Alpha God: The Psychology of Religious Violence and Oppression

by Héctor A. García

This can be difficult for many people to hear because as humans we have a tendency to think of ourselves as unique and to hold ourselves above other species. But we have DNA like all other life-forms—which ultimately shapes or brains and influences the manner in which we think—and we share as much as 99 percent of our DNA with nonhuman primates.

while the god of the Abrahamic religions has powers that humans do not, He remains unnecessarily preoccupied with what are ultimately very human, and very ape-like, concerns.

Human potential is so vast, but we may have limited ourselves by the gods we created.

My own opinion is that if there is a higher power (and I have yet to see evidence that there is) it certainly doesn't resemble any of the obvious, simplistic, and species-centric characterizations that have been widely proposed throughout the history of religion.

Powerful men appointed male gods as their generals, and success in battle (or in genocide) was often attributed to the gods. Of course, this is not the only epoch of human history in which agonies of this kind occurred, but as great populations began to emerge in the cradle of civilization, there was a corresponding growth of the scale of warfare.

if anyone dared to suggest worshipping other gods, that person should be killed, “even if it is your brother, your father's son, your own son or daughter, or the wife you embrace, or your most intimate friend” (Deut. 13:6–9). And if you came across an Israeli town worshipping other gods, “you must certainly put to the sword all who live in that town. Destroy it completely, both its people and its livestock. Gather all the plunder of the town into the middle of the public square and completely burn the town and all its plunder as a whole burnt offering to the LORD your God. It is to remain a ruin forever, never to be rebuilt” (Deut. 13:15–16).

The concept began evolving from roughly, “You shall have no other gods before me” to “There are no other gods.”

The sexual refractory period, normally referring to males, is a period of recovery after intercourse—after ejaculation when the male is unable to achieve an erection. Research shows that this period quickly ends with the presence of a novel female.13 Once a novel female is introduced, the male gets an erection and copulation is on—and on and on, continuing with each novel female. One study of rhesus monkeys found that male arousal continued to decline with familiar females even when the females were made constantly aroused by hormone injections.14 The decline quickly reversed when novel females were introduced, suggesting that male arousal is less tied to female arousal than it is to being an evolutionary “quantity” strategy employed by males.

God appears to want our women. Despite his resplendent powers, he seems to find himself cloistering women away, monitoring their sex lives, and enacting violent revenge against their sexual independence.

Understanding this point, and exposing Gods purported sexual concerns for what they really are, does much to shed light on religious sexual repression and religiously motivated violence against women.

Females are often in high demand, and this demand is tied to our reproductive biology.

David Buss's studies speak to this trend, showing that financially successful men typically gain more sexual access to women.27

Religion and sexual repression have historically gone hand in hand, and religion's sexually repressive dictates have trickled into the mores of cultures across the globe.

In many religious contexts we see God's jealousy commanding that men and women stave off their sexual impulses toward others, directing their attention to him instead. During Ramadan and Lent, millions of Muslims and Catholics (respectively) abstain from sex as a sacrifice to God, as one widely manifested example.

For organic beings with finite life spans, jealousy provides important motivation to compete for survival resources, be they food, water, territory, or sexual partners.

Like other dominant males, the Abrahamic god shows a preference for virgins. The god of Christianity is purported to have had a relationship with Mary of Nazareth. Like Zeus, Krishna, and an endless succession of other dominant males, he took another man's mate. And like the conquests of Zeus, this god never asked Mary if she wanted the relationship; he simply took what he desired. Mary, of course, was said to have been a virgin. Now, as I've noted above, human primates prefer virgins because they reduce the threat of uncertain paternity. Yet an omniscient (or all-knowing) God should already know if a child is his, and an everlasting god, who does not need to sexually reproduce himself into future generations, shouldn't really care. Thus God should neither fear cuckoldry nor prefer virgins, unless, of course, he is based on a male human.

Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man lying with him. But all the young girls who have not known man lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. (Num. 31:17–18)

Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the female slave, who is at her handmill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt—worse than there has ever been or ever will be again. (Exod. 11:5–6)

Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who repays you according to what you have done to us. Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks. (Ps.137:8–9)

Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the LORD Almighty, in the day of his burning anger…. Whoever is captured will be thrust through; all who are caught will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses will be looted and their wives violated. (Is. 13.13–16).