Religious zealots tell us that the Bible is proof of God. This is just plain false. The bible is merely an assertion that God exists, but provides no proof. If it can be said that the Bible is the proof of God, then it can also be said that Charles Darwin's book On The Origin Of Species, is proof of evolution. The Bible is an ancient novel chock-full of nudity, sex, murder, rape, genocide, patricide, fratricide, homicide, bestiality, seduction, drinking, cruelty, homosexuality, socialism, magic, witchcraft, wizardry, child and animal sacrifice, prostitution, swearing, lying, cheating, stealing, sexism, misogyny, adultery, polygamy, concubinage, superstition, idolatry, gambling, beatings, maimings, stabbings, testicle-crushing, and really bad morals. As if it didn't already contain enough bad* stuff to get it banned a thousand times over, the wretched book promotes slavery, telling you exactly who you can keep as slaves, and just how severely you can beat them. How cool is that? There are a multitude of different bibles and all are considered the inerrant word of God. If it often read to children on Sunday. The Pentateuch is the collection of the first five books of the Bible, from Genesis to Deuteronomy. This section covers the time between the creation of the universe and Israel's entrance into the Promised Land. If it doesn't say what one wants to hear, therefore it's out of context. mistranslated. misunderstood. not guided by the Holy Spirit. a deliberate attempt to mislead us by the Adversary. an atheist/communist lie. Mix and match any or all of the above to taste. When a christian says they only follow the NT, they are not just throwing out Noah & the ark, they are also throwing out Adam & Eve, the Garden of Eden, Original Sin, Sodom & Gomorrah, Moses & the Exodus, the ten commandments and all the "prophecies" of a messiah. They are throwing out the entire reason god needed to send Jesus to die for the sins of mankind. Without the OT, the entire purpose of the NT doesn't exist. No, that just isn't how any of this works. If the bible is word & commands of a god, then it is ALL the word & commands of a god, and no mere human should have the audacity to throw ANY of it out. Take it all, or NONE of it matters. We must keep children from learning Bible stories. Teaching children Bible is Child Abuse. The Bible is full of Rape, Misogyny, Genocide, Slavery, Torture, Humiliation and other things that are very traumatizing for children to learn about. It is even worse for them to internalize these messages of self-hatred, shame over sexuality however expressed, hatred and domination of women... This is child abuse to expose children to this material. The Bible should be considered "adults only" and any church with a Sunday School needs to be sued for child endangerment and spiritual rape. The Bible consistently teaches an authoritarian model of the universe that you cannot question, where the group identity and conformance to that belief system is more important than attachment to reality and the ultimate goal is the destruction of this world and the overwhelming majority of the people on it, with a chosen few selected by the authoritarian to be rewarded with favor and the out group is cursed with eternal suffering. Despite having a lot of influence on history and literature, the bible is a completely worthless book. As a guide, it fails on virtually every single level. All of the value the bible does have is totally independent of any actual content. The bible fails as a: Moral guide. Actually the bible is quite immoral, endorsing genocide, slavery, a property-based view of rape, sexism, misogyny, xenophobia, child sexual and physical abuse and eternal torment for all who reject its falsehoods. Historical guide. All of the stories related in the book, i.e. the exodus, the conquest of Canaan, the united monarchy, the life and miracles of Jesus are fiction. Scientific guide. The bible is actually pre-scientific, with all of its authors--including those immersed in Hellenistic culture--believing the world is supported by four pillars and surrounded by a dome protecting the terrestrial surface from the waters above. Reliable guide to the life and opinions of its purported authors. This is because of the book's many pseudepigraphical issues. Often the traditional authorship designates the authorship of many anonymous scribes. The bible is quite literally a piece of garbage, worth less than toilet paper, although it is the object of near idolatrous worship by deluded Christians. This isn't to say the bible doesn't have any value, considered as a physical object, but that whatever value it does have is extrinsic i.e. related to its compositional structure and textual transmission. The bible is a rape manual and any Christian who defends it is a pro-rape advocate. Far from being some kind of magical shield that protects women from sexual violence, bible-based Christianity increases a woman's likelihood of being raped. Far from condemning rape, the bible specifies under what conditions a man is allowed to rape. For example, a man is allowed to rape female prisoners of war (Deut. 21:10-14); his own female slaves (Ex. 21:7-11) and unmarried virgins, provided he pays a fine to her father and marries her after he rapes her (Deut. 22: 28-29). The bible lays out in some detail what a man is to do in these situations. This makes the bible a pro-rape instruction manual. Any Christian who sees this legislation as the commands of an objectively moral god must be written off as a pro-rape advocate. Further, following a bible-based Christianity places women at significant risk of rape. The bible commands women to submit to their husbands, as if they were chattel property (Eph. 5:22). In another passage, after women are advised to be in "subjection" to their own husbands, husbands are asked to respect their wives, despite their mental and physical inferiority (as weaker vessels 1 Pet. 3:1-7). At 1 Tim. 2:11-15, women's inferior position to man is justified, in part, because of Eve's role as temptress in the garden of Eden. These patriarchal values of total female submission and male hierarchical dominance, informed by an ideology of female inferiority, are what places women at increased risk of sexual violence. If a woman is expected to submit to her husband and be saved through childbearing, she cannot be raped. Nor can she complain to the relevant authorities because the bible categorically denies the equality of the sexes. Instead, from a biblical perspective, women are seen as breeding stock with no voice of their own. Christianity doesn't protect women; it dehumanizes them. You are automatically morally superior to the Judeo-Christian god if you are opposed to sexism, patriarchy, misogyny, xenophobia, homophobia, property-based rape, slavery, infanticide and genocide. The bible not only encourages, but endorses misogyny, sexism, patriarchy, xenophobia, homophobia, property-based rape, slavery, infanticide and genocide. We are morally superior to the Judeo-Christian god if we can agree that all of the aforementioned moral failings are actual moral failings and that these moral failings are always wrong and immoral. If the Judeo-Christian god were really omniscient and omnibenevolent he would have created a world where none of these moral failings exist. Instead he created a world where all of them are allowed to proliferate unchecked. This makes the Judeo-Christian god a supremely evil being, rather than a supremely good one. Fortunately he doesn't exist.

