerusalem. The Muslims thought it was the most holy place because their profit Muhammad had spent a lot of time there preaching and praying. The Christians thought this was an outrage, because they believed it to be one of the most holy places in their religion. Their savior Jesus was purportedly born in or nearby Bethlehem, and he was supposedly crucified on Calvary Hill in Jerusalem. The Christian and the Muslims fought for control of this city for nearly 200 hundred years. Thousands and thousands of people died, all because of a belief in a certain invisible being (The Crusades).
In 1198 A.D. The Spanish Inquisition was under way. The Roman Catholic Church made up a tribunal to find out who was a backslider or an unbeliever. When they got confessions for these "crimes," they would torture, imprison and even burn people at the stake all in the name of GOD.
“In Seville, more than 700 Conversos were burned at the stake and 5,000 repented. Tribunals were also opened in Aragon, Catalonia, and Valencia. An inquisition Tribunal was set up in Ciudad Real, where 100 Conversos were condemned, and it was moved to Toledo in 1485. Between 1486-1492, 25 auto de fes were held in Toledo. 467 people were burned at the stake, and others were imprisoned. (The American).” After the smoke cleared, 31,912 human beings were burned alive, 17,659 were burned just for the cause. 291,450 people repented of their so-called sins to avoid being killed. 40,000 were tried, and 1,800 human beings were condemned to death by the loving arms of the Church (The American).
During the 1950’s, a man by the name of Jim Jones started a church that eventually had 900 hundred members. Most of his congregation was inter-racial -- something really unheard of in that time. He also preached love and hope and working together as a community. The government eventually started investigating his reported cures for cancer, heart disease and arthritis, so the church moved to California. At this point Mr. Jones talked about the appending Apocalypse and that the world was going to be destroyed in a nuclear war. Further investigations by the media into the church movivated them to move again, first to San Fransisco and then to Los Angeles. After further investigation by the press, Jim Jones moved some of his people to a place they called Jonestown in Guyana, were they lived in their own community, fielding crops and worshiping god.
At this point, Jim Jones was abusing prescription medicine constantly. He became increasingly paranoid and started to simulate something called a translation, where he and his followers pretended to drink poison in order to depart to a new planet that was pure bliss.
At this point some of the members left the church and formed a group called "Concerned Relatives." Through their concerns, Congressman Leo Ryan visited Jonestown himself with a news crew. The visit went well until they were ready to leave and sixteen of the members of the Peoples Temple wanted to leave with the Congressman. When they all arrived at the airstrip, every one, except a few survivors, were shot and killed by members of the church. When word got back to Jim Jones, he instructed every one in the church to drink poisoned KoolAid, and 638 adults, and 276 children committed suicide (Back ground).
In Dublin more than 150 priests are being watched and questioned over the many allegations of sexual abuse. There have been eight priests who have been convicted of sexual abuse in court, and three others that are still facing charges. There have been 400 people who have made complaints about sexual abuse in Ireland and the number is still growing. In Ferns, in south-eastern Ireland, there is a reported 100 complaints against at least 21 priests. This was the first time that the government of Ireland has ever done any investigation against the Catholic church (150 priests).
In Springfield Massachusetts, the Roman Catholic Diocese paid 4.5 million dollars to 59 people who all claimed that they were sexually abused by Catholic priests. This settlement wasn’t the first: 7.7 million was paid out to victims of sexual abuse in 2004. A man by the name of Henneberger claims he was sexual abused 75 to 100 times by a priest in Pittsfield, while he delivered the paper to the church. Thomas L. Dupre, former Springfield bishop retired in 2004, was indicted by a Grand Jury for sexual assault. His first accusers were members of his church from the 70’s. They accused him of getting them drunk and making them watch gay pornography while sexually abusing them (Barry).
There are 1.2 to 1.5 billion Muslims in the world. Half of these numbers are women. Almost all Muslim woman support Jihad, but only one out of every fifty actually participate in terrorist actio, which leaves a maximum pool of a little over fifty percent of the Muslim population that has the potential for terrorist acts. The majority of suicide bombers and jihadists aged 15-30, so that makes the pool about 25% of the population. With only less than one forth of the Muslim world participating, they have managed to blow up countless buildings and buses. They even blew up train stations in England and flew two planes into the World Trade Center, killing 2.997 people instantly (Terrorism Timeline).
The point the author of this paper is trying to make is that when people are given power and authority through a religious belief, they tend to believe that they are chosen by GOD and everything they do or say is ordained of GOD, basically making them GOD themselves. The author of this paper would like to end with a quote from one of the advocates of organized religion:
“I believe today that my conduct is in accordance with the will of the almighty Creator”-Adolf Hitler, mein kampf,vol. 1 Chapter 2 (Begt).
Works Cited
“150 priests faced sex probe” rickross. 11 Nov. 2008. 12 Dec. 2008 .
“Adolf Hitler Quotations: Adolf Hitler on Religion, God, and Christianity” Wikipedia. 16 Dec. 2008 <>.
American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise.”The inquisition” Jewish Virtual Library. 18 Dec. 2008 .
Barry, Stephanie.”Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield pays $4.5 million to 59 clergy abuse victims” rickross. 2 Dec. 2008. 16 Dec. 2008 .
Hooker, Richard. “ The Mexica / Aztecs” wsu. 06 June 1999. 18 Dec. 2008 .
Robinson, B. A. “The People's Temple, led by
James Warren (Jim) Jones” Religious tolerance. 09 April 2007. 18 Dec. 2008 .
“Terrorism Timeline” prophet of doom. 18 Dec. 2008 .
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