The following chapters give an overview of the major world religions from the perspective of the amount of suffering that they cause. Many people claim to have experienced some form of spiritual interaction. I do not expect people to believe in their existence if they have not experienced any themselves, but it is useful to have an open mind to see how most religions can cause suffering. I make the assumption that all spiritual events and communication are derived from the same source and that they are intelligent in nature. These interactions appear to support people's beliefs in religions that can cause suffering. Most religions have the following characteristics in common:
- Competing religions incite division and war.
- Many religious rules and regulations have no apparent purpose other than to restrict freedom and cause suffering to the followers of a religion.
- Many religions involve beliefs that are highly questionable or even provably false. This can make it difficult for people to change their beliefs due to the injured pride that it would cause, and traps people within a particular belief system. This is particularly true of religious teachers, who have more pride at stake than an average follower of a religion. These beliefs also encourage people to be derisory of other people's belief systems. Mutual derision reinforces the false idea that if you are being persecuted, then you must be right.
- Creation of outcast groups (e.g. prostitutes, pagans and the poor).
- Creating inequality by giving some people more spiritual communication than others, and calling some people to be teachers of a religion. Many people are given no communication at all.
- Some religions contain rules for physical punishment (e.g. Judaism and Islam).
- Some religions have a belief in a positive and negative spiritual force, and most believe that God and spiritual events are good.
Spiritual interactions can be defined as anything that does not correspond to our everyday experience of the Universe and cannot be explained by rational or scientific methods. They may also include things for which good scientific explanations are not possible such as hypnosis and schizophrenia, and where rational explanations are inadequate such as firewalking, dowsing and crop circles. Spiritual interactions may be neutral or even beneficial (such as healing), but the overall effect appears to convince people that their beliefs in a particular religion are absolutely correct, even though aspects of many religions are harmful to their followers. Therefore, one step to help reduce suffering is to reject God and spiritualism. However, many religious practices are not incompatible with the idea of a personal heaven, and it should be possible to live more selflessly while retaining an existing religious belief.
I have rated all the religions according to the levels of freedom that they engender, the level of fulfillment they bring to a follower, and the amount of fulfillment that is brought to others, and an example graph is given below. The reason that I rate religions is to help people identify strategies to improve their lives and the lives of others. I attempt to give an unbiased account of religions while emphasizing any points that are beneficial or inhibitory to freedom, self-fulfillment and the fulfillment of the needs of others. Clearly these ratings are only a rough guide and all individuals have unique levels of freedom and self-fulfillment, and fulfill the needs of others to varying extents. However, these aspects of life are strongly influenced by religious belief.
| Absolute freedom | Optimal self-fulfillment | Optimal fulfillment of the needs of others | |
| High levels of freedom | Good self-fulfillment | Good fulfillment of the needs of others | |
| Moderate freedom | No overall benefit to self | No overall benefit to others | |
| Somewhat restricted freedom | May cause suffering to self | May cause suffering to others | |
| Very restricted freedom | May cause high levels of suffering to self | May cause high levels of suffering to others | |
| No freedom | Torture to self | Torture to others |