Throwing children against stones!

Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.--Psalms 137:9

No one in the human race can be made happy by throwing infants and children against stones.  The fact that bible verses like this get overlooked, while others are revered is just crazy making.  Murder is an unnatural act.  Humans do not need religion to tell them that murder of infants and children are wrong under any circumstance.  God killed the "firstborn" in Egypt in the story of Pharoah and Moses.  God always approved of the killing of innocent women and children and the elderly in the many genocides of the bible.  David, who is credited with writing the Psalms was one of the most violent kings of all time and yet God said David was a man after God's own heart.  The tribes that surrounded the hebrew tribe were never safe from acts of war against them.  Dashing children against stones was obviously encouraged in their acts of aggression.  How terribly sad.  Surely mankind can do better by rising above the abrahamic religions of islam, judaism and christianity.   These are not religions of peace!

A scapegoat is a bad idea!

"But the goat, on which the lot fell for the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before Yahweh, to make atonement for him, to send him away for the scapegoat into the wilderness."


Author: Leviticus 16 Verses #: 10

The belief that humans need religion to tell them not to kill and not to lie and not to steal, etc. is an insult to the intelligence of the human race.  To foster a "religion" that allows you to place your sins on a goat once a year and send him out into the wilderness to die and thus take away your "guilt" is immoral and takes the responsibility for sin off the sinner and puts it on the goat.  To allow a "prophet" to take your sins away and leave you guilt free and free of responsibility is equally immoral.  The convenience of simply "believing" on a "savior" who died for your sins should not absolve you of guilt.  In order to arrive at a more moral and just society we must make men more accountable for child abuse, murder and theft, etc.  not less.   The church has been a "racket" in which the pope sits at the top and has the power to pray you into heaven. The blood of a jewish rabbi 2,000 years ago lets you off the hook to sin and sin again.  How much further along would the world be if 4,000 years ago a civil society made people "pay" for their wrongs and make their wrongs right rather than allowing a goat to bear their guilt once a year.  This is an ancient tribal belief that looked for a human sacrifice.  Yeshua was a perfect candidate.
The destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. allowed this myth to become wildly popular when animals could not longer be sacrificed.  A little appreciation of ancient history can go a long way.  The early catholic church made a fortune selling "favors" and prayers for the dead.  Mysticism, superstition and the combining and collusion of religion made Yeshua into a very profitable "savior".

Let them have "dominion" (and ruin the earth)

"God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.""


Author: Genesis 1 Verses #: 26

Other translations suggest that the word dominion means to "rule over".  The christian nation that we live in has taken this "dominionism" very seriously.  How wonderful it would be if this ancient and ignorant male writer would have said to "understand" and live in peace and respect with ecosystems.  We pollute our rivers with toxic chemicals.  We destroy streams by extracting natural gas.  We overfish and destroy life in the oceans.  We treat livestock with the most cruelty imaginable before we kill them violently.  The "dominion" of mankind is going to destroy the planet.  Our refusal to control population growth rates with edicts from the pope will lead to a planet of 9 billion in the next 30 to 50 years that the planet cannot sustain.  Unless we raise up a generation of biologists, ecologists and environmentalists who have to power to dictate sane public policy life on our little planet is doomed.  We will kill each other fighting over which imaginary deity is the most real and most worthy of absolute loyalty.  The panda's have quit reproducing long ago.  Do they know something we don't know? 

