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as someone who is against hate, i believe that these religions are too centralised on this point: one is good, the other is not. many dictate that there is only one "correct" way to live, and demand faith from their followers, but the truth is, that without being born intoΒ Β this environment, many remain loyal to their own truth, without needing to adapt it to their surroundings. i will explain a couple more points here below:
"it's only the implementation that's wrong" this argument is partially true, because yes, i believe that people should be able to have freedom of religion (as long as it isn't hateful or directly harmful), and that yes, the control exhibited over both women and minorities is completely absurd, i must also add that these beliefs are GROUNDED in the religion itself.Β
"*insert abrahamic text here* didn't state that", but the truth is, it is ingrained in the writing. WOMEN are expected to veil, the principal antagonists are the opposers of the faith (lgbtq, confident women, people who question), the man always holds the positions of religious power (ex: the pope, jesus), even the God (while gender-neutral) is more often considered masculine than feminine.Β
"but if she chose to, it's ok!" by chosing to parttake in any of these religions, she is directly supporting the oppressors, by being involved in the systems that ask for submission and respect, while giving back the bribe of heaven.Β
"i don't agree with that/those parts" if you don't believe in/agree with some parts of the bible, you can't call yourself a member of a religion, because if you can't believe some of God/Allah/Yahweh's word, why can you believe any of it? if that part is a misinterpetation, why can't the rest of it be?
women as lures: women have symbolically been portrayed as weaker than men, seducing/harming men, or owing their lives to men (adam and eve, jezebel, verse 4:34 in the quran, and many more). in these situations, women are viewed as weaker, lustful, one-dimensional, submissive, and owned by their husbands, which are themes that i don't stand for.Β
i'm not asking you to leave your religion if you believe in any of these, and if you must be in one of then against your will i am not penalising you for doing so, i am simply explaining why i believe that these systems are ethically wrong. there are many other things i would like to say on the subject of these religions, that i haven't stated here, but i'll share it if asked to.
as a result of what i said above, i as to dni everybody who follows any abrahamic religions, and for them to seriously think on what i've said (/nf).Β
have a great day.Β
sources:
leviticus 15:19-30
an-nisa (4:34)
psychnet.apa.org
brandeis.edu
researchgate.net
Comments
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enfys
hey! i'm a jew, and while i do think that you make a lot of good points, i think you've slightly overgeneralised the idea of "abrahamic religions" in a way that means a lot of your ideas don't apply to judaism. it's a really very common misconception but i just wanna suggest a few of the ways where you might want to reconsider your ideas, as well as some suggestions as to where you can learn more stuff which is unlikely to change your mind, but you may find interesting if you're the kind of person who likes to be educated/open-minded!
1. "one is good, the other is not. many dictate that there is only one "correct" way to live." unlike christianity and islam, judaism is a non-proselytising religion. you *can* convert to judaism, but it's discouraged. non-jews can be just as righteous as jews, and live a life with less rules than us (7 rules for non-jews, as opposed to 613 for us).
2. "even the God (while gender-neutral) is more often considered masculine than feminine." while this is true, i think you might be interested in researching the idea of shekhinah! shekhinah is a kabbalist concept which refers to the divine feminine aspects of g-d. the shekhinah is very engrained into a lot of jewish prayer. additionally, i don't know how familiar you are with the jewish shabbat ("day of rest"), but shabbat is typically seen as a womanly/female presence (likely associated with the shekhinah), and when starting shabbat and lighting the candles we welcome in the "shabbat queen/shabbat bride." like i said, your point is correct, but i just think these might be interesting concepts for you to look into!
