(Video Transcript)
Is God of the Bible and the Quran a racist God? Does God use logical fallacies in his scriptures and so called holy books?
Let me take a step back and explain first… Over-generalisation or stereotyping is a very common logical fallacy. A fallacy or a mental phenomenon that we have become more familiar with specially the past twenty years. The use of stereotypes or over-generalisation has even become an area of research in various scientific fields, such as modern psychology, sociology, neuroscience and cognitive behaviour.
This fallacy of over-generalisation has many forms and levels, but the most common and most racist one is negative stereotypes. In our common languages, you may hear many expressions like "Jews are stingy" "English people are emotionally cold," or "Egyptians are inherently religious people". We tend to generalise excessively and impose specific patterns on our human perceptions. We stereotype people and do not want to acknowledge that within every group, there are individuals who do not possess the qualities attributed to the entire group. It is an evolutionary trait to save brain power.
With the rise of human rights, anti-racism advocacy, and the advancement of sciences in areas like modern psychology and cognitive behaviour, more attention has been given to the fact that over-generalisation and stereotyping are the root of racism and a fundamental cause of discrimination among people and social classes. As a result, over-generalisation and stereotypes have been considered a racist behaviour and in many cases among human rights violations.
In this video I’m going to talk about; why we resort to over-generalisation, and how this human shortcoming has seeped into our religious texts? Is God of the Bible and the Quran a racist God?
Or is he innocent of racism and over-generalisation? - Let’s see
First, we need to understand what over-generalisation or excessive generalisation mean before we explore whether God or religion has fallen into this human error and carried on racism.
The field of neurology and cognitive behaviour tells us why we resort to stereotyping and exxessive generalisation as a cognitive mechanism. Generalisation, in itself, is a cognitive mechanism that saves the human brain from excessive efforts because it cannot deal with reality in all its separate units. Thus, it resorts to generalise to conserve energy and facilitate thinking and organising patterns of knowledge. This is achieved by grouping characteristics together. For example, when you meet one African person with dark skin, then another, and a third, the brain uses the mechanism of generalisation and concludes that Africans are dark-skinned people. This is called logical generalisation or non-excessive generalisation, where the conclusion is logically justified.
On the other hand, excessive generalisation is when you meet one terrorist who has a beard and claims to be a Muslim, then you see another terrorist on television who also has a beard and holds a Quran, and a third one in the newspaper, a Muslim with a beard, who carried out a terrorist attack. Then, you excessively generalise that any Muslim with a beard is a terrorist, and you should fear and avoid all Muslims.
This is then called excessive generalisation and racist stereotyping. Despite being a cognitive mechanism understandable for its protective function and energy-saving properties, it is still considered a human rights violation and a logical fallacy… It is never accepted and never okay!
This excessive generalisation is a racist crime that we have become more aware of as human rights have advanced in modern times. We have begun to spread awareness among people about the severity of this issue and the limitations of the human mind.
It is not acceptable to claim that all women have a maternal instinct because some women may not have that and there are women capable of harming their children. It is also not acceptable to claim that all men are physically or emotionally strong because some of them may not be able to endure pain. This is excessive generalisation. Even if statistics support certain characteristics, it is not valid to over-generalise and stereotype because each person has their own psychological state, characteristics, and abilities that may NOT fit their ethnicity, gender, or race.
Even when saying good things – Saying that all Japanese people are super intelligent is not a valid claim because some of them may be unintelligent. The conclusion is that excessive generalisation and stereotypes, whether in positive or negative claims, are a mental limitation that prevents us from dealing with each person as an individual with their unique circumstances, characteristics, abilities, and personality. Instead, we resort to placing them all in once basket, dealing with them in a stereotypical way based on their gender, ethnicity, or nationality.
Now, that explained – how does this lengthy introduction relate to religions, God the creator, and religious books?
It is undoubtedly very relatable. From this perspective, religions portray God as having the limitations of humans, as if He has a brain that functions in the same flawed way as the human brain. Thus, He does not realise that humans are diverse, and each individual possesses their own traits. Within every group, there are individuals who do not possess the characteristics attributed to their entire group. However, it appears that God Himself fell into the fallacy of over-generalisation and stereotyping.
As human thought and sciences advanced, along with the progress of human rights, we came to understand that it is not acceptable to deal with any person and judge them based on their ethnic affiliation. It is not valid to assume a specific attribute for all Egyptians, generalise a certain feature to all women, or assume a characteristic that can be applied to all Muslims, Christians, Arabs, or Jews. This is excessive generalisation, and it leads to stereotyping.
