With deference to Bertrand Russell I call this tract Why I Am Not a Christian Mr. Russell having written and presented a tract by the same name in March of 1927. I am not a Christian because I believe that the Bible, on which Christianity is based, is grounded in its age. By this I mean the Bible shows its age quite clearly and easily on a wide variety of topics. The writings are many thousands of years old and as a result have opinions and ideas appropriate for that time period.
As evidence I hope to show the many areas of the Bible that appear to have the wrong answers when presented to a modern society. Many of these areas of the Bible were deemed unacceptable by modern societies and have been changed by human beings, often after great struggle. As a young person I remember many times the minister at my church referring to the fact that human beings cannot pull themselves up by their own boot straps, they need God to help them. Those preachers from the past seem to have been slightly mistaken since it has been us, as human beings, who have brought improvement to the harsh and brutal lives of our ancestors. I hope to show that the Bible, all of it, reflects the age that it was written in and that its views and opinions on a large number of issues reflect this truth.
First and foremost, consider the texts on which Christianity is based. The time period of these varied writings stretches well back into the Iron Age. Some texts are dated at 3000 years old or older. From our present day point of view it is hard to imagine the level of ignorance that existed at that time. Our ancestors had very little knowledge about the world and this led to the belief that anything could be possible. Claims of miracles, ghosts, and magic abounded and were easily believed in a society that did not know any better. Ignorance and credulity were two of the hallmarks of these early societies. They had very little real knowledge about the workings of the universe combined with an ease and willingness to believe.
As Christopher Hitchens points out “Credulity…provides a standing invitation for the wicked and the clever to exploit their brothers and sisters, and this is one of humanities greatest vulnerabilities.” (God Is Not Great p161). This climate of limited knowledge combined with a quickness to believe is seen throughout the Bible and leads one to approach these writings with a measure of caution and skepticism. As a result of have being written well before the scientific age the Bible gets many issues wrong. This is not the fault of the writers as they were dealing with their very limited knowledge about the world. It seems clear that most children in today’s elementary schools have more knowledge of the world and cosmos then the writers of these ancient texts.
As one would expect the Bibles understanding of cosmology is very different than ours. Cosmology is the study of the origin and structure of the universe. We have only known what stars are, how they operate, and how far away they are for less than a hundred years. In ancient times it was believed that the sky was like an upside down bowl ‘the firmament’ over a flat earth through which the light of God shone through little holes in the canopy. The word for firmament from the Hebrew ‘raqiya’ is considered to be a “hemisphere above the ground …to spread out by stamping, stretching, or beating…e.g. the process of making a metal bowl” (Wikipedia)
The Hebrews and their neighbors believed in a solid canopy above the sky as seen in Genesis 1:7 “And God made the firmament and separated the waters which were below the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament…” beyond which God and the angels lived. They were literally almost reachable. This finally makes sense of the tower of Babel story in Genesis 11:1-9 where the Hebrews tried to build a tower to reach heaven.
This also helps to make sense of Noah’s flood story. Our ancestors assumed the world to be small and flat and could be filled with water from the firmament. It is well known that this story was taken from the Sumerians and was around many of hundreds of years before the Hebrew Scriptures. Flood mythology was common wherever flooding occurred. Our ancestors believed that God was angry and was punishing them.
The Bible has many examples of bad cosmology. 1Chronicles 16:30 says “Tremble before him all the earth indeed the world is firmly established and will not be moved.” Psalm 93:1 repeats these sentiments almost exactly. Obviously this is wrong because the earth does move. At the equator the earth is rotating at 1000 km an hour, and traveling thru space at 60,000 km an hour. Psalm 104:5 and dozen other verses like it continue to talk about how the earth is fixed, and will not be moved “he established the earth upon its foundations so it will not totter forever.” This goes along well with ancient beliefs that the earth rested on foundations. 1Samuel 2:8 states “for the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s and he set the earth on them.” To the ancients the world was shaped like a coin that sat on pillars covered by a dome. This goes along well with the Ptolemaic system of the universe in which the earth is the center with all else rotating around it. Ptolemy’s universe was accepted for over a thousand years until finally disproved by Copernicus
Other verses deal with the perceived movement of the sun. Ecclesiastes 1:5 states “Also the sun rises and the sun sets and hastening to its place it rises there again”. That is how it would have looked to a casual observer in 5th century bce. In fact it still looks that way. This entire first chapter of Ecclesiastes could be characterized as the futility of all endeavors. The author is using the repetition of what appears to be sun rise and sun set to illustrate his point, which is that everything just keeps on going endlessly, with little or no change. This is a good description of what really goes on as we travel around the sun for the several billionth time, the metaphor just needed a little scientific tweaking.
