This one is one heck of a run, with no prewritting done. So rough ride ahead. Go figure, it all started from watching a tictak. What I was watching was a young dark skinned woman talking about how she left her faith because the Quran has rules and laws for how to treat your slave. So of course, my book collection being what it is, I had to dive into this rabbit hole head first. To elaborate, my personal library has enough religious texts from hundreds of religions. A large enough spread to make the library of Alexandria proud. Now, to drag you down this rabbit hole with me because I have to get it out of my head. 

Now first step I had to grab my Quran and look up the passages this lady mentioned. I could not believe my eyes, the passages existed. So now we have a big bump. If something is in the Quran, it's usually in the Bible and the Torah as well. And yes, I will gladly discuss the how and why of why those 3 books are really the same thing at another time, if that idea gets stuck in your craw. Alas, back to my rambling point. I found the same passages in my Bible, as well as in my Torah. By now I have been cramming passages for 8 hours now from several religions. Yes I know there is google, however I am old school and can not personally accept a source unless it is physically in my hands. But I am currently astounded, even my Buddhist texts have passages that refer to slavery as if it is an accepted norm. I am kinda blown at the moment. It seems to be that religions based on texts seem to be based on slavery. 

If you haven't figured out by now, via the bad grammar and spelling, this entry is how I have decided to process this information. I have a feeling that by the end of this it will be something that should be shared. Also keep in mind, I am no translation expert. I barely can handle American English, let alone another language. 

Cramming all these texts, I have noticed that the older texts handle slavery more as a concept. The "newer" texts handle slave and slavery more as a direct person. Now, I am no professor of history. I just love history, archeology, anthropology, and religion. But I do know that populations being enslaved has existed for pretty much all of recorded history. It is only recently that a person being enslaved has begun to be unacceptable. I also know that in that same amount of time language has changed so massively that a literal translation is useless. 

So that brings me to the word slavery. As I interpret it, it equals The Devil card in the tarot deck. A cruel figure with a man and a woman chained and bound before him. And yes, most of my faith and religion is based off the Tarot. But back to the devil card and slavery. According to the lessons of that card, enslaving another person is impossible. However you can enslave yourself. You can allow yourself to be controlled by another person, addiction, faith, or several other things. Now, most of the oldest of the oldest texts handle slavery with similar context. 

Now, to the newer texts and their lessons. I have noticed that most of the laws of how to handle slavery read like a course on addiction. But also that where it does talk about slavery as a person, it also mentions laws about when the slave has payed off his debt and what he should be given when his freedom is returned. But ultimately, it comes down to indentured servitude. There does not seem to be any law or rule that allows a person to be kept as a slave from birth till death. Quite the opposite, at the best of how I can interpret this all, it seems the longest time a person can be enslaved is twenty years.

So now I am stuck with the questions, does belonging to a religion entitle you to being able to enslave another person? How is it that a religion could allow a person to be sold, bartered, and treated so cruelly? 

To put it simply, it isn't the religion itself. It's the religious leaders and such that have made this happen. Yes I am pulling the cop out of "blaim the pope". Sadly though it fits. It doesn't take long to look at things and realize that against gods will, scripture has been weaponized and used to allow so many atrocities. I mean even today, how many fingers do you need to count the number of people you know that have actually read a bible/Quran/Torah, from cover to cover? I am willing to bet my paycheck that most of you won't fill one hand. I'm also willing to bet that most preachers, pastors, ministers, and priests have the same count. I've been through seminary classes. You don't read the bible and interpret, you memorize how to use the bible to display the churches narrative. 

*sarcasm warning*

But I mean a large scale church, corporation, or government would never twist a holy scripture to enslave or control a population. That is such an impossible missuse of authority. A man of faith would never intentionally misstranslate or keep his people from reading a book themselves. I mean words don't change meaning, truck has always been truck, queen has always been queen, biting your thumb has always been biting your thumb. 

*sarcasm over* 

I do honestly wonder now, how is it that a person can think that a 5k year old book should be followed to the letter. I mean the constitution and bill of rights no longer makes sense or fits my country, and those pages aren't even 500 years old yet. *big sigh* Faith is one of the best things in this world. Blind Faith, is easily the most dangerous thing in our world. 

Thank you for taking this rambling ride. I promise, one of these days I will actually pre-write, edit, and properly put together a post .... eventually .... maybe ...... probably not.