The Bible: Slavery Is Good. Gays Are Bad. Snakes Talk

I cannot wrap my mind around those who claim the bible should be the moral basis for our life. The Bible is no bases for morality. Those who claim so pick only the nice verses to best suit their own morality. Throughout the Old Testament, multiple verses condone slavery, Leviticus 25:44-46, Exodus 21:2-4 (even within the context of this verse, slavery should never be condoned) Exodus 21:20 (treatment of said slaves). Richard Nisbet in 1773 wrote a response to an antislavery pamphlet, with his own entitled "Slavery Not Forbidden by Scriptures" where he used Old Testament verses to justify slavery. Now I say that to say that to say this, Christians of today I would hope, agree that slavery is wrong and abhorrent, and they would also say that Old Testament law no longer applies. Yet the Old Testament applies when it comes to current homophobic views and when it suited their needs. "Bible View of Slavery" by John H. Hopkins 1863, is another pamphlet in which this writer concludes that even though he himself would not condone slavery in normal circumstances, he must condone it because it is justified by the bible. This makes no logical sense; it is pure mental gymnastics. Even in the New Testament slavery is mentioned and condoned by Paul who could have made a statement against slavery, which being the time of the Roman Empire was common. But no, he calls for slaves to be subservient to their masters. Colossians 3:22 "Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord." That Greek word for slave is doulos #1401 in the Strong's Concordance, the definition is "doúlos (a masculine noun of uncertain derivation) - properly, someone who belongs to another; a bond-slave, without any ownership rights of their own. Ironically, 1401 /doúlos ("bond-slave") is used with the highest dignity in the NT - namely, of believers who willingly live under Christ's authority as His devoted followers." And this is just about slavery, not the other multitude of times where killing women, babies, and people in general, is condoned. Rape is also condoned and abortion, under gods circumstances. Now what I am about to say is the 100% truth. People imprint their sense of morality upon the bible. Christians take the verses that sound nice and then twist the others that don't and say that "they are old law" or "that is out of context" to best suit their own needs and place themselves upon a morally high pedestal. I cannot for the life of me understand anyone who can critically think and conclude that the bible is a morally righteous and godly inspired text that should be the bases for all our lives and laws. It cannot serve as a moral guide when it itself is not moral. Have Christians ever read the bible? Also, any other atheist here that regularly just reads holy scriptures due to the sheer absurdity that you find in them? It intrigues me. Why don't people believe in the bible? A talking snake convinces a naked woman to eat some fruit, resulting in an invisible man in the sky getting so upset about it that he makes her feel pain in childbirth, curses the ground to grow weeds and makes everybody worship him on pain of being tortured for all eternity in a fire. Later, a man hears voices in his head and tries to kill his own son. Then stops at the last minute only to be told by the voice in his head to mutilate his genitals and that of his children. Later still a man is talking to a Bush which tells him to go to Egypt and free the slaves and take them to Canaan - a land that, historically, was under Egyptian jurisdiction at the time anyway. They have a party then the invisible man in the sky slaughters a few thousand of them because they made a gold statue and didn't invite him. Later still a talking donkey begs a man to stop hitting him. Later a man who is his own father comes along, walks on water, cures people and even raises the dead, but nobody mentions it until 70 years after he dies and even then only by 4 people who want you to believe the story. Then a senile old man who is exiled on an island surrounded with psychoactive flora writes a very trippy book about a seven-headed monster. Seems legit to me. If I didn't know you were talking about the bible, I would have thought you were describing different psychological disorders. A few absurdities in the Bible: God intelligently designs foreskin on a man's penis, then directs its removal. (Ge. 17) God commands us to kill witches. God must know witches don't exist, right? (Ex. 22.18) God informs the Israelites to smear lamb's blood on their doorways so he doesn't get confused and accidently kill the favored Hebrew children. So apparently God can kill children indiscriminately, but sufferers from an odd form of supernatural dementia. (Ex. 12.3-13) Giants wandered the earth! (Nu. 13.33) Donkeys and trees talked. (Nu. 22.30), (Ju. 9.9) Unicorns and Dragons exist (Nu. 23.22, De. 33.17), (De. 32.33) God sends a serpent to bite people when they complain about starvation. Never complain to God. (Nu. 21.5-6) God goes out of his way to provide explicit rules for defecating in the woods, so he doesn't get his feet dirty. (De. 23.13) Samson kills 1000 people with the jawbone of an ass, apparently a serious weapon during the Iron Age. (Ju. 15.15) As punishment, God affects people with hemorrhoids in their "secret parts." (1 Sa. 5.6-12) Horse-drawn "chariots of fire" flew all the way to heaven. (2 Ki. 2.11) God change the position of the shadow on a sundial. (2 Ki. 20.10) The earth is claimed to be stationary. (Ps. 104.5) A guy named Jonah lived in the belly of a fish for several days. (Jo. 1.17)

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