3. "in these situations, women are viewed as weaker, lustful, one-dimensional, submissive, and owned by their husbands, which are themes that i don't stand for." fair enough!! i honestly do not blame you!! if you wanted some stories from the tanakh where women are none of these things, i recommend looking into the stories of deborah and jael (judges 4-5), hannah (1 samuel 1-2), and huldah (2 kings 22, although this one might require more study than just reading the text as huldah is quite a complicated feminist figure!) there are also jewish ideas such as lilith, which i believe comes from a talmudic interpretation of genesis 1 & 2. whilst not originally feminist, it's widely reclaimed as a feminist story and personally i think the evolution of lilith as a feminist figure is incredibly interesting. just as in point two, i am not necessarily disagreeing with your point, but just pointing you towards some further reading (deborah and jael is my personal fav)
4. "God/Allah/ΧΧΧΧ" this isn't actually related to your overall point, but i assume you put the tetragrammaton there as a way of relating to a jewish audience - just wanted to let you know that we do not attempt to transliterate the name (it's impossible to know how it was pronounced) and we do not use it to refer to g-d at all!! if you wanted to refer to g-d in a jewish way, you could say "hashem" (lit. the name)
5. "if you don't believe in/agree with some parts of the bible, you can't call yourself a member of a religion," i don't know enough about either christianity or islam to say if that's the case for those religions, but judaism is an ethnoreligion. this means that you can be jewish as an ethnicity without being religious at all
as i said before, i really am not trying to change your mind at all, i just wanted to provide some education on aspects in which judaism differs from christianity and islam! i hope you have a great day!
enfys
hey! i'm a jew, and while i do think that you make a lot of good points, i think you've slightly overgeneralised the idea of "abrahamic religions" in a way that means a lot of your ideas don't apply to judaism. it's a really very common misconception but i just wanna suggest a few of the ways where you might want to reconsider your ideas, as well as some suggestions as to where you can learn more stuff which is unlikely to change your mind, but you may find interesting if you're the kind of person who likes to be educated/open-minded!
1. "one is good, the other is not. many dictate that there is only one "correct" way to live." unlike christianity and islam, judaism is a non-proselytising religion. you *can* convert to judaism, but it's discouraged. non-jews can be just as righteous as jews, and live a life with less rules than us (7 rules for non-jews, as opposed to 613 for us).
2. "even the God (while gender-neutral) is more often considered masculine than feminine." while this is true, i think you might be interested in researching the idea of shekhinah! shekhinah is a kabbalist concept which refers to the divine feminine aspects of g-d. the shekhinah is very engrained into a lot of jewish prayer. additionally, i don't know how familiar you are with the jewish shabbat ("day of rest"), but shabbat is typically seen as a womanly/female presence (likely associated with the shekhinah), and when starting shabbat and lighting the candles we welcome in the "shabbat queen/shabbat bride." like i said, your point is correct, but i just think these might be interesting concepts for you to look into!
3. "in these situations, women are viewed as weaker, lustful, one-dimensional, submissive, and owned by their husbands, which are themes that i don't stand for." fair enough!! i honestly do not blame you!! if you wanted some stories from the tanakh where women are none of these things, i recommend looking into the stories of deborah and jael (judges 4-5), hannah (1 samuel 1-2), and huldah (2 kings 22, although this one might require more study than just reading the text as huldah is quite a complicated feminist figure!) there are also jewish ideas such as lilith, which i believe comes from a talmudic interpretation of genesis 1 & 2. whilst not originally feminist, it's widely reclaimed as a feminist story and personally i think the evolution of lilith as a feminist figure is incredibly interesting. just as in point two, i am not necessarily disagreeing with your point, but just pointing you towards some further reading (deborah and jael is my personal fav)
4. "God/Allah/ΧΧΧΧ" this isn't actually related to your overall point, but i assume you put the tetragrammaton there as a way of relating to a jewish audience - just wanted to let you know that we do not attempt to transliterate the name (it's impossible to know how it was pronounced) and we do not use it to refer to g-d at all!! if you wanted to refer to g-d in a jewish way, you could say "hashem" (lit. the name)
5. "if you don't believe in/agree with some parts of the bible, you can't call yourself a member of a religion," i don't know enough about either christianity or islam to say if that's the case for those religions, but judaism is an ethnoreligion. this means that you can be jewish as an ethnicity without being religious at all
as i said before, i really am not trying to change your mind at all, i just wanted to provide some education on aspects in which judaism differs from christianity and islam! i hope you have a great day!