Child abuse encouraged by the bible

Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.--Pr:22:15
This verse has been the sole justification for centuries and centuries of childhood abuse. The human race has been whipping, beating and spanking and hitting their offspring for centuries based on this one verse. Humans and especially, children are very fragile and capable of being injured both emotionally and physically. Children have their own unique view of the world but that does not mean that they are beyond reason and must be beaten into submission. Child abuse, just like spiritual abuse is rampant in the church because cruelly, it is justified in the bible. The abuser does not benefit the heart of the child, but breaks it. I find it surprising that many children who experience being spanked/beaten as children grow up to continue a relationship with the parent abuser and with the parent's god.  I do think that children resent and remember abuse their whole lives and it does interfere with affection toward parents and others. Children who experience being beaten with a "rod" of correction often grow up hypervigilant and become abusers themselves. The "good" book encourages parents to spank their children when they see fit and for perceived "foolishness". Children need love and discipline and attention, rest and nutrition and adequate periods of exercise. They do not need to be spanked and beaten with a rod. In my opinion, this verse is proof that an all-knowing and all-wise god wrote the bible. It was written by violent men who had a very limited knowledge of psychology and sociology and biology. Talk to your children, listen to your children...don't beat them when you are having a bad day and want to extend your personality as their "authority". Parents do not have a right to use a "rod" on their children...that is spiritual, physical and psychological abuse.  I have to wonder if it is why america is so violent and why we are military empire of dominance and authoritarianism.

A website link about the bible

http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/about_the_holy_bible.html

A very thorough "Walk through the Bible" with the eyes of a critic!  Whether you are a believer or a doubter this informative website will be fascinating.

200 foreskins buys David King Saul's Daughter

"and David arose and went, he and his men, and killed of the Philistines two hundred men; and David brought their foreskins, and they gave them in full number to the king, that he might be the king's son-in-law. Saul gave him Michal his daughter as wife."


Author: 1 Samuel 18 Verses #: 27

David, "a man after God's own heart" goes out and kills 200 men and brings their foreskins to King Saul in order to obtain King Saul's daughter as his wife.  David eventually has countless wives in the course of his lifetime.  So many wives that no one really knows how many wives he had.  David  uses extreme violence against another tribe to prove his manhood and qualifications to become attached to the royal household.  The barberism of the tribal desert warfare was horrible, and yet David is an ultimate biblical hero second only to Jesus.  We are led to believe that his one failure was that of adultery and the murder of Uriah the Hittite, Bathsheba's husband, when in fact, David did not show restraint when accumulating wives or attacking and murdering neighboring tribes.  He was a man of war and of violence.  I don't see how it can beneficial to teach young children about this biblical hero unless the church is wanting to continue world dominance through militarism and war....in which case....David can be a useful and very violent role model.

Hitler proclaims to be a christian

My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God's truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. ...Today, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed his blood upon the Cross. ...
- Adolf Hitler, speech on April 12, 1922
 
Hitler had command of christian theology and never denounced his faith.  He justified his hatred of the jews with his theology and justified the holocaust by proclaiming the jews were  "liberals" and "evil".  We participate in the same rationalization today as a nation who invaded "evildoers" as Bush was remembered as saying.  We killed 1 to 2 million Iraqui's and destroyed their electrical grids and water systems because they were "evildoers".   Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi nation were accused of threatening to use weapons of mass destruction, which we now know never existed.  Hitler justified the holocaust as eliminating the "evil" jews and we justify war by eliminating muslims in a genocide and war of tyranny and terror upon the populations in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Fallujah will never be free of depleted uranium.  It is a place of birth defects and cancer and illness from our weapons foisted upon them.  The current wars are not condemned by the church or the american population, even though they are creating a deficit that we will never recover from.  Bush could never have taken the nation to war if the church and "evangelicals" were to have vehemently opposed him.  Hitler could never have carried out the holocaust if the german church and the catholic church would have stood up for the jews.  This is just a fact.

Genocide and the Bible Youtube Discussion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_itrJx2FJI

God, the patriarchs and modern day christians do not denounce genocide.

Violent Biblical Genocide of the Ammonites

"He brought forth the people who were therein, and cut [them] with saws, and with iron picks, and with axes. David did so to all the cities of the children of Ammon. David and all the people returned to Jerusalem."


