After reading some silliness on Mark Shea's blog about PZ Meyers, I pondered this question. Why do I bother writing about God if I don't believe in him. The answer is simple, actually.
Everywhere you turn, things reference God. God did this, God did that. This group built a multi-million dollar church for God. This man blew himself and 10 innocent bus passengers up for God. This man flew a plane into a tower for God. This woman protests funerals to tell us how God hates us.
I honestly think that Christians see themselves as persecuted because they swim in a fountain of God-ism all the time. They don't notice the vast sea of theism that they live in. They only feel the occasional discomforts when they run into someone who doesn't buy into their fairytale.
So, Mark, you want to know why I feel compelled to talk about God?
Because faith demands it. Not my faith: yours, and those like you.
People kill each other over the type of fairy tales you espouse.
People try to control others using precepts taken directly from your holy books.
People try to warp the minds of children because of religious precepts.
Everywhere I look, there is someone trying to save me. There is someone trying to make me buy into the latest fad of ignorance. There is someone who wants to teach my children about their (god/prophet/imam/whatever).
In short, my life is surrounded by irrational people who get worked up over irrational beliefs and react in irrational(and often times, outright dangerous) ways. And these people include those who have sent people off to die in wars. It includes those who have their finger on weapons of mass destruction.
I strive to see the day when perhaps my kids will sleep a little more soundly at night, because the crazed yahoos are finally corralled.
You worship one of the bloodiest deities ever invented, and you wonder why I would like to see your religion erased?
It's self preservation, Mark. That's why I fight you. Because your religions are cancers. And you either kill the cancer, or the cancer kills you.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
God is Love, Leviticus
God is Love
Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. - Leviticus 10:1-2
God is Love
Then the LORD said to Moses: "Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. Say to the Israelites: 'If anyone curses his God, he will be held responsible; anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death." - Leviticus 24:13-16
God is Love
"You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you." - Leviticus 26:7-8
God is Love
"But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and drain away your life." - Leviticus 26:14-16
God is Love
"If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me, then in my anger I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over. You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters." - Leviticus 26:27-29
Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. - Leviticus 10:1-2
God is Love
Then the LORD said to Moses: "Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. Say to the Israelites: 'If anyone curses his God, he will be held responsible; anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD must be put to death." - Leviticus 24:13-16
God is Love
"You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you." - Leviticus 26:7-8
God is Love
"But if you will not listen to me and carry out all these commands, and if you reject my decrees and abhor my laws and fail to carry out all my commands and so violate my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will bring upon you sudden terror, wasting diseases and fever that will destroy your sight and drain away your life." - Leviticus 26:14-16
God is Love
"If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me, then in my anger I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over. You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters." - Leviticus 26:27-29
How to tell James Dobson is full of crap
"Every description given to us in Scripture depicts God as infinitely loving and kind, tenderly watching over His earthly children and guiding the steps of the faithful." - newsletter, James Dobson
Apparently, Dr Dobson has never actually read Scripture. Otherwise, he would not be able to blather such nonsense with a straight face. I've started a series of posts call "God is Love" which showcase the many "loving" sections of the Bible. You know, the ones you would have to ignore to hold to anything like Dobson's statement.
Apparently, Dr Dobson has never actually read Scripture. Otherwise, he would not be able to blather such nonsense with a straight face. I've started a series of posts call "God is Love" which showcase the many "loving" sections of the Bible. You know, the ones you would have to ignore to hold to anything like Dobson's statement.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
God is Love, Exodus
Selected readings demonstrating the infinite patience and love of the Judeo/Christian god
God is Love
At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him. - Exodus 4:24
God is Love
So Moses said, "This is what the LORD says: 'About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, 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." - Exodus 11:4-6
God is Love
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. Pharaoh will think, 'The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.' And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD." - Exodus 14:1-4
God is Love
Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the LORD swept them into the sea. The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived. - Exodus 14:27-28
God is Love
"If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free. "But if the servant declares, 'I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,' then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life." - Exodus 21:2-6
God is Love
"If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as menservants do." - Exodus 21:7
God is Love
"If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished, but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property." - Exodus 21:20-21
God is Love
"A thief must certainly make restitution, but if he has nothing, he must be sold to pay for his theft." - Exodus 22:3
God is Love
"Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the LORD must be destroyed." - Exodus 22:20
God is Love
If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. 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 23:22-23
God is Love
"I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River. I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you." - Exodus 23:31
God is Love
"Then burn the entire ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the LORD, a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire." - Exodus 29:18
God is Love
Then he said to them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.' " The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. - Exodus 32:27-28
God is Love
For the LORD had said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites, 'You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy you." - Exodus 33:5