In the book of Joshua chapter 10:12-13 Joshua commands the sun and the moon to stand still so he can more effectively slaughter his enemies, and it goes on to say that the sun and moon stood still for most of the day. Obviously this cannot happen since the sun is already standing still relative to us. So that must mean that the earth stopped rotating, the consequences of which would be that anything not securely nailed down would fly off the planet at over 1000 km an hour. These are just a few examples of verses that betray the age that these texts were written in. The Bible is not a credible source for cosmological information. As many have suspected, in this area, the Bible remains a product of its time.
There are several other areas in which the Bible is quite out of date. One of the most obvious is slavery. It was Jefferson Davies, 1808-89 President of the Confederate States of America, who said “Slavery was established by decree of God. It is sanctioned in the Bible in both testaments from Genesis to Revelation.” (Feb 18, 1861 Inaugural address) The number of verses in the Hebrew Scriptures and in the Christian writings devoted to slavery is large. Here are a few choice examples. Leviticus 25:44-46 not only condones slavery but clearly shows that slaves were to be treated as property, “You may even bequeath those [slaves] to your sons, to receive as a possession.” Exodus 21 is dedicated to the issue of slavery, much of which is quite disturbing. “And if a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and he dies at his hand he shall be punished, if however he survives a day or two, no vengeance shall be taken, for he is his property.” (Exodus21:20-21). These are only two examples out of hundreds in the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian writings are no different.
In the New Testament there are many verses that talk about slaves, mostly about how slaves should be obedient and learn to appreciate their lot in life. Some examples are: Ephesians 6:5-6, “Slaves be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling…” 1Timothoy 6:1-2, “Let those who under the yoke as slaves regard their own masters as worthy of all honor…” Titus 2:9-10, “Urge bond slaves to be subject to their own masters in everything, to be well pleasing, not argumentative.” 1Peter 2: 18-19, “Servants be submissive with all respect, not only to those who are good and gentle, but also to those who are unreasonable.” Verse 19 goes on to say “For this finds favor; [that] If for the sake of conscience toward god, a man bears up under sorrows when suffering unjustly.” According to the Bible then slaves should do as you they are told, and not resist authority whether it is good or bad. The justification for this bizarre statement; God loves it when you suffer unjustly for him. Why would an all powerful and supposedly loving God like his followers to suffer in this manner? What does that say about this God’s personality? Or perhaps more to the point what does it say about the human writers of these texts? It does not take much imagination to see that co-operative and obedient slaves are an ideal situation for slave owners. The Bibles stance on slavery is clear. Not only is there nothing wrong with it, many verses are devoted to regulating it and in so doing they legitimize it. All this leads to one question, where have the slaves gone?
Humans took matters into their own hands and after a long and agonizing fight slavery was finally outlawed by the United Nations Declaration of 1948. This Declaration of Human Rights abolished slavery and made it illegal. The Bible was wrong about slavery and its’ use to condone slavery created people like Jefferson Davies and many others who took the Bible at its word, and by doing so long postponed the time when slavery ended. With respect to slavery the Bible is definitely a product of its time.
One of the reasons that it is difficult to find true Biblical literalists anymore is because of the treatment of women in the Bible. The Christian scriptures view women not much differently than slaves.
“Let the women keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but let them subject themselves, just as the law also says. And if they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper for women to speak in church.” (1Corinthians 14:34-35).