Author: 1 Chronicles 20 Verses #: 3

This is a description of mass murder and genocide of the Ammonites.  This story about David is repeated twice in the Old Testament.  When one ponders on why America is addicted to war and spends 51% of funds from the treasury on military empire you need look no further than the "good book" that we swear on in all courts of law.  David is described as a "man after God's own heart".  David's reign as King was one of the most violent in the whole of the Old Testament.  Thou shalt not kill did not apply to foreigners and groups of people living in proximity to David's kingdom.  Modern day jews and christians alike hold the biblical view of genocide and military dominance of societies who believe different than they do.  America killed 3 to 4 million Vietnamese without regard to women and children and destroyed whole villages during the Vietnam war without resistance by "the church".  One year after Martin Luther King spoke out against the Vietnam War he was killed.  The church was silent during Vietnam and has been silent during the Iraq war.  Pro-life evangelicals do not grieve for the loss of life within Iraq by our bombs and tanks and guns.  They concern themselves with forcing women to carry, birth and raise children that they do not want and remain in agreement and in support of a violent military agenda.  No doubt, the violence and constant warfare in the Old Testament numb the conscience of believers of Yahweh.

Younger female widows to receive no welfare

"But refuse younger widows, for when they have grown wanton against Christ, they desire to marry;"


Author: 1 Timothy 5 Verses #: 11

Paul had instructed Timothy to instruct the church to care for "widows" who were "widows indeed" if they did not have family to care for them, but to deny support to the younger widows because they were more likely to desire to have a spouse.  Biblical marriages were arranged marriages until the last 200 to 300 years.  The family chose your spouse and arranged who you were to be married to.  Paul is assuming and chastising and denying care to younger widows because they were likely to desire to marry.  This is cruel treatment and this is a cruel view against young widows, who no doubt have children that they were struggling to feed and clothe and house.  It is natural to desire to pass through life with someone who will share and care for you and your children.  Paul, again, shows a lack of tenderness and compassion to young widows who may need help and may desire companionship.  Paul views a desire to marry as something sinful.  He instructs Timothy and other single believers to remain single as he was.  A desire to marry was a desire to give into "fleshly desires".  Women desired children in hopes that when they grew older the children would take care of them.  The teachings of Paul that instructed single believers to remain single was not a jewish teaching and tradition, but eventually became a way to be "godly". It became a prerequistite to priesthood.  Through Paul's teachings  godliness was attributed to a single and celibate lifestyle.  This was a unique New Testament concept fostered by the teachings of Paul, who never met Jesus, nor heard Jesus speak.  The very earliest 1st century jewish believers rejected Paul's teachings and status as an apostle.  It was nearly a hundred years after Paul's writing that certain groups vied for Paul's doctrines and teachings to be taught.  In the 2nd and 3rd century the followers of Paul began to dominate christianity by calling themselves "Pauline" christians.  The earliest christians did not have Paul's teachings and did not follow Paul's teachings and no doubt viewed all widows in a more compassionate light.

Biblical declaration that knowledge is bad news!

For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. – Ecclesiastes 1:18

Ancient and illiterate sheep herders who form the cast of  characters known as the "Patriarchs".  They no doubt had little use for women, foreigners or baby girls, but who would guess that they had little use for knowlege?  Because they had no use for science, biology and education for the masses?  It took mankind 4,000 years to advance without knowledge and about 200 years to advance with "knowledge" of science, medicine and education.  Who wants to go back to the stone age of the patriarchs of slavery, genocide, gender inequality and ignorance? 

Without education mankind will descend backwards into illiterate ignorance and superstition and myths from which we have escaped. 

I think it is time america "de-funds" the pentagon and funds education and rewards innovation and develops scientists who can move us beyond our addiction to fossil fuels, which are running out.  The bible clearly does not have the answers as it so proudly states. 

God's claim to creating evil

I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace and create evil: I the Lord do all these things.
Isaiah 45:7

Some interpretations reference the word "evil" as calamity.  This is Isaiah, a major prophet in the Old Testament stating that God says he creates evil/calamity.   The book of Job is a book about the calamities brought about by Satan with God's permission upon God's "faithful" servant.

