Osho on Rape and Forgiveness, Nobody Can Forgive You

Osho – It says that one of the pillars of Christianity is forgiveness. It looks beautiful when you hear the word `forgiveness’, but the implications are very evil. A man rapes a woman. The man will be forgiven by God, but what about the woman? The criminal is forgiven, what about the victim? There is not a single mention that the victim will be rewarded or anything.

A man murders, and he simply goes to the priest and confesses, and the priest gives him a simple method, so cheap: “You have murdered a man. Put ten dollars in the charity box and say five Hail Marys, and your sin is forgiven. God is compassionate.”

But what about the murdered? Nobody has asked the question to the Christians, “What about the murdered? What is God going to do with the murdered, the raped woman, the molested child?”

And, strangely enough, the same man will commit another murder, because now he is fresh, clear; the old murder is erased, forgiven for ten dollars and five Hail Marys. Now he can commit another murder, he can commit another rape. All he needs is to go and confess to the priest and give some money, and the priest will give him a prayer to do five or ten times.

There is no mention of the person who has been committing crime after crime. He is not being punished, he is being continuously forgiven. And all those people who have suffered from this man’s crimes, there is not a single mention of them in the whole Christian religion. It seems God is in favor of criminals, but not in favor of the victims. Now look again at the idea of forgiveness, and you will see that it is ugly.

In other religions, Jainism, Buddhism, there is no God — and it is good that there is no God. Nobody can forgive, so there is no question of forgiveness. These religions are more scientific. Every action will have its reaction, nobody can prevent it. You put your hand in the fire and you will be burnt. No God can prevent it. You rape a woman and you will suffer a deep wound of guilt. You may go mad, but you will have to suffer. Only suffering will cleanse you, not forgiveness.

These religions are far more scientific: Taoism, Buddhism, Jainism. These three religions don’t have any God, they don’t have any hell, any heaven. They are purely scientific: live according to your awareness and there will be nothing like sin committed by you. Live unconsciously and you will suffer.

It is unconsciousness that suffers. There is nobody who can forgive you; that forgiveness is in itself a criminal act, because the raped woman is suffering. Perhaps she gets pregnant, she has a child which she cannot love. She hates it. It is out of rape that the child has come to her. There is no discussion at all about the very fundamental problem. Forgiveness is not the right thing.

One who commits anything against existence has to suffer. One who helps existence to grow towards more beauty and more consciousness, and more joy and more dance, should be rewarded — not by any God, but by his own act. In fact, when you do something good out of your awareness, the very action brings such blissfulness to you, such peace, such joy; you are rewarded in the action itself.

And if you do evil … that is only possible if you are not meditative. If you are an unconscious being, in blindness you may commit something which hurts someone — but then you have to take the responsibility, and you have to suffer the reaction that is produced by your action. Christianity is absolutely unscientific. There is no future for Christianity.

Source: Osho Book “Christianity The Deadliest Poison”