Even the Catholic Church mostly ignores this directive from the great St. Paul, and certainly the Protestant churches have long abandoned this edict, by installing women in the highest positions of various Protestant denominations. In 1Timothy 2:11-12 women are instructed not to wear make- up or sexy clothes, and once again we are told that women should keep quiet, and receive instruction with submissiveness. Women are not to teach and never to have authority over men. “Let a women quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness but I do not allow a women to teach or exercise authority over a man, but remain quiet.” If anyone in modern western societies uttered a statement reflecting these sentiments they would face severe public criticism. The Bible offers two reasons to justify its’ treatment of women. In verse 13 of 1Timothy: the writer says that women came after men and by implication are second class citizens, not unlike slaves. “For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.” Related to this, Paul says in 1Corinthians11:7”for a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God, but the women is the glory of man.” Women were regulated to a position similar to slaves because God created them second. The second reason given in verse 14 of 1 Timothy states that it was Eve who was deceived by the snake and not Adam. All of this ‘treatment’ is a type of punishment for listening to the serpent in the Garden of Eden. The Chapter concludes with verse 15 “But women shall be saved thru the bearing of children…” The text seems to be saying that women are good for child bearing and little else.
The Hebrew Scriptures are much harsher on women than the Christian writings. In the Hebrew Scriptures menstruating women where regarded as unclean and no one was to associate with them. Leviticus15 read from a twenty first century perspective gives an amazing insight into how our ancient ancestors handled situations they did not understand. In this case, and many others, they demonized them. The whole chapter deals extensively with women and how unclean they are while menstruating, and that everything they touch is unclean for seven days.
“When she becomes clean from her discharge, she shall count off for herself seven days; and afterword she shall be clean. Then on the eighth day she shall take for herself two turtledoves or two young pigeons, and bring them to the priest, to the doorway of the tent meeting and the priest shall offer the one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. So the priest shall make atonement on her behalf before the lord because of her impure discharge.”
(Leviticus 15:28-30)
It is hard to believe that God, the creator of the universe in all its complexity, who purportedly uses women’s menstruation as a way to get rid of the now useless uterine
lining, is disgusted with his own creation. He does not seem to understand that menstruation exists in order to prepare the female for a possible pregnancy in the coming month. On the other hand this Iron Age culture can hardly be blamed, as they had very little idea what menstruation was for or that it was even connected to child bearing. This is exactly what you would expect from a text of this age.
These opinions of women put them below men and contributed to the Patriarchal societies of the Bible and many other cultures throughout history. Like slavery, this inequity was rectified not by God but by human beings, in this case mostly by women. The suffrage movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries changed thousands of years of male domination. Women finally were given the right to vote in the early twentieth century, after a struggle against huge odds and prejudices, to proclaim equal status. They became real and equal human beings in that same 1948 Declaration of Human Rights that made slavery illegal. Article 2 and 3 of this declaration state “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin ,property, birth or other status…. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” Finally we have a quote worthy of being included in someone’s sacred text. With a few exceptions the Bible’s view of women, is that of being subordinate to men. It took millennia of struggle before women achieved the status they enjoy today.
This work is still not complete but the progress continues. In many parts of the world women’s status continues to be that below men, especially in Arab communities and in many third world countries. The places where women are most disrespected and regulated are often highly religious countries. Some countries, like Afghanistan, actually have Islamic religious fundamentalists in the highest political offices enforcing many outdated edicts and rules against freedom in general and against women’s freedom in particular. The struggle for universal human rights for women continues. In the parts of the world that are controlled by theocracies, women continue to live a vastly unequal existence.
Even a cursory look at the scriptures shows that the Bible is in favor of the death penalty, with thirty six crimes for which a guilty party could be put to death. The Hebrew law as displayed in the Old Testament commanded the death penalty for various acts: murder (Exodus 21:12), kidnapping (Exodus 21:16), bestiality (Exopdus22:19), adultery (Leviticus 20:10), prostitution (Leviticus 21:9), rape (Duetaronomy22:24-25). Several of the more bizarre reasons for execution include: cursing your parents (Exodus 21; 17), careless handling of animals (Exodus21:29), and even gluttony and excessive drinking (Dueteronomy21:20). Ironically many of these verses occur just a few chapters after Jehovah commanded the Hebrews ‘not to kill’. (Exodus 20:13). Jehovah clearly goes against his own ‘do not kill’ edict when he institutionalizes capital punishment in Genesis.
“And surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man’s brother I will require the life of a man. Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed. For in the image of God he made man.”
(Genesis9:5-6).
Jehovah started capital punishment early in Genesis and it carries on thru the Pentateuch to the prophets and into the Christian scriptures. The most crucial example of the latter comes to us from Romans13:3-4
“For rulers are not causes of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear from authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For it [the authorities] is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it [the authorities] is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil”.
