A True Monster Of Fiction… Part One

Tags

atheism, Atheist, christian, christianity, religion, theology

I am genuinely baffled by the continued gullibility of theists. In debate ( and I use that term loosely) their argument boils down to fact that their particular brand of supernatural deity loves them, that to behave responsibly they have to follow the bible for their moral compass and that in order to be less “hateful” I should read that lovely, sweet book of love – their scripture.

The Ten Commandments rates as one of the greatest missed moral opportunities of all time. How different history would have been had the writers clearly and unmistakably forbidden war, tyranny, invasion of other countries, slavery, exploitation of workers, cruelty to children, wife beating, stoning, treating women as chattel or inferior beings. The principles of humanism and basic human decency are as far from the origins of their biblical scriptures and the Abrahamic religions it beggars belief.

I have recently re-read The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins as I realised it had been almost ten years since I had picked my original copy up and a refresher was on the cards. One of my favourite quotes and I suspect the one most “hated” by theists is the following:

The god of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous, and proud of it: a petty, unjust, unforgiving, control freak; a vindictive, blood thirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, fillicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully

excerpt from The God Delusion – Richard Dawkins

I decided to investigate further, I mean could a fictional character really cover all those bases and be such a hideous monster? Wow. Nope, he had not exaggerated, in fact I found so many verses to corroborate his hypothesis, there was enough to keep me going for a lifetime of disgust for the people that follow such a hateful piece of shit.

Let me share some of the gems I found on a rainy summer’s afternoon in June. Okay I admit the wine did help the day pass…

JEALOUSY

“You shall acknowledge no god but me, no saviour except me” – Hosea 13:4

 

Well, he tells it like it is, he’s a no shit’s given control freak, although in his favour he does acknowledge he is one of a pantheon of gods – but just make sure he’s the one your following right? If you take a close look at the Ten Commandments they are completely about jealousy, it is obvious the writers of the Old Testament were projecting their own biological feelings of sexual insecurity onto their culturally derived deity, a male god.

“For jealousy arouses a husbands fury, and he shows no restraint when he takes revenge” –  Proverbs 6:34

The god worshipped by the Abrahamic religions is basically a jealous husband then. If your in doubt that your deity isn’t proud of his jealousy then look no further than :

“For you shall worship no other god, because  the lord, whose name is jealous,is a jealous god”  –  Exodus 34: 14-15

So the lord jealous clearly has issues with sexual insecurity and self respect, and let’s not forget his anger management issues

“the lord your god, who is present with you, is a jealous god. the anger of the lord your god would be kindled against you and he would destroy you from the face of the earth”

PETTY

“I am against your pillows” – Ezekiel 13:20 

 

“You shall not round off your hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard” -Leviticus 19:27

“You shall not make any cuttings on your flesh on account of the dead or tattoo any marks upon you”  – Leviticus 19:28

“Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading trough ” – Deuteronomy 28:17

“No one whose testicles are crushed or whose penis is cut off shall be admitted into the assembly of the lord” – Deuteronomy 23:1

” Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material” – Leviticus 19:19

“Eat not anything in the seas or rivers that has not fins and scales”  – Leviticus 11: 10-12

UNJUST

“I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty… their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses will be looted and their wives raped ” – Isaiah 13: 11-16

“The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens shall pick if out and the young eagles shall eat it” – Proverbs 30:17

“Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the lord must be destroyed” – Exodus 20:20

“Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death” –  Exodus 21:17

“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” – Exodus 22:18

“Since they have rejected the word of the lord, therefore I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners” – Jeremiah 8:9-10

UNFORGIVING

“He is a jealous god; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins” – Joshua 24:19

“Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offerings, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, by famine and by pestilence” – Jeremiah 14:12

“Therefore do not pray for these people, or lift up a cry or a prayer on their behalf, for I will not listen when they call me in a time of trouble”  – Jeremiah 11:14

“go ye after him through the city and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity, slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children and women”  – Ezekiel 9 3-10

CONTROL FREAK

There is very little in the bible that can be said to guide its followers in leading an ethical life. On the other hand it does like to go into detail in how their ‘god’ likes to micromanage their washing, eating and sexual habits.

