"God's" Opinion of Women (1 of 3)

From The Skeptical Review, 1995:

by Farrell Till

When I was an active Christian minister and missionary, I noticed that women were generally more zealous church workers than men. As I learned more and more about the Bible, I began to wonder why. In my younger days, I had often heard preachers cite the elevated status of women as one of the wonderful achievements of the Judeo-Christian religions, but this was not what I was seeing in my own private Bible studies. I was finding instead a shockingly disdainful attitude toward women in a book that had been presumably written by divinely inspired men.

Time would fail me if I tried to cite every biblical example of contemptuous attitudes toward women, so I will have to limit myself to just a few. King David's affair with Bathsheba while her husband Uriah was away on military duty produced an embarrassing pregnancy. David first tried to conceal his indiscretion by bringing Uriah home on furlough apparently so that he would sleep with Bathsheba and later think that the child was his. When Uriah's loyalty to his unit proved so strong that he refused to indulge in the pleasures of a conjugal visit, David sent him back to the front with a letter ordering the commander of his unit to put Uriah in "the forefront of the hottest battle" and then withdraw so that he would be killed. The order was executed, and when word of Uriah's death reached David, he took Bathsheba and added her to his harem ( 2 Samuel 11).

If there is such a thing as contemptuous conduct, then David's actions in this matter certainly qualify. One would think that if this deed called for divine wrath, David would have been the rightful target of it. But the Bible tells us that God chose to punish David only by inflicting pain and death on the members of his family, beginning with his wives. Nathan the prophet, sent to reprimand David for his sin, delivered this message from God: "I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbor, and he will lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun" (2 Samuel 12:11). One could imagine that this would not have been a pleasant thing for David to witness and would have in that sense constituted "punishment," but we must look past that to the fact of what God was threatening to do. David had sinned grievously, but God was going to punish him by having some unnamed "neighbor" rape his wives "before all Israel and before the sun" (v 12). According to the story, David repented and so his wives were spared the indignity of public rape, but that is beside the point. The fact that David's god would even threaten such a thing raises serious doubts about the Bible's claim to be the verbally inspired word of an omnibeneficent deity. Certainly, this story in no way reflects the "elevated status" that preachers say the Bible has brought to women. If it does, I have to admit that I can't see it.

The Bible's Contradictory God

(Revised Nov. 9, 2014. Originally published October 25, 2014)
by Kenneth W. Hawthorne
^"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16 NKJV). Thus reads one of the most recognized verses in the Bible. The word "so" is an adverb of intensity and degree meaning to such an extent. The word "love" translates the Greek word agapao and is an unselfish love that seeks the absolute best for its object. So what we have is the claim that God (Yahweh) did the best that he could, unselfishly giving the best that he had so that man, whom he loved so much, would not eternally perish but eternally live. 

But why would Yahweh put man in the position where he needed saving in the first place? It's as if Yahweh came upon man for the first time, already created and found man in a situation where he needed saving and did all he could to save man, but could only save a few. Kind of like when paramedics arrive at the scene of a horrific multi-vehicle accident. However, this is not the case at all. Yahweh allegedly created man and had complete control over how man was created.

John 3:16 is a very puzzling verse when one considers five of the major characteristics that the Bible claims for its god Yahweh: all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving and sovereign, who also has no needs. Mt. 7:13-14 actually admits that Yahweh knew that the many in contrast to the few would eternally perish--which would have to have been something that he knew before he ever created the first human. Allegedly, it's not his will that any perish (2 Peter 3:9). If, then, he is all-powerful, he could have created man in a way in which all of humanity would go to heaven and none would eternally perish. Also, allegedly, he is sovereign, thus no one was over him, overruling him and thus causing him to create man in the Bible scenario against his will--why, then, could he not have achieved his will that no human eternally perish? There is no adequate answer to get the Bible out of this mess. Bible apologists sometimes say that Yahweh wanted man to choose to serve him. Absolutely not! Do these apologists expect us to believe that this is what love would have wanted, knowing what the terrible outcome would be, and knowing that there was no reason that it had to be this way? The only answer is that the Bible contradicts itself on this most important of issues.

When I say that Yahweh is contradictory on this most important of issues I am merely pointing out the obvious. When we speak of a person being contradictory we are merely expressing our observation that they act contrary or opposite to characteristics and values that they or someone claims they have. If a person claims to love animals but is accused and convicted of gross animal cruelty through abundant clear evidence, this is an obvious contradiction in what this person claims to believe and what they actually believe. And so it is with the Bible's Yahweh. The allegedly inspired writers of the Bible claim that Yahweh has the five characteristics mentioned above. But when we compare these with his actions, it poses a glaring contradiction concerning this god and his eternal hell.

To sum up, the Bible claims that its god Yahweh knew, before creating the first human, that most of humanity would eternally suffer [in the hell that he also created]--if he went with the scenario found in the Bible. However, the Bible claims that he does not want anyone to eternally suffer in hell, had the power and authority to prevent anyone from eternally suffering in hell, and there was no purpose, need, nor reason that made it necessary that anyone eternally suffer in hell--BUT HE ALLOWED IT TO HAPPEN TO MOST OF HUMANITY ANYWAY?! Impossible! That is if words have any meaning at all.

Your Children Are Not Safe

by Farrell Till

During the days that the Washington, D. C., area was terrorized by the Beltway Snipers, people were outraged when a child was shot going into his school building.  Later, outrage turned to horror when Montgomery County Chief Charles Moose, the leading official in the investigation, read a note from the snipers that said, "Your children are not safe anywhere at any time."  Everyone wondered how anyone could be so perverse that he would actually target a school child and then threaten to shoot even more children.