Paul is telling the readers that they should do what the authorities say. If they do otherwise they will incur the wrath of the government which can and will use the sword to keep people in line. What’s more is that this treatment is not only sanctioned by God, but that these punishments are carried out with God’s authority and blessing. Jesus himself was in favor of the death penalty. In his debates with the Pharisees, Jesus sites with approval the rather harsh commandment, “…he who speaks evil of father and mother, let him be put to death.” (Matthew15:4). Jesus often does eschew violence but at no point does he deny that the state has a right to execute its’ citizens. An opportunity to do just that arose in John19:11. Here Jesus is before Pilate who calls attention to his authority to crucify him; Jesus responds that Pilate’s authority comes from God. So obviously God approves of capital punishment and if humans want to change that, as we have in many but by no means all countries, we will have to do it ourselves. I fear there is no help coming from these callous and cold texts.
Many of the world’s countries still use capital punishment and many of them site the Bible or other religious text as at least part of their motivation for doing so. In the west the idea of capital punishment has become repugnant in most of the worlds’ democracies with the notable exceptions of the U, S. Japan and N. Korea. Most western countries have come to realize that the death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights no matter what the crime.
“In 1976 capital punishment was removed from Canada’s criminal code. After years of debate, Parliament decided that capital punishment was not an appropriate punishment. The reasons for this decision were ‘due to the possibility of wrongful convictions, concerns about the state taking the lives of individuals, and uncertainty as to the effectiveness of the death penalty as a deterrent.”
(July 14, 1976; Billc-84)
For Canada, and many other western countries, the Bible has it wrong again. In terms of capital punishment, we are trying to move beyond the barbaric edicts of the scriptures towards a more civilized and liberated society.
Beside capital punishment there is another type of punishment sanctioned in the Bible. This time it is corporal punishment. The idea that children and others should be spanked, that is repeatedly hit in order to too gain submission over the child or as punishment for wrongdoings is clearly accepted and encouraged by the Bible. Most of the edicts on this topic come from the Hebrew book of Proverbs. Here are some of the quotes:
Proverbs 13:24, “He who spares his rod hates his son, but he who loves him disciplines him diligently.”
Proverbs 19:18 “Discipline your son while there is hope.”
Proverbs 22:15, “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; the rod of discipline will remove it from him.”
Proverbs 23:13 “Do not hold back discipline from the child; although you beat him with the rod, he will not die”.
Proverbs 29:15, “The rod and reproof give wisdom, but the child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother.”
It is rather telling that the writer always uses the pronoun him or he. The pronoun ‘she’ is not used in these verses, likely because as we have seen, women were not worthy of being mentioned. Secondly the ‘beating’ as they refer to it is always carried out with a rod or a stick. This is harsh discipline indeed. This theme of discipline is also carried on in the Christian writings as in Hebrews 12:7 “It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline.” It seems God’s idea of discipline as expressed in the Bible has been outlawed in many parts of the world.
Although corporal punishment is still used in some places around the world, the opposite is also true; corporal punishment is banned in many of the world’s states. Countries like Sweden, Finland, Norway, Austria, Cyprus, Italy, Denmark, Latvia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Netherlands, New Zealand, Venezuela, and many more. These countries through various means have come to realize that corporal punishment is a barbaric act practiced by our Iron Age ancesestors. And like many things they did, it is no longer appropriate. Once again it has been up to the human race through our civil authorities to change this outdated religious practice.
Many fundamentalists Christians, especially in the United States still use corporal punishment on their children. They often go on to say that the world would not be in the state it is if only we spanked our children more often. This seems like a rather simplistic response given that there are many reasons for people’s behavior in this complex world. Moreover, they seem to ignore the evidence that violence done to one person [spanking] can in later life lead to more violent attitudes. The American Academy of Pediatrics in an official policy statement [reaffirmed in 2004] states that “Corporal punishment is of limited effectiveness and has potentially deleterious side effects.” Researcher Elizabeth Gershoff, a PH.D who conducted a Meta study in 2002 that combined 60 years of research on corporal punishment, says “Corporal punishment was linked with nine negative outcomes, including increased rates of aggression, delinquency, mental health problems, and problems in relationship with parents, among others.” Wikipedia contributors, 'Corporal punishment', Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopaedia, 29 January 2009, 02:28 UTC. Even the United Nations got into the fray when it announced that “To discipline or punish through physical harm is clearly a violation of the most basic of human rights.” Once again what some people take to be Gods’ revelation for human beings falls far short of what many people consider even the most basic of human rights.
