The Religious Skill of Internalising Evil

 
Sometimes a latently evil religion is mistaken for a good one.
 
A lot of the evil caused by religion is internalised because the religion has to look good to get power and money and praise. The evil is hidden from everybody but embedded inside you - it is about what you would do to people if you could or felt you could.
 
Internalised means something is there inside and only you can know it is there. You make it part of yourself.
 
The evil becomes you and you become it.
 
The evil is no less real because it is just internalised.
 
Internalising always risks it becoming more explicit and put into practice. 
 
Internalised evil means that if you do not give money or support to your religion when it does evil, you are still part of the problem because evil starts with people internalising it.  
 
Christians believe the Bible is written by God despite the violence he commands in it. He wanted blasphemers and adulterers for example put to death by stoning. If you were in those times you would persecute those people too. It is in you, in your heart. It doesn't matter that you wouldn't do it today. You would do it in principle or agree with it if you were able to get back to those times. Non-violent believers accept this violent principle hypothetically but that makes the filth in their hearts no less real.
 
Another way religious people internalise evil is by condoning the harm done by God. If you find religion a strength and comfort, it is easy to feel that God has a plan for you when things are going well and that attitude is an insult to those who suffer terribly. You are telling yourself that God has a purpose for the suffering of others not yours and that you will capitalise on that. You will enjoy and revel in being on the good rung of the plan ladder.
 
Religion causes people to internalise bad principles even if makes them seem to behave well.  Even to internalise a bad principle is bad. It says something about you.
 
It says too that you are willing to push the evil inside and pretend it is not there while knowing that it has to show its face sometime. Evil religion likes to turn people into pressure cookers and when the mess explodes it denies responsibility.
 
Signs that a religion is internalising evil include:
 
Venerating violent books or revelations as the word of God

Encouraging people to suffer and do penance

Insisting on blind obedience to leaders

Telling people not to trust their minds for they are damaged by original sin or Satan's wiles

Telling people to concern themselves with evidence for the religion only when it seems to back the religion up

Keeping people away from critics of their religion

Pretending that it loves sinners while hating their sins

Neglecting to throw out violent members who kill and maim in its name

Excusing the terrible things God lets happen to innocent people

Telling people it is catastrophic if they don't believe enough in God

Forgiving terrible deeds too easily

Telling people it is God's business what they do though it cannot be - God being God has no needs and therefore no right to command anybody

Ignoring any science or research that shows its doctrines may be false

Blaming the religious terrorist for his acts and not admitting the role of faith

Exaggerating how many sins there are and how bad they are

Accusing people of deserving everlasting punishment

Refusing to let its God take responsibility if the internalised evil erupts which it will for it is suppressed evil
 
There are many more signs. Each religion has its own way of being latently evil. Each cult often internalises different evils.
 
God by definition is the source of all good and deserves all worship. The Churches say you need God in order to be happy. But God is demanding so this will lead to you getting scared. He demands that you need him. That is bullying. You will be afraid to need this God so you will push him away. Faith in God and love for God reflect our human tendency to care more about what we think is good than what is good. They are internalised evil and hypocrisy.
 
Some faiths such as Presbyterianism claim that you are a miserable excuse for a creation of God. They teach total depravity which means that you don't care about good as it really is but just want your own version of it in defiance of God. As defiance of God is the worst sin, you are depraved for engaging in it. The attraction such doctrines hold is that if people see others as totally depraved, they console themselves by thinking they are not as bad. They demonise the other to feel better about themselves. If you accept doctrines like total depravity and if you feel they are true then you turn them into facts in your head. Feelings cause you to experience something as a fact when it is not.
 
Christianity and Islam are the two major offenders when it comes to religion that internalises evil.
 
Any group or family can internalise evil. The reason religion is a problem is that it gives us something we don't need - we already have enough to encourage and facilitate the internalisation of evil. Religion is more dangerous than anything else when it claims to be the religion set up by God and authorised by him. That means that if it is not, then it is man's rules being passed off as God's and as God knows better than we do, questioning or doubting is eliminated and made illegitimate.
 
We have seen too much of "placid" religions showing their true colours when they got the chance.