The idea of God almighty spreading dung upon the faces of priests if they do not listen to him and heap praise on his name as if they were in a school yard and it was the only way to keep a bully placated is disturbing, but it only the edge of a mountain of immorality (in the sense of things offensive to the community at large) that is taught in the Bible as divine truth.
Believing in the Bible is an all or nothing deal. If you talk about verbal inspiration of scripture, and absolutely accurate autographs (now lost) from which all scripture came -- then the Bible has to be wholly true, or wholly false. Additionally, if the God of the Bible is the font of morality and the pillar of law from which depends all western society -- teaching immutable values that inform the family and the community -- then the Bible, if it is his verbally inspired book, should reflect those same values perfectly.
As we shall see -- it does not.
Treatment of Children | ||||
| Deutoronomy 21: 18-21 | If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of the his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they chastise him, will not give heed to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city... and they shall say to the elders of his city, "This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice ; he is a glutton and drunkard." Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall purge the evil from you. | Incredible, it is natural for children to rebel at some point, and what society kills for being drunk or eating too much? | ||
| Exodus 20: 5 | I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers unto the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. | How could I make that worse by anything I said? | ||
| Leviticus 26:22 | I will also send the beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children... | Again, what could be more immoral than what is in the text -- its worse in context, read it. | ||
| Hosea 13:16 | Samaria shall become desolate: for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword; their infants shall be dashed into pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up. | So, mostly to warn Israel, God punishes Samaria, and kills children and babies because of their parents. | ||
| These are breathtaking. Of course it is sometimes reprehensible to disobey parents. Other times however, we all know, it is justified. Furthermore -- what just society kills someone for getting drunk or having a feast? What normal healthy child does not rebel against their parents during some part of their life? The first scripture quoted essentially tells parents to murder -- with the help of the community -- those children who displease them. How sick and depraved is that? It is very nearly beyond words.
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Polygamy -- approved | ||||
| 2 Samuel 5:13 and I Chronicles 14:3; I Samuel 25:28 and I Kings 15:5 | David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem... and more sons and daughters continued to be born to David. David took more wives out of Jerusalem and had more sons and daughters. Because my lord [David] fighteth the battles of the Lord, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days, Because David did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and did not turn aside from anything that he had been commanded in all of the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hitite. | Clearly David had many wives, and also kept concubines (sexual slaves of a sort). Nevertheless, he was approved of God, and did nothing wrong, except when he arranged for a man (Uriah the Hitite) to die so that he could also have that man's wife. | ||
| Judges 8:30-31 | And Gideon had threescore and ten sons of his body begotten: for he had many wives. And his concubine that was in Shechem, she also bare him a son, whose name he called Abimelech. | This speaks for itself. | ||
| I Kings 11: 3 | But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites; Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love. And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart. | Solomon was less pleasing to God, but only because he took women of other races and different faiths, as well as Israelites -- so these verses also show racial prejudice, as well as proving that there is no problem with polygamy. | ||
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| Inappropriate Sexual Behavior | ||||
| Isaiah 3: 16-17 | Moreover the LORD saith, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet: Therefore the LORD will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will discover their secret parts. | Part of a prophecy against the people, how inappropriate is it for an almighty God to speak through his prophet about seeing women's "secret parts?" | ||
| Ezekiel 23: 1-20 | The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, 2: Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother: 3: And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity. 4: And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah. 5: And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours, 6: Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses. 7: Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself. 8: Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her. 9: Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted. 10: These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among women; for they had executed judgment upon her. 11: And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms. 12: She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men. 13: Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way, 14: And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men pourtrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans pourtrayed with vermilion, 15: Girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity: 16: And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea. 17: And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them. 18: So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister. 19: Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt. 20: For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses. 21: Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth. | This passage was long enough so that I decided to include verse numbers, so that readers could keep track. Part of another rambling prophecy, this one by Ezekiel -- this "prophecy" uses increasingly vitriolic sexual imagery finally culminating in a description of a woman, doting on men whose "flesh is as the flesh of asses..." -- more properly translated in the RSV (Revised Standard Version) as: and doted upon her paramours there, whose members were like those of asses, and whose issue was like that of horses. 21: Thus you longed for the lewdness of your youth, when the Egyptians handled your bosom and pressed your young breasts." leaving the reader with the imagery of young men with penises the size of those on donkeys, and ... well, no need to describe what issue means -- I would presume everyone understands, which nevertheless left the "woman" in question longing for the men of her youth. Does anyone seriously contend that these verses are appropriate for "the good book?" Does anyone seriously contend that this is anything other than pornographic imaginings on the part of a depraved and VERY human prophet of a much misrepresented God? Does anyone seriously contend that these verses are anything divine? | ||
| Genesis 19: 1-8; and 30-38 | And there came two angels to Sodom at even; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground;
2: And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night.
3: And he pressed upon them greatly; and they turned in unto him, and entered into his house; and he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.
4: But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter:
5: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them.
6: And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him,
7: And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.
8: Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. ... And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar: and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. 31: And the firstborn said unto the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth: 32: Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father. 33: And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. 34: And it came to pass on the morrow, that the firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay yesternight with my father: let us make him drink wine this night also; and go thou in, and lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our Father. 35: And they made their father drink wine that night also: and the younger arose, and lay with him; and he perceived not when she lay down, nor when she arose. 36: Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father. 37: And the firstborn bare a son, and called his name Moab: the same is the father of the Moabites unto this day. 38: And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name Benammi: the same is the father of the children of Ammon unto this day. | Normally only two teaching emerge from this myth, one being that homosexuality is bad and the other being that if you don't obey God you could be a pillar of salt. Those teachings miss two horrifying things in the story (aside from the obvious genocide). Those two things are:
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| Judges 19: 20-30 | ...And the old man said, Peace be with thee; howsoever let all thy wants lie upon me; only lodge not in the street. "21": So he brought him into his house, and gave provender unto the asses: and they washed their feet, and did eat and drink. "22": Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him. "23": And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly. "24": Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing. "25": But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go. "26": Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man's house where her lord was, till it was light. "27": And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way: and, behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, and her hands were upon the threshold. "28": And he said unto her, Up, and let us be going. But none answered. Then the man took her up upon an ass, and the man rose up, and gat him unto his place. "29": And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel. "30": And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds. | So here we have a tale similar to the story of Lot,except that this is just a man, traveling with a somewhat unfaithful concubine (remember, concubines are essentially sexual slaves). An old man insists he not stay outdoors at night, and invites him into his home in a city. Not only is this man also willing to give the "men of the city" his own daughter as well as the man's concubine, but ends up giving them at least the concubine. The "men" either kill the concubine from too much intercourse, or at least render her unconcious, and after traveling to his own city, her lord (owner) takes a knife and DIVIDES HER INTO TWELVE PIECES, which he sends to all the edges of Israel. Depraved is too weak a word for such a story. What more can I say? Doesn't it speak well enough for itself? The Bible is a series of myths, and this myth should not be in a book children might read! | ||
| God uncovering women's private parts; the dehumanization of women to the point where city-wide gang rape is an acceptable solution to a public relations problem, as is a bizarre ritual of dismemberment of a woman who died, quite literally, in her lord's service; incest; rambling prophets discussing their sexual fantasies, disguised as prophecies of Almighty God. This is the stuff of the Bible -- the stuff that isn't normally read.
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So, what is to be said? Child murder -- in several cases caused directly by God; Polygamy; Incest, and a God who takes joy in uncovering women.
Immoral? You bet you.
What more can be said?