Hopefully in the previous section I was able to show that the Bible is not up to date on its view on a wide variety of topics. Moreover, that it has many violent and prejudicial elements and that these become evident with even the most basic critical approach to the writings. Staying with the topic of a critical approach to scripture I would like to broach the subject of textual criticism. Modern Christians, as well as believers of many other faiths, must realize that like it or not, their sacred texts have been brought into the light of modern textual and historical criticism. (The texts have also been brought into the light of modern archeology, geology, cosmology, biology and genetics to name a few, but that is a discussion for another day.) The science of textual criticism has come to us from at least the eighteenth century. There are two types of textual criticism, higher and lower. Higher criticism deals with the search for dates, authors, and places of origin while lower attempts to distinguish between added and original material in the text. For several hundred years textual critics have been seriously attempting to date, find true authorship, location of the writer, and locate add ones or extemporary material from all biblical texts and many related yet non canonical texts such as the Gnostic gospels. As an example of Biblical criticism at work I refer to the wildly popular, “Quest for the Historical Jesus: A Critical Study of Its Progress from Remares to Wrede”1906, written by the great philanthropist Albert Schweitzer. This book was so popular after publication that it soon became known simply as” The Quest” and remains so to this day. In it Schweitzer concludes, as have a few before him and many after, that Jesus was a product of his time. Namely, an illiterate Jewish peasant who, along with his disciples expected the imminent end of the world, and tried to bring it about, but who instead was killed by the state as a peasant agitator.
More than this, textual criticism attempts to answer a wide variety of questions that occur with a critical reading of the Hebrew and Christian texts. Questions like: It is well known that Jesus, his family and followers spoke Aramaic, a derivative of Hebrew however, the entire New Testament is written in Greek, how did this come about?
What are the dates of these documents? Some believers don’t know that the earliest writings in the Christian scriptures are the letters of Paul and that all of the gospels were written at least 40 -100 years after the death of Jesus.
Why are there two endings to the gospel of Mark? Why are there two creation narratives? Why are there two Versions of the flood?
In The Christian writings what factors contribute to John’s gospel being so much different than the other three? Or, for that matter the Gnostic gospels not included in the original cannon?
Who is responsible for so many double narratives in the Hebrew Scriptures? Examples include the Books of Kings, Chronicles and Samuel. All covering many of the same stories though often slightly altered.
In the Hebrew Scriptures why does the apostle Paul who was the earliest Christian writer almost never quote Jesus, the founder of the religion?
If the books of the Bible were placed in Chronological order, what would it look like? By placing them in this way can one see the development of Christianity?
These and many more fascinating questions have been asked and many answered through the methods of textual and historical criticism, for well over a century.
What is origin of the New Testament itself? I’m often surprised in my discussions with Christians by how little they seem to know about the origins of the New testament, and how it came to be in its present form. Like all of the topics I have brought up, much has been written on this one. The New Testament canon was formed, essentially to replace the oral tradition on which Christianity was based for its first 150 years. It is true that most, but probably not all of gospels and epistles, were written by this time. These documents circulated around the early Christian churches, and as a result they were subject to all kinds of misuse and mistranslation depending on the whim of the community. As a result early writers such as Papias and Polycarp, both living around 130 C.E., clearly preferred the oral tradition and always elevated the oral transmission above the written. This attitude shows clearly when these writers refer to “Old Testament” verses as ‘scripture’, but do not do the same for Christian texts and this is at least 100 years after the execution of Jesus. One hundred years of oral tradition, four generations of word of mouth transmission.
In circa 190 C.E. Jesus has been dead for over 150 years and there are numerous Christian sects all around the Mediterranean espousing various oral and written traditions. Many of these sects are using texts like the Gnostic gospels, acts, and apocryphal books that did not for whatever reason make into the final canon of the Bible. In order to take control of this situation and to establish and speak with authority a solid text was needed. It is in this light that in the year 192 C.E. that we have our first reference to the “New Testament” written by an unknown author but quoted by the Christian historian Esubes. In spite of this it was not until the Synod of Laodicea in 363 C.E where Christian leaders gathered to decide the contents of the Bible. The story is by no means over at this point, but the point is made. Namely that because of the checkered oral and written history, because of the passage of a lot of time, and because of peoples personal agenda in representing their version of the faith, it seems that these writings are little more than a collection of intertwined and convoluted stories from antiquity.
