What Richard Dawkins says here in this transcript from the documentary posted below, pretty much sums it up: The God of the Old Testament has got to be the most unpleasant character in all fiction. Jealous and proud of it, petty, vindictive, unjust, unforgiving, racist, an ethnic cleanser, urging his ppl on to acts of genocide. ~ If God doesnt set a good moral example, who does? Abraham, the founding father of all 3 great metaphorlistic religions? The man who would willingly make a burnt offering of his son Isaac? Maybe not. How about Moses? He having the tablets that say thou shalt not kill? Well the same man, in the book of Numbers was incensed by the Israelites merciful restraint against the metonite (sp?) ppl. He gave orders to kill all male prisoners and all older women.. but, all women and children who have not known a man by lying with him, keep for yourselves. How is this story of Moses morally distinguishable from Hitlers rape of Poland? Or Saddam Husseins massacre of the Kurds and marsh arabs? So lets leave Moses out of it, but there are lesser characters facing more everyday moral dilemmas, maybe they provide a better role model...In the book of Judges, a Priest was traveling with his wife to Gibea, they spent the night at the house an old man, but during supper, a mob came to demand that the host hand over his male guest so that we may know him better Yes...in the Biblical sense (to rape him). Well the old man replied Nay my bretheren, Nay I pray you, do not so wickedly. Behold here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now and humble ye them and do with them what seemeth good unto you, but unto this man do not so vile a thing. So...enjoy yourselves raping and humiliating my daughter, but show proper respect for my guest. Who is, after all, male. ~ Whatever else this strange story might mean, it surely tells us something about the status of women in this religious society. ~ Now of course, nice Christians will be protesting...everybody knows the Old Testament is deeply unpleasant but the New Testament of Jesus undoes all the damage and makes everything all right. Yes, there is no doubt that from a moral point of view, Jesus is a huge improvement because Jesus, or whoever wrote his lines, was not content to derive his ethics from the scriptures from which he was brought up, but then, it all goes wrong. The heart of the New Testament theology, invented after Jesus death, is St. Pauls nasty sadomasacistic doctrine of atonement for original sin. The idea is that God had himself reincarnated as a man, Jesus, in order that he should be hideously tortured and executed to redeem all our sins. Not just the original sin of Adam and Eve...future sins as well...whether we decide to commit them or not. If God wanted to forgive our sins, why not just forgive them? Who is God trying to impress? Presumably himself, since he is both judge, jury and execution victim. To cap it all, according to scientific views of pre-history, Adam, the purposed perpetrator of the original sin, (DNA dating all men back to Africa) the Adam of the Bible never existed in the first place. An awkward fact, which underminds the premise of Pauls whole tortuously nasty theory. OH...but of course now (recent DNA evidence) the story is that the story of Adam and Eve was only ever symbolic. SYMBOLIC? So Jesus had himself tortured and executed for a symbolic sin? By a non-existant individual? ~ Nobody, not brought up in the faith, could reach any verdict other than...Barking MAD! The strange theology and questionable texts wouldnt matter, but for the unfortunate fact, that there are ppl out there who really believe this stuff is the word of God and act on it, challenging progressive values and the rule of law. ~~ Richard Dawkins **I WAS brought up in the faith and these stories and the way wealthy men treated the rest of society it sounded bat shit crazy to me too! Then when you research it, you find out all the evidence and what ppl in history actually had to live through because of these made up stories...absolutely insane. Our country is under real threat of these fundamentalists having alot of money and getting elected in positions of power and thats not f*cking funny! We will soon find ourselves living in conditions of the dark ages of the 16th century if ppl dont wake up.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 17:50:37 +0000
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