In America, I often hear things like “I’m opposed to organized religion. But spirituality is awesome.” Although of course I’ve met people who are against all religions and anything that can’t be currently proved by science. It seems a lot of opponents against religions believe the worst thing about them is the worshippers telling others what to do, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with the religions themselves. I think this is objectively false when it comes to religions like Christianity where horrid things like slavery are condoned in their religious texts, although I do believe when it comes down to it, how religions function in society and how their adherents treat others matter the most over what their scriptures say, since it’s not like a novel can get up and kill me for being a disobedient woman. Really, all aspects of a religion should be criticized. But I won’t talk about Christianity today. This article is about why I think religious beliefs themselves can harm someone, why all spirituality should be discussed, and why I feel upset when I hear someone say that Asian religious are so peaceful and unlike the awful religions of Christianity and Islam. My traditional Chinese mother raised me with a mixture of two religions: Buddhism and Taoism. This is quite normal in Asia; our religions are much more tolerant and none of our gods have rules like “You must worship no one else but me” so I’d guess most religious adherents don’t actually subscribe to just one religion, even if they only identified with one of them. One of my most harmful memories regarding my mother is a time when we were in a car—I think she was sending me to school—and she said something along the lines of “We must’ve done something terrible in our past lives to deserve to be abused by my husband.” I didn’t think much of it at the time. I didn’t want to think about that possibility and told myself whatever deity was in charge of reincarnation simply messed up. I also had another excuse ready: maybe I was meant to be abused so I could later become an activist and stand against child abuse. It was a sick way of feeling slightly less awful about losing my childhood to the monster my mother married. But as I got older, I still thought about this. What if I had believed her? That I deserved to be abused? What if I had internalized that and believed I should continue to be abused? What if I not only allowed my father to continue to abuse me but also made a self-fulfilling prophecy to marry an abusive man because I thought I didn’t deserve better? What if this thought bled into other areas of my life? Oh, I’m sick? I deserve to have a fever because I did something bad in a past life. It’s obvious that “You deserve pain” is a harmful message to any kid or adult. Now when I hear someone say believing in reincarnation is a personal choice, I cringe a little. In this connected society, our “personal” choices affect those around us. Not that believing in reincarnation is automatically bad, but if you use that belief to justify child abuse, maybe rethink your worldviews. Also note that my mother, like most adherents of her religions, does not listen to a preacher or anything like that. She visits her temple about once a month or whenever she feels like to light incense and pray. The temple staff only come in to make sure no one is stealing or burning anything, and occasionally tell tourists what something means. I’ve been dragged to that temple hundreds of times and not once has someone come up to me and decided to tell me some dogma. Yet my mother internalized very harmful beliefs and almost passed them onto me. And then I realized this idea of karma is harmful in even bigger ways. Just like Christians can talk about original sin or their god’s plan, or whatever stupid excuse why their omnipotent god would allow his own creations to suffer, anyone who believes in reincarnation can use past lives as an excuse as well. “Why is that man homeless?” “He killed someone two lives ago. We shouldn’t help him.” “Someone murdered my cousin.” “Let it go. He’ll be punished in his next lives.” I’ve observed some believers can produce a kind of bystander effect; they believe they shouldn’t bother alleviating the suffering around them or demanding justice when they see atrocities committed because their deities or some higher power will make everything right. This doesn’t require adherence to any “organized religion” or even belief in a deity. This just requires any kind of belief in a higher power, which is why I think karma is harmful even without the presence of some religion. One could argue karma’s purpose is to “control the masses” and manipulate commoners into not committing crimes, therefore it’s useful. This is arguably the purpose of all religions and their teachings. But just like “Jesus is watching” karma is a flawed idea. First of all, despite most folks in the world having some religious beliefs, murders and other crimes happen all the time. Many believers, even ones who believe genuinely, simply adjust their views or reinterpret their religious texts to suit their own desires. Or they don’t even truly believe. Simply relying on religions to curb crime is a bad idea, and one could argue in an ideal society people would refrain from committing crimes because they have morals, not because they’re terrified of hell or being reborn as an insect. Secondly, there’s no proof karma works since we can’t currently track souls through lives and see if bad actions in our current lives actually affect our next lives. Which means criminals can continue committing crime without remorse because they don’t believe in karma or they’ve adjusted their views to suit themselves, and no one will have any motivation to do much about it because they all believe karma will fix it. But what if karma’s not real? My point is, karma isn’t a harmless idea and has every single flaw of Christianity’s “Don’t do that or you’ll go to hell.” It’s just another version of it, though karma seems to be more individual. Christianity makes nice lists to tell all its adherents what will cause them to land in hell or heaven. With karma alone (without the presence of religion or gods), it seems believers can mostly decide for themselves if they suspect an action will land them an awful next life, which might result in less guilt about things like being gay. And at least I’m pretty sure karma lacks the concept of original sin. But even so, if you’re against Christianity and others of its ilk because you think “God is watching” is a harmful and flawed concept for whatever reasons, then you better be against the idea of karma as well. There’s also the issue about each culture having its own morals. Are morals universal? If not, how is it decided if an action is immoral? If someone lived and died in a culture where murder is fine and never had the chance to “learn” otherwise, would that person be punished if they murdered? This question also exists in Christianity. How does its deity judge individuals from different cultures? I’m sure all different sorts of ideas exist. I’d also like to briefly rant about Wiccan’s “three-fold law.” If I understand correctly, some Wiccans believe if I am a witch and curse someone, I’ll receive the curse three-fold (and same if I bless someone). So, if a man rapes me and I curse him, the universe will punish me for that? I have yet to see a believer say rapists will be raped three times for each time they rape. As far as I understand, the three-fold law only deals with spells, though some Wiccans might also believe in karma. I don’t know much about “true Wicca” or Wicca outside of Tumblr but I’m certain this law is sick, and it has the same flaws as the above beliefs. I’ve seen many believers claim Wicca is so different from all the “oppressive” religions like Christianity, but is it? Honestly, if witchcraft is real, witches are morally obligated to curse rapists and other scum because we should all try to help others when we can. Just like if we saw a person being robbed on the street, we should call the cops if we feel comfortable doing so. If we don’t and walk pass ignoring the scene (or praying for help that won’t come) for no reason other than because we don’t feel like assisting, then we’re just slightly responsible for that person getting robbed, and all the subsequent victims that could have been saved if the robber was arrested after his first crime. Witches should curse all scum if they feel they believe that person deserves it and have enough energy to do so. By the way, this article thinks the law is simply from “a misinterpretation of a passage in a work of fiction written by Gerald Gardner, the grandfather of modern Wicca.” You may further research the origins of this idea on your own. At first I wanted to talk more about how my mother’s religion ruined my childhood, but I’ll save the rest for another rant. What I want made clear is that all beliefs can be used to instill fear into children, even “pure” ones like the eastern idea of reincarnation. And all forms of “Let the universe take care of the issues” is bad, whether you believe your deity, karma, or some other higher power is in charge. The next time you see someone suffering, don’t wait around for an invisible entity to arrive. That person needs your help. Originally written 4 February 2018
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