The problem of Theodicy. The fact that a supposedly loving god allows evil and suffering has been a problem for believers’ right from the start. It was and is so important that it has its own name, Theodicy.
Theodicy is a specific branch of theology and philosophy that attempts to reconcile the problem of evil as contrasted by a loving God. Throughout the centuries many solutions have been offered by Christian apologists. Examples include: we do not see the big picture, only God sees it; we suffer because we have free will and make bad decisions; God allows evil and suffering because without it we couldn’t appreciate the good things in life; suffering exists for edification and instruction. None of these seem very satisfactory considering things like, for example, childhood leukemia. Did the child choose this? In what way is the child being ‘edified’? What is the lesson he or she must learn before a painful and slow death? As in the leukemia example not all suffering is caused by bad human decisions. Earth quakes and other natural disasters kill and maim millions every year. How is this explained? They made God angry?
Epicurus was a Greek philosopher who lived around 300 B.C.E. He states, in relation to an all loving God and suffering, and I paraphrase, “Either he [God] cannot help, (i.e. he is not strong enough), or he will not help, (i.e. he does not care enough or has some other motives).” Either way it is not very comforting. Moreover, not only humans suffer, all conscience beings suffer pain, disease and the often deadly struggle to remain alive. Of course from a Naturalists point of view, all is as it should be. What the religious person views as God’s hand in the world, a Naturalist sees as the germ theory of disease, or the shifting of tectonic plates causing earthquakes, or perhaps an investigation of genetics as the cause of infant leukemia.
The problem of theodicy has not gone away, even after more than 2000 years. Of course it really has nowhere to go. The existence of suffering in the world is a thorn in the side of Christianity, and all religions, and once again causes doubt as to the veracity of the texts and their interpretation.
Over the years Christians have tended to emphasize one area of the Bible over another. These days the message seems to mostly focus on Gods’ love, peace and protection. It was not that long ago that the Bible and God in general were portrayed by believers as much more fearful and violent. As we have seen in previous sections the Bible can be a very violent place. The Hebrew Scriptures especially have many verses that display an amazing amount of violence and prejudice and thus show their true nature. Namely, that these writings follow the real or imaginary wanderings of a tribal, nomadic, unsophisticated, pre-scientific society and their angry and jealous God Yahweh. An example from Duet: 20:16 in which the context is God giving rules of engagement and that after killing all the males the Israelites should keep alive women, children, animals as booty of war. In verse 15 and16 God says that the above treatment is only for cities that are far away the cities that are close receive much worse treatment. Verse 16 states “Only in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, you shall not leave alive anything that breaths.” Again, we are talking about wholesale eradication of presumably innocent women, children, and livestock.
Next we come to Numbers31; 1-18. In this section the Israelites are at war with the Midian, who the Israelites conquer and take booty. For some reason God is unhappy and upon seeing them and their booty. Moses says in verse 15 “have you spared all the women?” Moses goes on in verse 16 “Now there for kill every male among the little ones and kill every woman who has known man, intimately.” Of course, very conveniently God encourages them to keep the virgins for themselves. I wonder how they decided who was a virgin and who wasn’t?
Examples like that are not hard to find. A quick search shows that God is responsible for over 2 million deaths in the Hebrew Scriptures. Not including the flood which killed every living thing (except those on the ark) including women, pregnant women ,old women, young children of both sexes, and animals of all descriptions. What an odd move for a loving god. Moreover, the massive destruction promised by the Christian God in the [now but not always] last book of the Christian writings, namely Revelations. In Revelations God again threatens to kill everyone except 144,000 people. This is only one of the beliefs that separate Jehovah Witnesses from other Christian sects. Since the world’s population is approaching seven billion that would mean that God is prepared to dispose of well over six billion of us, a new record to be sure.
There are over one hundred passages in the Bible where God expressly commands others to kill people including the genocide recorded in Duet: 7:1-2.
“When the Lord your God shall bring you into the land where you are entering to poses it, and shall clear away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you. And when the Lord thy God shall deliver them before you, and you shall defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them, and show no favor to them.”