Many of those who felt this outrage probably went to church the next Sunday not knowing that they were gathering to worship a god who, if we are to believe the historical accuracy of the Bible, at one time declared to seven nations that their children were not safe anywhere at any time.  The threat was recorded in the book of Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy 7:1 "When Yahweh your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out 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 mightier than you, ²and when Yahweh your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them. 

Deuteronomy 20:16  "But of the cities of these peoples which Yahweh your God gives you as an inheritance, you shall let nothing that breathes remain alive, ¹⁷but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, just as Yahweh your God has commanded you, ¹⁸lest they teach you to do according to all their abominations which they have done for their gods, and you sin against Yahweh your God.

The book of Joshua claims that these orders were carried out when the Israelites moved into Canaan and began their conquest of the land.

Joshua 10:31  Then Joshua passed from Libnah, and all Israel with him, to Lachish; and they encamped against it and fought against it. ³²And Yahweh delivered Lachish into the hand of Israel, who took it on the second day, and struck it and all the people who were in it with the edge of the sword, according to all that he had done to Libnah. ³³Then Horam king of Gezer came up to help Lachish; and Joshua struck him and his people, until he left him none remaining.

³⁴From Lachish Joshua passed to Eglon, and all Israel with him; and they encamped against it and fought against it. ³⁵They took it on that day and struck it with the edge of the sword; all the people who were in it he utterly destroyed that day, according to all that he had done to Lachish.

³⁶So Joshua went up from Eglon, and all Israel with him, to Hebron; and they fought against it. ³⁷And they took it and struck it with the edge of the sword—its king, all its cities, and all the people who were in it; he left none remaining, according to all that he had done to Eglon, but utterly destroyed it and all the people who were in it.

³⁸Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to Debir; and they fought against it. ³⁹And he took it and its king and all its cities; they struck them with the edge of the sword and utterly destroyed all the people who were in it. He left none remaining; as he had done to Hebron, so he did to Debir and its king, as he had done also to Libnah and its king.

⁴⁰So Joshua conquered all the land: the mountain country and the South and the lowland and the wilderness slopes, and all their kings; he left none remaining, but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as Yahweh God of Israel had commanded. ⁴¹And Joshua conquered them from Kadesh Barnea as far as Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, even as far as Gibeon. ⁴²All these kings and their land Joshua took at one time, because the LORD God of Israel fought for Israel. ⁴³Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal.

Joshua 11:6  But Yahweh said to Joshua, "Do not be afraid because of them [the combined forces of the Canaanite nations], for tomorrow about this time I will deliver all of them slain before Israel. You shall hamstring their horses and burn their chariots with fire." ⁷So Joshua and all the people of war with him came against them suddenly by the waters of Merom, and they attacked them. ⁸And Yahweh delivered them into the hand of Israel, who defeated them and chased them to Greater Sidon, to the Brook Misrephoth, and to the Valley of Mizpah eastward; they attacked them until they left none of them remaining. ⁹So Joshua did to them as Yahweh had told him: he hamstrung their horses and burned their chariots with fire.

The Wit and Wisdom Of Mark Twain

"Very well, God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden, and eventually assassinated them. All for disobeying a command which he had no right to utter. But he did not stop there, as you will see. He has one code of morals for himself, and quite another for his children. He requires his children to deal justly -- and gently -- with offenders, and forgive them seventy-and-seven times; whereas he deals neither justly nor gently with anyone, and he did not forgive the ignorant and thoughtless first pair of juveniles even their first small offense and say, 'You may go free this time, and I will give you another chance.'

On the contrary! He elected to punish their children, all through the ages to the end of time, for a trifling offense committed by others before they were born. He is punishing them yet. In mild ways? No, in atrocious ones. 

You would not suppose that this kind of Being gets many compliments. Undeceive yourself: the world calls him the All-Just, the All-Righteous, the All-Good, the All-Merciful, the All-Forgiving, the All-Truthful, the All-Loving, the Source of All Morality. These sarcasms are uttered daily, all over the world. But not as conscious sarcasms. No, they are meant seriously: they are uttered without a smile" (excerpt from Letters From The Earth, 1909)

Yahweh, The Embarrassment Of Christianity

Anyone who has done an honest critical analysis of the Bible has to be shocked at the portrayal of God in the form of Yahweh. Thomas Paine called it blasphemy to attribute to the Creator the behavior found in the Bible's god Yahweh. 19th century deist, Elihu Palmer observed that there are commands "which are said to come from God, which would disgrace the character of any honest man, and make him a candidate for prison." (Principles of Nature--1801). 

I plan to give some examples of this "behavior" by the god of Christianity in the coming weeks.

Why I Find The Notion Of Hell Absurd

"It’s absurd when you think about it.  A fourteen year old kid has to burn for all eternity because he looked a little too long at that girl on the other side of the room, and studied her form a little too intensely.  For that he deserves eternal conscious torment."  Neil Carter (excerpt from his article, Why I Find The Notion of Hell Absurd. From his blog Godless in Dixie).

A Critical Principle Widely Applied to Ancient Documents

From the Errancy discussion list:

If [the] documents assert that which is ordinary and within the realm of empirical experiences, then we tend to give the documents the benefit of the doubt and accept the claims at face value; however, if the documents assert that which is extraordinary and completely beyond the realm of empirical experiences, then we feel justified in rejecting the claims. Even biblicists will apply this principle to all ancient documents except for those that have been selected for inclusion in the Bible.

Farrell Till