Anyone who tells you that "blessings" are from God and evil/calamity is not does not know their bible.
The prophets were extreme voices claiming to hear from and speak God's words.  They were always men and usually lived to put the "fear" of God into the hebrew people.  Modern day preachers, priests, and prophets are well supported by their followers and claim to speak for God and uniquely hear messages from God.  Joseph Smith of the mormon church and various other cults comes to mind.  They have a large followings and enjoy a respect for their proclamations.  Modern day christianity has a dearth of end-time doomsday prophets (Tim LaHaye comes to mind, as does John Haggee) who make a killing off God's promise to "kill off" humankind in "the last days".  My life has become so much more peaceful and hopeful since I quit listening to those fools who wish today was their last day on planet earth.  The pentagon is quite capable to ending life on planet earth without any help from a supreme being.  They will do so with the blessings of the current doomsday prophets.  All God's people will say "amen" up to their children's last breath of clean air and last drink of clean water.  God is going to give the "faithful" a "new" heaven and a "new" earth, which will be all the more necessary after this one is totally depleted and ruined by global corporate greed.  A new heaven and a new earth is a convenient fantasy while we destroy what is left of the oceans, rivers and forests.

OK to sell your daughter

""If a man sells his daughter to be a female servant, she shall not go out as the male servants do."
Author: Exodus 21 Verses #: 7


The bible condones slavery in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. This chapter in Exodus puts forth "tribal" law as it pertains to the buying and selling of slaves both within the family, the tribe and neighboring tribal clans. Polygamy, slavery and genocide are repeat themes in the bible.

When american multi-national corporations move to Mexico so they can "buy" cheap labor at .40 cents per hour they prefer to "buy" young females. These females are replaced when they marry, become pregnant or become ill with a newer and younger female. The world still allows "slave labor", we just call it NAFTA, CAFTA or multi-national globalization. When these very same corporations discover they can "buy" labor at .10 cents per hour in China they leave Mexico and set up shop in China where again, they overwhelmingly prefer young female labor. The happy meal toys made in China are our way of saying we condone "slave labor" at the cheapest price. The only question is "Do you want a boy happy meal or a girl happy meal"?

Death penalty for homosexuality

""'If a man lies with a male, as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."


Author: Leviticus 20 Verses #: 13

At some point I plan to list and discuss all the things listed in Levitical law that are an abomination to Yahweh.  It will take the better part of a month.  Eating insects, snakes, reptiles, fish with fins, shellfish, etc. are all abominations.  There are also many laws pertaining to when to eat or not eat flesh that has been sacrificied to Yahweh.  Levitical law does not follow logic.  Mankind has been eating shrimp for thousands of years as a very desirable source of protein and yet it is forbidden, as is pork.

As long as mankind has walked the earth there have been men who are not attracted to women and women who are not attracted sexually to men. They have been forced into unsatisfying relationships for thousands of years.  The catholic church condones single male priests living together but condemns homosexuality.  Likewise, women living in community as nuns is celebrated while homosexuality is condemned.  Obviously, a large number of these cloistered individuals are not attracted to the opposite sex and a heterosexual lifestyle experience and are celebrated and elevated, while practicing homosexuals are condemned to hell in the least and to death in some parts of the world.

Compassion and love of fellow man would dictate allowing people to follow their hearts.  Denying people loving lifelong partners is a cruel imposition of one's belief and biases over another's happiness.
Putting people to death for acknowledging their natural attraction for their same sex is barbaric.  Our future as a human race cannot be filled with barbarism and bigotism and hatred for homosexuals.  Homosexuals deserve laws that protect them and embrace their uniqueness.  They hurt no one, and in fact often show us how to have the courage to live in peace and happiness despite social prejudice.