So when you come across a Quranic verses like "You will surely find the most bitter towards the believers to be the Jews and polytheists" (Quran 5:82), you see an over-generalisation about Jews being enemies of believers. But in reality, there are many many Jews who actually defend the rights of Palestinian Muslims and oppose Zionist movements. So, the excessive generalisation ignores the fact that each group has diverse individuals and falls into the trap of stereotyping. And God of the Quran falls into that!
Moreover, this excessive generalisation also makes God appear contradictory because He seems unable to distinguish between different categories within the same group. For example, one moment, He says that you will find the most gracious to the believers are those who call themselves Christians." (Quran 5:82), implying that Christians love and support Muslim believers. Yet, at the same time, He says, "You will never find a people who believe in Allah and the Last Day loyal to those who defy Allah and His Messenger" (Quran 58:22), implying that Christians do not have love or affection for Muslim believers since they do not accept the Muslim prophet. Also in verse 120 in Sura 2, it puts both Christians and Jews in one basket “Never will the Jews or Christians be pleased with you, until you follow their faith.”. Well.. I thought the Jews were the most bitter towards Muslims while the Christians are the most gracious towards them. Now, both Christians and Jews will never be pleased with Muslim believers? - This inconsistency arises due to the excessive generalisation, as it does not differentiate between different groups or individuals, and puts all Christians in one basket, once to be the closest and dearest to Muslim believers and another time to be disloyal and distant from Muslim believers!!
And if you think that I am only criticising the Quran because I am Christian or I’m Jewish, then you’re wrong! Let me show you that Jewish and Christian scripture are not necessarily portrayed in a better light. The bible also portrays God the Creator in the same fallacious manner using excessive generalisation and stereotyping.
When you come across a text in the holy scriptures or the Torah saying, "The Egyptians enslaved the children of Israel with violence" – You have to question it.. The Egyptians enslaved the children of Israel with violence, and not a single fair person among them? The text continues in several other places, stating, "I have heard the groaning of the people of Israel whom the Egyptians hold as slaves" – However, we know that there were Egyptians who supported and helped the children of Israel, like the Egyptian midwives who refused to harm them and other Egyptians who gave them their gold, etc. But No, God seems incapable of differentiating between good Egyptians and bad Egyptians and calls them all by The Egyptians; it is an excessive racial generalisation, portraying all Egyptians as a violent people against God and His people.
As usual, some Christian apologist might argue, "It is not God who generalises; rather, He knows our human limitations, so for ease he said the Egyptians and didn’t say ALL Egyptians"
Really bro? You think this is a convincing response.
What about when God decided to save His people so he sent His angel to kill all the firstborn of the Egyptians, wasn’t that excessive generalisation on God’s behalf? An angel who does not differentiate; any house without the blood markings on the door was struck, killing all the firstborn, of ALL Egyptians whether human or animal. Even the firstborn of the innocent people were killed if their houses were not marked with the blood, just because they were not Jews.
This is a clear example of excessive generalisation and pure racism. It was not due to our limitations; it was due to God’s limitations, as He or his angel could not differentiate between one person and another. So, He chose to be racist, punishing the entire Egyptian people, unable to distinguish between individuals.
Furthermore, it's not only this instance of racism. Throughout the religious texts – whether it's the Torah, the Holy Bible, or the Quran – Allah or God cannot speak without being racist, without stereotyping, without excessive generalisation. Today, we consider these practices of stereotyping as human rights violations and unfortunately religious scripture are full of them.
Whether it's Jews, Christians, Egyptians, Assyrians, Canaanites, etc., God or Allah in these religious texts knows no way to be anything other than racist. He does not understand that within every group, there are people who do not possess the characteristics of their entire group… and whenever he sent and angel or a command, it was one command rules all – no individuals exempt! Racism at its best.
There's no such thing as "the Jews will never be pleased with you" or "the Christians will love and support you" or "all Muslims are terrorists" or "this nation is corrupt and deserves destruction" - because humans have good and bad individuals, regardless of their ethnicity, lineage, race or nationality. However, it seems that God, as depicted in the religious texts, does not comprehend this fact or, perhaps, - entertain this idea for a moment – perhaps these texts are not from the divine … since God or the divine cannot be racist.
Peace – and Love for all.
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