True as God? Part 3
May 31, 2009 by Michael Nugent
Here are ten more examples of passages from the Christian Bible that are either silly or unjust. You can read the first twenty examples in the series here and here.
21. God will send wild beasts to kill your children (Lev 26:22)
I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate.
22. God will smite your knees with an unhealable sore botch (Deut 28:35)
The LORD shall smite thee in the knees, and in the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of thy foot unto the top of thy head.
23. One man’s disobedience makes many men sinners (Rom 5:19)
For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
24. Jesus will kill Jezebel’s innocent children with death (Rev 2:20-23)
Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.
Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death; and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts: and I will give unto every one of you according to your works.
25. Devils command people to become vegetarians (1 Tim 4:1-4)
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
26. If a rape victim does not scream, she must be stoned to death (Deut 22:23-24)
If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city; and the man, because he hath humbled his neighbour’s wife: so thou shalt put away evil from among you.
27. All cross-dressers, whether women or men, are an abomination (Deut 22:5)
The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God.
28. God will smite you with hemorrhoids, scabs and an unhealable itch (Deut 28:27)
The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.
29. Men touching women is bad, but you should marry to avoid fornication (1 Cor 7:1-2)
Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
30. Men were not created for women, but women were created for men (1 Cor 11:9)
Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.
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Michael,
It is quite easy to quote Bible passages out of context and without understanding the culture and context it is written in and make it look ridiculous. Yet, it is much more intellectually honest to engage what the Bible and Christianity teaches by understanding the broader picture rather than pick verses here and there that you don’t agree with, which you can’t even know unless you have studied the historical and cultural context of the passage.
Matt
That book is full of hate. And this is a ‘loving’ god? No thanks.
And what difference does “the historical and cultural context of the passage” make? The passages still promote bigotry and violence, as evidence by the church’s stance on living out of wedlock, homosexuality, women as lesser beings, you name it.
@Matt
Could you please give a cultural situation where the most moral thing to do is to go into a town and slaughter all the women and children in it? Also, if you were one of the soldiers, and you went into one of the rooms and saw two girls in the corner hiding from you and trembling in fear, how would you kill them?
I think this project of recommending to Christians that they should read the “good book” is doomed to failure. It’s 600+ pages of dense un-engaging text. And anyway, even given the highlights, most christians know there’s some nutty stuff in there, which they hastily explain away as allegory or a matter of interpretation.
For christians I’d recommend the Bart Ehrman books, like “Why we Suffer”. His books are short, readable and quote the bible liberally where needed. He explains how the bible turned him into an atheist.
To make the medicine go down – he’s respectful to the faithful and their book. He’s an expert bible scholar, he even reads the original Greek manuscripts, he has a Ph.D and Masters in Divinity. He used to be a strong christian evangelical.