Touchy Subject

[hollowleviathan]

I understand what any Abrahamic book could have against killing or stealing, but I'm confused by why so many religions wish to make us repress natural sexual desires, not eat item(s) X on day(s) Y, or wear certain hats.

Those aren't evil, they're ways in which the faithful can honor and praise their creator, whom they love for loving and caring for them. People of those religions may be base or simple people who only perform the ceremony out of rote, or have confused tradition with law, but abstaining from those things is not necessarily evil.