Is the Bible bad?
How could anyone say that after it has been called “The Good Book” for so many years? There is much to be said for it but there is also much to be said against it. It is certainly to be respected for the tremendous influence it has had on Western civilization directly and on all of our species in some way. While most would argue the influence has been positive, I, as a contrarian, must argue otherwise. The easy part of this argument is the wars, holy wars of the crusades and the holy wars going on today in the Middle East, the Balkans and the United States.
Holy war in the US? What else would you call the debate over abortion and other issues that fundamentalists champion with such hatred and the Catholics with slightly less hatred? Vitriolic hatred express by some to the extent that others, weaker minded, foot soldiers, have committed murder and other acts of violence. Those expressing the hatred are doing it in the name of their religious beliefs, they are quoting the Bible. That is an outcome of the Bible. To say that it is misguided men (mostly men) who are doing it and that it does not reflect on the Bible is nonsense. Misguided, of course, but none the less reflecting on the Bible.
Generally people think of the outcomes of the Bible and the religions it has spawned as doing good by creating sins and punishments for sin. Certainly burning in hell for eternity should be a deterrent to crime. I asked 50 people who had registered as “experts” in their faith on a web site if they thought people who believed in God were more or less likely to commit crime and more or less likely to commit crime if they had had a religious upbringing. Those of Jewish, Protestant, Islamic faiths were unanimous in their response that people who believed in God and people who had been raised in a religion were less likely to commit a crime. Of the Catholics responding they were unanimous in their opinion that religious upbringing would be a deterrent but a couple of them backed off on whether a belief in God was a deterrent to crime. Perhaps they were thinking of the Mafia who are always portrayed as being devout Catholics.
My research uncovered quite different facts. I was unable to find any studies that delve into the religious upbringing of criminals. However, I did uncover the information for a few notorious criminals. The father of John George Haigh (The Acid Bath Murderer) was described as “intensely religious”. The NY Mad Bomber and Hitler were Roman Catholic. Joseph Kallinger was adopted by sadistic Catholic parents. Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer “came from a religious family.” I found none who came from an irreligious family or who were irreligious. Edward W. Mitchell in his paper The aetiology of serial murder: towards an integrated model writes, “An analysis of the role of religion in the life of the serial murderer and its relationship to internal justification of his crimes would be of considerable interest.” Wouldn’t you think that someone of religion who believed that religion was, at the very least, a deterrent to crime would have done the research by now? Perhaps they have and decided not to publish it.
Two studies of criminals done in the early 1900s found very few irreligious among them. One study of 28,351 prisoners found 57 who said they had no religion. When a sample of 12 of the 57 was interviewed more closely it turned out only 1/3 was truly irreligious. That comes to less than .03% or 99.97% were found to be religious. “Of 700 criminals examined by Ferri one alone was an atheist, one was indifferent, and seven were devout and even found religion an excuse for their crime.” “Among 200 Italian murderers Ferri did not find one who was irreligious.” The Criminal by Havelock Ellis (1910). My research is superficial, to be sure. One of the reasons research along this line has not been done is because most research into the criminal mind is to try to understand it so crime can be prevented. No one is likely to come along and try to make a case for overthrowing religion to eliminate crime, not even me. But to say that we live in a more civilized world because of religion cannot be supported. In other words, an outcome of the Bible is not less crime.
A book reviewer of the Bible would have to say that the language was stilted and obscure. The beatitudes are certainly an incredible bore. There are many, many inconsistencies. Amazing that so many base their lives on this book. Even more amazing since so few of them have even read it. Another interesting bit of research would be to find out how many devout followers understand the Bible very well, not from what they have been taught but from actually reading it.
So why is it so popular, the best selling book of all time? The answer is that there are some basic truths that we recognize as such and these truths are told in stories that are easily understood and memorable. Unfortunately these stories are taken by some to be historically accurate and absolute rather than parables, myths and teaching aids. The book has also been used to exploit those who “needed help interpreting it.” The exploiters have no intention letting go their hold on their flock. It is to their advantage to keep it obscure so they can maintain a position as God’s interpreter. If the myths were identified as myths (read Joseph Campbell) and the truths exposed in their simplest form, many in the flock could take up staffs, live with greater independence and be more helpful to others.
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This post got me thinking, and doing some research, the results of both can be seen in my essay at Street Prophets, Do Atheists Commit More Crime?
Posted 12 Jan 2008 at 2:44 am ¶Is the bible bad? If you are a female or even male who has a sense of justice or one morsel of compassion, I would think you would consider the following pretty bad.
(Numbers 31:7-18 )
They attacked Midian just as the LORD had commanded Moses, and they killed all the men. All five of the Midianite kings – Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba – died in the battle. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword. Then the Israelite army captured the Midianite women and children and seized their cattle and flocks and all their wealth as plunder. They burned all the towns and villages where the Midianites had lived. After they had gathered the plunder and captives, both people and animals, they brought them all to Moses and Eleazar the priest, and to the whole community of Israel, which was camped on the plains of Moab beside the Jordan River, across from Jericho.
Moses, Eleazar the priest, and all the leaders of the people went to meet them outside the camp. But Moses was furious with all the military commanders who had returned from the battle. “Why have you let all the women live?” he demanded. “These are the very ones who followed Balaam’s advice and caused the people of Israel to rebel against the LORD at Mount Peor. They are the ones who caused the plague to strike the LORD’s people. Now kill all the boys and all the women who have slept with a man. Only the young girls who are virgins may live; you may keep them for yourselves.
