I have given up on my attempt to read the Bible cover to cover. It is such crap, and I keep thinking of all the great books I could be reading, and I'm reading this tripe.
Some parts are vaguely interesting because they are so repulsive. There is a lot of genocide that believers don't like to talk about, particularly in, but not limited to, the book of Joshua. I can't believe Jews and Christians still name their kids “Joshua” anymore. At least Germans don't name their kids “Adolf” nowadays, but most Jews and Christians are so oblivious to what that book actually contains. You'd think if a couple was planning to give their kid a Biblical name, they would pick up a Bible and see what the bastard actually did! But no, they have no clue!
Here's a quote from Moses, telling the Jews what they are to do when they enter Palestine: Deut 20:16-18:
16But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:
17But thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the LORD thy God hath commanded thee:
18That they teach you not to do after all their abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye sin against the LORD your God.
So Moses was worried his people might learn something from these foreigners. Great reason to commit genocide, isn't it?
Most people, both believers and the religiously indifferent, believe that Biblical figures represent noble, wonderful people. This is wrong: many of them, including the really famous ones (not to mention the diety himself), were horrible people!
The idea of writing the Bible, of having a tribe keep its history in writing rather than just passing it down verbally (though most of it was written generations after the events, so much so that many of the events probably never actually occurred) was a great step forward for its time, great progress. But to hold these savages, real or fictitious, up as role models for modern people is just not healthy.
One bit that was interesting was in 1 Samuel 27:5-12:
5 Then David said to Achish, “If I have found favor in your eyes, let a place be assigned to me in one of the country towns, that I may live there. Why should your servant live in the royal city with you?”
6 So on that day Achish gave him Ziklag, and it has belonged to the kings of Judah ever since. 7 David lived in Philistine territory a year and four months.
8 Now David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Girzites and the Amalekites. (From ancient times these peoples had lived in the land extending to Shur and Egypt.) 9 Whenever David attacked an area, he did not leave a man or woman alive, but took sheep and cattle, donkeys and camels, and clothes. Then he returned to Achish.
10 When Achish asked, “Where did you go raiding today?” David would say, “Against the Negev of Judah” or “Against the Negev of Jerahmeel” or “Against the Negev of the Kenites.” 11 He did not leave a man or woman alive to be brought to Gath, for he thought, “They might inform on us and say, ‘This is what David did.’” And such was his practice as long as he lived in Philistine territory. 12 Achish trusted David and said to himself, “He has become so obnoxious to his people, the Israelites, that he will be my servant for life.”
So David lied to his friend king Achish, and David killed innocent Gentile women and children. Note that for the rest of David's life, there was never any repentance for these atrocities, and the god never got upset about them.
And later, in 1 Kings 15:5, it says
5 For David had done what was right in the eyes of the LORD and had not failed to keep any of the LORD’s commands all the days of his life—except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.
(the case of Uriah the Hitttite was completely separate from this).
So, according to the Old Testament, it is not in any way sinful for a Jew to lie to a Gentile, even a friend, and it is not in any way sinful for a Jew to kill Gentiles, even innocent women and children. Interesting.
Note that this is not a cherry-picked, atypical set of quotes. Contempt for, and hatred of, Gentiles is one of the strongest themes pervading the Old Testament.
1st & 2nd Kings wasn't particularly horrible, just boring. It listed a long sequence of kings, and kept track of how pious or impious each one was, and according to the priests who wrote Kings, the pious kings (surprise!) met with better fortune than the impious ones. Then you get to Chronicles, which comes right after, and you find out they're going to repeat what was in Kings all over again.
I gave up halfway through the book of Psalms. Such repetitive drivel! My summary of Psalms, for those of you who don't want to read the whole thing, follows:
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
The Lord rewards the faithful and punishes the ungodly.
Please, Lord, lay waste to my enemies!
Perhaps you might mention with contempt the other outrageous statements like "Do not Murder" and "Do not steal" that are so inappropriate to modern times.
ReplyDeleteCan't justify that good old corruption and war otherwise.
We should of course ignore all of the Old Testament and make sure never to read it as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson did (Those abominable slave keeping deists)in HEBREW so they would not misunderstand the English translation of the Greek Translation.
We should never lay waste to Islamic Terrorists or any enemies. Enemy is a hateful term and we aren't haters.
We won't ever talk about the flaws of our Socialist leaders like the Bible does about those Old Testament Kings. Yeah those stupid Jews. Their Prophets warned them not to take a king or they would be taxed to death and pushed into wars and government would become corrupt and individual rights would be turned into Group rights so that the individual could be sacrificed for the good of the nation.
Hey that's Socialism. Were not Socialists. We're Progressives.
Why should we teach later generations by our mistakes?
Better to teach a whitewashed history like we do in the Politically Correct Government Regulated Unionized Public schools of today.
Did I mention bankrupt.
Good Job. We have to maintain that air of derision to everything that doesn't fit into our Elitist Democrat Socialist perfection or we might get sucked into opening our minds to facts, truth or reality. You know, that America was set up a A Constitutional Republic not a Democracy or a Commune.
Yes lying to others is terrible. Good thing we call it Propaganda, Spin and Public Relations now.
I gather you're offended.
ReplyDeleteFrankly, I'm glad to see some sign that ANYONE is reading my blog.
For the record, I am not an "Elitist Socialist Progressive". I am vehemently pro-capitalism and anti-Socialist. Regarding elitism, I might be -- I believe there are a lot of idiots out there.
I am not "politically correct", far from it, I HATE political correctness.
I am not pro-union. And I'm planning to give thousands of dollars to studentsfirst.com, an organization that advocates radical reform of education, especially taking on the teachers' union.
Regarding "Do not murder" in the 10 commandments. There was so much murder that was approved of by the narrative of the Bible shortly after Moses received those tablets that it's clear that what was meant, and how it was interpreted for centuries after it was written, was "Do not murder Jews, unless God tells you to".
In my blog entry I made clear that rampant murder occurs in the Old Testament, and it is seen as a good thing. "Do not murder" is not really advocated by the OT>.
I feel *VERY* strongly that it is important to get the word out just how awful the Bible is and wake people up. I have gone through periods in my life where I would go to Bible studies, and I was just revolted by what I learned. People who don't know the Bible think it is against racism, which it isn't -- I advocates racism against everybody not descended from Abraham. It is perceived to be a book of peace and love, which the OT is decidedly not.
Yes, I talk about the Bible with derision. You were right about that. The book has it coming.