I recently got to listen to a guy rant at me about how I was taking the passages out of his holy book (hint: it’s the Bible) out of context. He said that I wasn’t looking at all the facts and all the things that were said. After thinking about it for a while, I have come to the conclusion that this man is an idiot. He had this friend who was nodding dumbly the whole time that he spoke, not wanting to think too deeply. When I asked these guys to quote me passages of scripture that retorted what I said as being totally wrong, both of them said that it was “in there.” That’s it. That was their proof that I was completely misquoting them. What stories, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you.
These guys originally decided (without knowing who I am and what I am about. They were missionaries, so to speak) to get in my face and talk to me about how great God is. Without thinking, I just laughed when they said he was a loving character who treats all of his “children” right. His is apparently this loving father figure who holds us all and cradles us all in his arms. I listened and then asked them to explain why God did all the genocidal rampages in the Old Testament. This tripped them up. They asked me, “what genocidal rampages? All God has ever done is good things.”
I retorted with a couple of simple stories- like how God killed all the first-born children of the Egyptians, or how he destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, or how he killed every single human being on the face of the Earth with a flood. This got them rather upset. They said that the people deserved what happened to them. I will admit, I was about to get equally upset with how quickly and how readily they defended genocide. They seemed genuinely pissed off that I would even infer that the genocidal actions of a holy being are nothing less than what those people deserved.
Then, today, I got a comment that understanding the Bible requires an understanding of the original language it was written (Hebrew) and understanding the original language in context. I am DYING to know how exactly genocide can be put in context. For real, please, put it into context for me. The same guy used the example that to analyze Shakespeare, you have to consider the context of the time period in which it was written, which is absolutely right. But there is no possible way you can make that argument successfully about the Bible. And I hate the people do that and think that they have tripped me up.
Even if you consider the fact that yes, the Bible is never completely correctly translated from Hebrew to English, the stories DON’T change in any radical because of the translation. God still commits genocide. God still does horrible things and justifies it with “follow me or I will destroy you!” That’s pretty much the ENTIRE Old Testament. It is a man who is a giant child flexing his power over weaker people.
You know what your God sounds like to me? He sounds like a pimp, and everybody else are his whores. And if you don’t bring him the amount of money (metaphorically speaking) that he wants, he’s gonna cut your face. And not to mention the fact that not only does God do plenty of evil on his own, but he also does next to nothing to stop it. All of his “solutions” to the sinning problem are insane. Yes, all the people of the world are wicked, I’m going flood it! I will kill every man, woman, child, and baby on the face of the fucking planet to cleanse it of sin! Riddle me something, guy who commented, how, contextually, does that make sense? If you’re going to argue for a language lexicon problem between English and Hebrew, tell me how the Hebrew makes that better? It doesn’t!
It doesn’t make it better how God killed a bunch of kids by sending a bear to rip them apart after they insulted one of his prophets. It doesn’t make it better when he killed a man for letting his “seed” (that’s cum in common vernacular) touch the earth. It doesn’t make it better that he killed the first-born children of the Egyptians for not letting his people go. He didn’t even go after the ones responsible for enslaving his people, he killed their children. It doesn’t make it better that he completely wrought two cities to the ground, killing all the men, women, children, and babies there too. Not to mention the fact that he killed Lot’s wife for watching him do it! There is no way you can contextualize something like that.
Now, if you are going to make a language barrier argument (which in some instances, you can, there is a lot of naunce in the Bible) don’t try and make a context argument about stories which depict genocide. Or how God is very lenient and open to the concept of torture, or how he is very lax in how he punishes rape. But the greatest proof of what I am talking about is the fact that it seems to be, from the Old Testament to the New Testament, God almost seems to grow up a little. Granted, he introduces that concept of eternal torture, which is heartless and something no real loving parent would do, but he does seem to calm down and grow a little maturity. But that makes no sense.
If God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and has bee naround since the beginning of the universe, then why exactly would he grow up? Why exactly would he change his position on things? Not to mention, why would an all-powerful being need to do ANY of the absolutely insane things that he has done. Now, I will give to the man who commented, there is a nuance in the scripture, but the fact is is that it doesn’t read that way. It reads that if you don’t follow what God says, and do what he wants, he is going to fucking destroy you. I HAVE read through the Bible, cover to cover. It is one of the main reasons that I have given up religion.
And my question to all of you who think I’m taking you out of context- why would listen to that? Even symbolically or metaphorically, why would you listen to a book that says, “if you don’t do what I (God) say, I am going to fucking destroy you”? Why would you listen to that? I don’t get it. What comfort does it bring knowing that you are going to either face eternal paradise, or absolute torture for all eternity? Not to mention the fact that all of us mortals are just too stupid to completely comprehend the concept of eternity, but that means little.
The guy I was talking to, and the guy who commented angrily on my last blog are both wrong. I’m not taking anything out of context. The point I am trying to make with bringing up Bible verses that show this kind of insanity is that this doesn’t read like an enlightened viewpoint. It reads like God is going to FUCK YOU UP! No truly supreme being would be this way. I genuinely refuse to believe it. No being capable of creating this universe would be so petty. And God is is petty. He is a child. I guess you all want to believe it becaue imagining a world without God is just too hard to do. I’m sorry you all feel that way. It’s not a lexicon problem, it’s a decency problem.
Until next time, a quote,
” For me, when I’ve pointed out a lot of the fucked-up shit that God has done, it’s always to make the point- why would you listen to this?” -TJ Kincaid, Atheist Fundamentalism?
Peace out,
Maverick