Put under a microscope one can only surmise its followers love to be controlled and enjoy being in an abusive relationship with a sky fairy.  Hitchens had it right when he explained heaven as being a ‘celestial North Korea’

• Leviticus 15: 1-35 – A whole chapter on wet dreams, semen and periods
• Exodus 29: 10-14    how to butcher a bull
• Exodus 28: 4-42        apparently he  the sole must go to for how to make mens clothing
• Exodus 26: 1-13 – Interior decorator extraordinaire – How to make curtains ( he waffles a bit )
• Exodus 25 31-40 how to make a candlestick

” All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing, he does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth” –   Daniel 4:35

i.e. god does what he wants

“The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the lord” –  Proverbs 16:33

Hold it what happened to freewill?????? God controls everything

VINDICTIVE 

“I will take vengeance and I will spare no man” – Isaiah 47:3

“And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance upon the nations that did not obey” – Micah” –  5:15

“To rouse my wrath, to take vengeance, I have set on the bare rock the blood she has shed, that it may not be covered” –  Ezekiel 24:8

“God is jealous, and ht lord revengeth, the lord revengeth and is furious, the lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserveth wrath for his enemies” –  Nahum 1:2

( one assumes not just his enemies but his sky fairy followers who just dont kiss his ass enough – but I digress)

BLOODTHIRSTY

“The lord has a sword; it is soaked with blood ” –  Isaiah 34:6

One of my favourite quotes on this bloodthirsty supernatural deity, is by Dan Barker

“Compared with god, Dracula was a teetotaller” – Dan Barker

Here are a few old testament passages that mention blood – mostly human blood.

“I will drench the mountains with your flowing blood”  – Ezekiel 32:6

“I trod down the peoples in my anger, I made them drunk on my wrath, and i poured out their lifeblood on the earth” –  Isaiah 63:6

“A man or woman who is a medium or a wizard shall be put to death; they shall be stoned with stones, their blood shall be upon them ” –  Leviticus 20:27

“all who would not seek the lord, the god of Israel, were to be put to death, whether great or small, man or woman” –  2 Chronicles 15:13

“whoever sacrifices to any god save the lord, shall be utterly destroyed” –  Exodus 22:20

“and i will give portents in the heavens and on earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke” – Joel 2:30

“when the tabernacle is so set out, the Levites shall take it down, and when the tabernacle is pitched, the Levites shall set it up. And if anyone else comes near, he shall be put to death” –   Numbers 1:51

ETHNIC CLEANSER

“go and attack Amalek and utterly destroy them all, all that they have, do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey ” –  1 Samuel” –  15:3

“So Joshua burned Ai and made it a permanent heap of ruins, a desolate place to this day”  – Joshua 8:28

“Observe what i command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Per’izzites, teh Hivites and the Jebusites” –  Exodus 34: 11-13

“my angel will go ahead of you and bring you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hivites and Jebusites and I will wipe them out” –  Exodus 23: 23-24

“and i will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense alters and cast your dead bodies upon the dead bodies of your idols, and my soul will abhor you. And I will lay your cities to waste ”  – Leviticus 26 30-31

MISOGYNISTIC

“let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or have authority over a man”  –   1 Timothy 2: 11-14

The truth is the writers and religious leaders of the bible used their position in society to subjugate women. The used their religious texts to provide the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world. It continues still and will not end until religion has gone by the wayside.

The bible mentions women in regards to their monetary worth as property, whether the property of her father, husband or in the case of slavery her owner. The vestiges of this are still found in the marriages performed in churches worldwide. Where a father “gives his daughter away” to her new owner, her husband.

The writers of the bible were all men, perpetuating their male sexism and normalising the subjugation of women.

“and the daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing harlot, profanes her father , she shall be burned with fire” –  Leviticus 21:9

“This is what the lord says ” out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to on e who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight” –  2 Samuel 12:11

“but if the thing is true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the young woman, then they shall bring her out of her fathers house and the men shall stone her to death Deuteronomy” –  22: 20-21

“If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his penis, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity Deuteronomy” –  25 11-12

“Have they not divided their prey, to every man a damsel or two?” –  Judges 5:30

“now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman who has known man. But all the young girls who have not known man, keep alive for yourselves” –  Numbers 31: 17-18

“Lot went out of the door to the men, shut the door after him and said ” I beg you my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have 2 daughters who have not known man, let me bring them to you, and do to them as you please, only do nothing to these men for they have come under the shelter of my roof Genesis” –  19 6-8

” And Caleb said “he who attacks kiriathespher and takes it, i will give him Achsah my daughter as wife” –  Judges 1 12-13

“three  times in the year shall all your males appear before the lord” –  Exodus 23:17

“and he made the laver of bronze and its base bronze from the mirrors of the ministering women who ministered at the door of the meeting tent” –  Exodus 38:8

“Your desire shall be your husband, and he shall rule over you”  – Genesis 3:16

“when a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as male slaves do” –  Exodus 21:7-9

“if a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes and lies with her, and they are found, then the man shall give to the father 50 shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife” – Deuteronomy 22 28-29

COMING SOON IN PART TWO

“One should read the bible only if one is wearing gloves – Friedrich Nietzsche”

I couldn’t agree more with the above statement, I suggest you wear a pair for part two of this horror story…..