God's evil spirits

But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him. And Saul's servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee. Let our lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man, who is a cunning player on an harp: and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well. 1 Samuel 16:14-16

In this set of verses the writer states 3 times that King Saul was sent an evil spirit from God.  Much attention was paid to evil spirits in both the old and new testament.  Mary Magdalene had 7 demons cast out of her by Jesus.  The question becomes why and how a perfect god could create and inflict people with evil spirits.  Jesus reportably went about casting out evil spirits that his Father, God had "sent". 
Modern day neo-pentecostalism is very much about the practice of calling out and "casting out" evil spirits from people.  Implying demon possession and then claiming exorcism has been a church practice for 2,000 years.  In the above story of King Saul the evil spirit leaves Saul when David is brought in to play the harp in Saul's presence.  Demon possession was inferred in mental illness in biblical times. 

How can a perfect god be the source of "evil spirits"?  Jesus actively participated in exorcising people of "demons" that the jews understood came from God, thus making God both the source of good and evil in these ancient teachings.  Much confusion exists today in the church over demon possession and satan as the source of physical and mental illness even though modern medicine is usually able to explain diseases as the source of illness and does not accuse people of demon possession as an explanation of illness.  Does god allow people to become ill?  Does god still send evil spirits into people?  God takes responsibility for creating satan and then allowing him to tempt Eve and spread evil within mankind's experience.  Where does evil come from?  Could god prevent it if he wanted to and spare people suffering and death by illness and war?  If so?  Why does he permit so much suffering if he is all knowing and perfect ? 

God's healthcare system

""Command the children of Israel that they put out of the camp every leper, and everyone who has an issue, and whoever is unclean by the dead."


Author: Numbers 5 Verses #: 2

Everyone who has a draining sore, every leper and anyone who had touched a dead body was simply put out of the camp.  They had not developed any knowlege of care for the ill.  The instructions were to simply isolate and irradicate the ill from the camp (tribe) without compassion or trying to heal the wound or cleanse their hands and wounds.  This is stone age medicine at it's worst and is not to be emulated.  It was only during the renaissance and coming into contact with indigenous people that practiced a little bit of herbal medicine that the christian culture began to think of "caring" for the ill.  The thought of compassion and caring for the ill was usuallly advanced in times of war on behalf of soldiers.  Think of Florence Nightingale where she impressed on her nurses the importance of clean bandages and of looking after soldier's wounds.  Is america trying to return to biblical times where we ignore the sick and cast them "out" and deny them care and blame them for getting sick by not having enough "faith"?  That is the message of the neo-pentecostals who dominate christian TV.  The TV evangelists sell "annointing oil", "prayer cloths", "special trinkets" all for profit to people seeking relief from disease and promise a "prayer" for healing in exchange for a donation to a ministry.  No christian pastor encourages participation in a political process that demands everyone be treated equally and with compassion.  Healthcare is sold as a "commodity" for those who can afford it and denied to those who cannot afford or obtain insurance.  The american evangelicals overwhelmingly approve of this view of healthcare.  Warfare expenditures are preferred over healthcare expenditures as 20 - 30% of the population goes without the benefit of seeing a physician.  We are simply putting people "outside the camp".

God promising to be drunk with blood

"I will make my arrows drunk with blood. My sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the head of the leaders of the enemy."

Author: Deuteronomy 32 Verses #: 42

In this chapter Moses is supposedly speaking for god.  The reader of the chapter is supposed to believe that all the words are the words of Yahweh.  God is explaining how he is going to kill people who are not hebrew and follow the God of Moses and the Israelites.  It becomes abundantly obvious the the commandment "Thou shalt not kill" does not apply outside the tribe. The old testament is filled with page after page of violent warfare against other tribes and "foreign" people.

 Under levitical law killing is encouraged for any acts outside levitical law.  The killing children for dishonoring parents is one example.  Everyone in the tribe of Moses was to be deathly afraid of breaking the very strict rules that governed all of life.  Violent death was the penalty exacted by the priests and the patriarch for behavior that did not conform to their levitical law.  Moses created a theocracy that was completely totalitarian in scope.

""Anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death."


Author: Exodus 21 Verses #: 17

working on the sabbath

http://dwindlinginunbelief.blogspot.com/2008/03/cnnn-can-you-put-out-new-bible-with.html

Let this more than suffice for my blog today!