Clearly Moses and God approves of rape of virgins. The KJV clearly reads they are to keep the women children for themselves and it would take a fool not to understand what that means. Women children could be as young as 2 or 3!!! It gives no restriction of age! Try to visualize what these towns looked like after these gruesome barbaric attacks. Read on, it only gets worse.
(Deuteronomy 21:10-14
“When you go out to war against your enemies and the LORD, your God, delivers them into your hand, so that you take captives, if you see a comely woman among the captives and become so enamored of her that you wish to have her as wife, you may take her home to your house. But before she may live there, she must shave her head and pare her nails and lay aside her captive’s garb. After she has mourned her father and mother for a full month, you may have relations with her, and you shall be her husband and she shall be your wife. However, if later on you lose your liking for her, you shall give her her freedom, if she wishes it; but you shall not sell her or enslave her, since she was married to you under compulsion.”
I can’t begin to imagine how it would feel to watch all those you love being butchered before your eyes and then being taken as a sex slave by the thugs who did it! This is nothing more than forcible RAPE of the most disgusting kind. What this clearly is saying if one of the ‘chosen’ sees an attractive female he lusts after, he may take her and rape her repeatedly until he grows tired of her. This is NO marriage!
Judges 5:30 )
They must be dividing the spoils they took: there must be a damsel or two for each man, Spoils of dyed cloth as Sisera’s spoil, an ornate shawl or two for me in the spoil.
Do you find it strange that they kill everyone except those they want to rape? God commands these killing claiming the people are evil. What could be more evil than rape? Why would a god want his precious holy people having sex with ‘evil’ women? Just like a flock of buzzards, they are picking over the spoils. That is the bottom line anyway. This entire group was too lazy to work, so they took by violence from those who did work and build. They were nothing but a band of robbers, liars and butchers. They were a more brutal version of the Benny Hinns and John Hagees of this day who use the name of the same god to mass fortunes and deceive millions.
We are at war in Iraq. How would we feel if our armies were doing such things? There are laws against this and any who commit such crimes would be tried in a court of law for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her. And if the slave girl’s owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter. If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife. If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment. (Exodus 21:7-11)
This book was written by evil men and used the name of a god they created as an excuse to do as they wished. Women are not treated as well as cattle. They can be taken by force or sold and it is up to them to PLEASE the monster who is raping them.
Lo, a day shall come for the Lord when the spoils shall be divided in your midst. And I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem for battle: the city shall be taken, houses plundered, women ravished; half of the city shall go into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be removed from the city. (Zechariah 14:1-2)
Stealing, killing and raping of women!
Deuteronomy 20:10-14)
As you approach a town to attack it, first offer its people terms for peace. If they accept your terms and open the gates to you, then all the people inside will serve you in forced labor. But if they refuse to make peace and prepare to fight, you must attack the town. When the LORD your God hands it over to you, kill every man in the town. But you may keep for yourselves all the women, children, livestock, and other plunder. You may enjoy the spoils of your enemies that the LORD your God has given you.
What kind of God approves of murder, rape, and slavery? THINK ABOUT IT!
(Deuteronomy 22:28-29)
If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her.
What kind of lunatic would make a woman marry her rapist?
(Deuteronomy 22:23-24)
If within the city a man comes upon a maiden who is betrothed, and has relations with her, you shall bring them both out of the gate of the city and there stone them to death: the girl because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbors wife.
The victim is being blamed. Perhaps the thug was holding a knife to her throat, holding his hand over her mouth or threatening to kill her or her loved ones is she screams.
It is clear that God doesn’t give a damn about the rape victim. He is only concerned about the violation of another mans “property”.
There is no way to clean this up and make it anything other than what it is. It is pure filth. These are tales of kidnapping, rape, theft, murder and enslavement ordered by a god, we are told. These are crimes against human beings and innocent animals. This is NOT the Creator of this world. This god is the invention of the sick minds of very evil greedy barbaric men. All through history man has done violence to his fellowman and justified in the name of his gods. It still goes on today as it did back then. Why can’t people see this for what it is?!
The NT is no better. Jesus never says one word against a marriage where a woman or the children are being abused. He does not seem to care about the woman or kids at all. He never says one word against slavery except to tell the slaves to obey their masters. He informs us we are to hate our own families and love him. He says to bring those who won’t worship him and slay them in front of him. He clearly taught he came only to save the lost house of Israel and referred to non-jews as dogs. If any of this is a doctrine of love and truth, I will pass.
Posted 17 May 2008 at 1:08 am ¶Kat,
Posted 08 Oct 2008 at 2:20 pm ¶You will get no argument from me on your basic points. The quotes you use are certainly reasons to condemn the Bible. However, someone can compile a list of quotes from the Bible that I’m sure you would agree were valid if not inspirational. That some people take it to be the word of god rather than a book written by men (as nearly as we can tell all men) is tragic for them and for our society.
I reject you statement that these men were evil. I believe they were doing their best given the information and knowledge available to them at the time. We should keep in mind that they knew little of how plants and animal grow let alone how they might have come into existence. They thought the earth was flat and that it was the center of the universe. We have come a long way in our understanding of the world we live in. It is unfortunate that we have left our understanding of philosophy for living 2,000 behind.
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