The deaths of many innocents are not mentioned. Seven Nations utterly destroyed by a tribe that was weaker than all the rest but who, luckily, had God on their side. It seems the Hebrew Scriptures portray the barbaric and violent tendencies of the time in which it was written.
In this next section I want to explore the breaking effect that religion seems to have on society. By breaking effect I mean that Christianity, and other religions, have consistently tried to foil scientific progress. For example Nicolas Copernicus published a book stating that it was the sun not the earth that was at the center of the galaxy. This theme was picked up by Galileo who was put on trial and convicted of spreading heresy the result was he was put under house arrest until his death. This all took place around 1634. The church did not recognize or try to correct its judgment until October 31, 1992 almost 350 years after the fact when Pope John Paul the second conceded that, on the basis of the Vatican’s own scientific commission the earth does move around the sun, and not the other way around. Only 350 years.
Giordano Bruno story is truly inspiring to any free thinkers who believe that having certain ‘thoughts’ should not subject the thinker to any kind of punishment, never mind torture and death. Bruno was imprisoned in 1592 and executed by burning at the stake in 1600. Bruno was a freethinker well ahead of his time and as such threatened the very powerful Church. Bruno was brought up on the following charges by the Catholic Church: holding opinions contrary to the Catholic Church, holding erroneous opinions about the trinity, holding erroneous opinions about Christ and claiming the existence of a plurality of worlds. Bruno’s trial is the classic example of a religion, in this case Christianity, refusing to let normal scientific and religious questioning, and brutally killing people who did so. Were it not for religious interference in the world of science we could probably have a settlement on Mars by now.
One of the current topics in science that some Christians are opposing is stem cell research. I am not usually one to make predictions but given the historical Christian tendency to at first reject and then later accept proven principles, I predict that those people who oppose stem cell research, (mostly Christians), will soon find ways to change their minds once, or if, some useful development comes along. Why not? They have been doing it for millennia.
There are still many topics to explore, and questions to answer. Topics like the existence of witches which the bible says we should kill, and there by admitting that the Bible believes in witches. (Exodus 22:18).
Or the tremendous struggle of the homosexual community to gain equal status because of a few ancient verses in Leviticus, (18:22, and 20:13). Even though the Bible seems to have a few male on male relationships including Jonathan and David. 2 Samuel 1:2 states “I am distressed for you my brother Jonathan: You have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was more wonderful than the love of a woman.”
Or how about the idea of how long people could live, Genesis 5:27 states that Methuselah lived 969 years. Now, a person can take the Bible at its’ word, knowing there is no way, (look at any 90 year old and multiply by 10) that humans can live that long. Or acknowledge the fact that many cultures embellish the age of their ancestors to make them seem more impressive. Stories of exaggerated longevity have been around since the first civilizations, including ancient Samaria and Japan.
According to Genesis ‘Sons of God’ came down to earth because they liked the look of earth women. They soon copulated with them and the resultant offspring are referred to as “mighty men…men of renowned.” (Genesis 6:1-4) So here we have the Bible stating that at one point in the earth’s history there existed a race of half human half god like creatures.
I could go on but hopefully I have presented enough evidence to show that the Bible is a product of its time and as such is not to be trusted in many areas, including Cosmology, slavery, treatment of women, corporal and capital punishment to name a few. Moreover, I contend that this idea becomes self evident with a critical and skeptical approach to the writings just as it would with any literature from antiquity, and that is why I am not a Christian.
D. Janzen
Bibliography
All Bible quotes are taken from “The New American Standard Bible Reference Edition,” published by the Lockman foundation, 1973
Alston, J. P. (2007). Flock of Dodos. New York, NY: Cambridge House Press.
Dacey, A. (2008). The Secular Conscience. Amherst,NY: Prometheus Books.
Greenlee, H. J. (1995). Introduction to New testament Textual Criticisim (Revised
Edition). Peabody , Mass.: Hebdrickson Publishers.
Harris, S. (2004). The End of Faith. New york. NY: W.W. Norton and Co., Inc.
Hitchens, C. (2007). God is not Great. New York, NY: Hachette Book Group.
Schweitzer, A. (2001). The Quest of the Historical Jesus. Minneapolis, Mn.: First
Fortress Press edition.
Stenger, V. J. (2008 ). God: The failed Hypoththesis. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.