God is Love
And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation." - Exodus 34:6-7
God is Love
At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him. - Exodus 4:24
God is Love
So Moses said, "This is what the LORD says: 'About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, 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." - Exodus 11:4-6
God is Love
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites to turn back and encamp near Pi Hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. They are to encamp by the sea, directly opposite Baal Zephon. Pharaoh will think, 'The Israelites are wandering around the land in confusion, hemmed in by the desert.' And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and he will pursue them. But I will gain glory for myself through Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD." - Exodus 14:1-4
God is Love
Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at daybreak the sea went back to its place. The Egyptians were fleeing toward it, and the LORD swept them into the sea. The water flowed back and covered the chariots and horsemen—the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived. - Exodus 14:27-28
God is Love
"If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free. "But if the servant declares, 'I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,' then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life." - Exodus 21:2-6
God is Love
"If a man sells his daughter as a servant, she is not to go free as menservants do." - Exodus 21:7
God is Love
"If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the slave dies as a direct result, he must be punished, but he is not to be punished if the slave gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property." - Exodus 21:20-21
God is Love
"A thief must certainly make restitution, but if he has nothing, he must be sold to pay for his theft." - Exodus 22:3
God is Love
"Whoever sacrifices to any god other than the LORD must be destroyed." - Exodus 22:20
God is Love
If you listen carefully to what he says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you. 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 23:22-23
God is Love
"I will establish your borders from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the desert to the River. I will hand over to you the people who live in the land and you will drive them out before you." - Exodus 23:31
God is Love
"Then burn the entire ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the LORD, a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire." - Exodus 29:18
God is Love
Then he said to them, "This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.' " The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. - Exodus 32:27-28
God is Love
For the LORD had said to Moses, "Tell the Israelites, 'You are a stiff-necked people. If I were to go with you even for a moment, I might destroy you." - Exodus 33:5
God is Love
And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation." - Exodus 34:6-7
God is Love, Genesis
Selected readings demonstrating the infinite patience and love of the Judeo/Christian god
God is Love
So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them." - Genesis 6:7
God is Love
But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." - Genesis 11:5-7
God is Love
By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. But Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. - Genesis 19:23-26
God is Love
The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies and looted the city where their sister had been defiled. They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields. They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses. - Genesis 34:27-29
God is Love
So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them." - Genesis 6:7
God is Love
But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." - Genesis 11:5-7
God is Love
By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the LORD out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land. But Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. - Genesis 19:23-26
God is Love
The sons of Jacob came upon the dead bodies and looted the city where their sister had been defiled. They seized their flocks and herds and donkeys and everything else of theirs in the city and out in the fields. They carried off all their wealth and all their women and children, taking as plunder everything in the houses. - Genesis 34:27-29
Which is worse?
I make no bones about the fact that I despise the Old Testament. It is a wretched book, filled with fanciful depictions of the actions and decrees of one particularly nasty mid-Eastern deity, Yahweh. If you want to demonstrate the inhumanity of Judaism, you will find fertile fields to reap in those books. But that is not the worst the Bible has to offer, by far. You would have to go to the New Testament for that gem: Hell.
In the Old Testament, God spent a lot of time killing and demanding that his followers kill, whether it be women and children(see the book of Joshua for a sampling) or blasphemous Israelites doing such atrocious deeds as picking up sticks and offering incense. He railed about how he would bring destruction upon his enemies heads. He threatened to pursue vengeance against men, even unto their offspring for generations. But it took Jesus to come up with the coup de gras: eternal torment.
In every way it is possible to look at the issue, the idea of Hell is a injustice. It lasts for eternity. It is, literally, an infinite punishment. To be just, a punishment should fit the crime that inspired it. As finite beings, we cannot commit such a crime. Furthermore, the Bible tells us repeatedly that we don't have an understanding of the full picture. So, Hell is an infinite punishment for finite crimes committed by finite beings who have only a finite understanding of an infinite moral situation.
Yahweh only threatened death and mayhem. Jesus wants to keep killing you forever.
In the Old Testament, God spent a lot of time killing and demanding that his followers kill, whether it be women and children(see the book of Joshua for a sampling) or blasphemous Israelites doing such atrocious deeds as picking up sticks and offering incense. He railed about how he would bring destruction upon his enemies heads. He threatened to pursue vengeance against men, even unto their offspring for generations. But it took Jesus to come up with the coup de gras: eternal torment.
In every way it is possible to look at the issue, the idea of Hell is a injustice. It lasts for eternity. It is, literally, an infinite punishment. To be just, a punishment should fit the crime that inspired it. As finite beings, we cannot commit such a crime. Furthermore, the Bible tells us repeatedly that we don't have an understanding of the full picture. So, Hell is an infinite punishment for finite crimes committed by finite beings who have only a finite understanding of an infinite moral situation.
Yahweh only threatened death and mayhem. Jesus wants to keep killing you forever.
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