isis and organised religion as a who,e

[mausmaus]

isis scare the fucking shit out of me!

and I'm really questioning organised religion atm. I find it disturbing, the violence/power abused by (mostly) men throughout history.
I can't get my head around balancing tolerance/democracy and human rights.

thoughts?

[DrunkenWhore]

I totally agree! I detest all religions TBH with the possible exceptions of Buddhism and Paganism. The way women are treated, ruled over, despised all in the name of a so called fairy in the clouds makes my blood boil.

And ISIS scare the bejesus out of me too. I don't agree with war at all, but the shite that they spout not only about women but about people in general is abhorrent.

We need to do something about religious knobs who claim to have power over a woman and her body. The fact that it goes on in so many countries in the 21st century baffles me. It's not just the middle east but parts of the States too!

[mausmaus]

even in the uk! just look at the silly debate being had about women bishops.
not to mention the laws in ireland that show blatant disregard of women's needs.

[DoctorTwo]

ISIS numbers around 10000. Were there any real will to get rid of them it would be pretty easy to do with a couple of thousand of proper soldiers equipped with the right armaments. It won't happen because it's in the best interests of our corrupt governments to keep us scared.

And yes, religion, especially the Abrahamic type, are terrified of women and sex. Just reading their books is enough to see that.

[AChickenCalledKorma]

Don't tar all organised religion with the same brush. That is ignorant.

Methodism has pretty well kept pace with changes in the role of women in wider society, including female preachers in the 18th century, ordination of women in the 1970s and the first female President in the early 90s. Far from perfect, but hardly in the same league as ISIS.

interesting article about women in Methodism

[Dervel]

I'm with chicken here. It has become increasingly fashionable under the auspices of the likes of Dawkins to bash religion wholesale. Whilst I would not take issue that religion has been used to oppress, and in this case women. I don't think it is causal.

That is to say an organized religion within a sexist and mysogynistic society will become so, but that in and of itself cause the problem. There is evidence to suggest that pre-nicean council Christians had many egalitarian communities, and the bible still contains the reference that Mary Magdelene was the apostle of apostles (basically Jesus's senior student).

Also early copies of the Qur'ran were destroyed that contained instructions for women Imams. By all means call out current practices by current faiths that need correction, but laying all the blame at the feet of religion as a concept is false.