Yesterday my mother told me that she was okay that I practiced Buddhism, but she did not want me to dismiss her god, which was the god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. She said that I needed him because he could protect and affect people's hearts to me. And also because she believes that connecting with him would be connecting to the god part so that I could be able to reach my potential.
I personally find all that to mean nothing. Not just because of my experiences with Christianity and Nation Of Islam, but also because of what I know. I know all too well the lies and deception that Christianity and Nation Islam use to convince people to be more obedient and more submissive; if you love god, you would obey him; full and complete freedom is freedom to be everything god wants you to be; there is peace in submission; happiness comes from submission; there is freedom in submission. I know that both of them are critical of pagans when it is them who should be criticized.
Now about the god of the Bible, I don't want to be ANYTHING like him or ANYWHERE near him. He is jealous, callous, capricious, petty, misogynistic, homophobic, tribalistic, Fascist, genocidal, filicidal, infanticidal, and unjust. He is a narcissist, a sociopath, a totalitarian, and driven by his ego. Read your Bible for what it has to say. And before you think that I am just talking shit about the Bible like an atheist, consider the patriarch of your belief system: Abraham. He is extolled for his act of faith which was when he was willing to stab his own son out of obedience to Yahweh or Allah. Even though Abraham did not successfully stab his son, one cannot deny that the experience more than likely scarred Isaac and possibly destroyed the relationship between Isaac and Abraham. Besides, if the tale had not been written in third person, Abraham would be considered the male caricature of Andrea Yates.
Now back to god, the Bible is riddled with his atrocities. Not just with Abraham. Look at the Tower of Babel story. The people were trying to build a tower that stretched to heaven, possibly so they could see god. And he gave them different languages so they would cease their project.
Look at the story of Moses and when he told Pharaoh, "Let my people go." No doubt after turning the Nile River into blood for a week (which killed the fish and left a horrendous odor), Pharaoh would have had a change of heart and let the Hebrews go. (The Nile River was a source of irrigation and trade for the Egyptians. Blood does not cause crops to grow, and no one is going to go within spitting distance of a river of blood unless they're into vampirism). However god hardened pharaoh's heart so that he would continue to refuse and god could wreak havoc on Egypt from the annoying frogs and lice, to the flies that carry germs, to killing off the Egyptian animals, to giving them boils, to destroying their crops with hail and locust, to taking away their light for 72 hours, and finally the Passover which claimed the firstborn children and animals of the Egyptians.
I think the most damning evidence is the story of Job. Satan makes a bet with god saying that if god was to take away Job's hedge of protection and let Job's life go awry,, Job would curse god to his face. Well, god accepted Satan's bet and allowed Satan to wreck Job's life. This bet cost Job his 10 children, servants, livestock, wealth, and Job's health. Through it all, Job never cursed god, even when his wife suggested it. However, Job began to cry, "Woe is me!" and wonder "What have I done to receive this?" His friends were constantly condemning Job saying that he must have done something wrong. And when god finally breaks his silence, it is not to explain about the bet between him and Satan. It was to berate and belittle Job, and to say in essence, "I am big and mighty and I can do whatever I want, and there is nothing you can say or do about it." And even though god did replace Job's 10 children with 10 more children, they could never replace the original, And ask any parent who lost a child.
These tales truly highlight god's narcissism, egotism, callousness, and bloodthirst. And it does not stop there. Look at some of the laws he gave to the Hebrews in the wilderness: anyone who does not observe the Sabbath Day should be put to death; women on their periods are unclean and should be avoided for a week; those sleep with the same sex should be killed; rebellious children should be killed; anyone who suggests apostasy should be killed; if a woman who is single is raped, her attacker should pay her father and marry her; Hebrews can enslave other people; Hebrews can enslave each other for some time (and there's even a clause where circumstances will allow a slave to remain enslaved forever); Hebrews can rape single women who were of the "heathens".
I don't know about you, but I know for a fact that I am a hell of a more moral than this god, and my life got better when I threw him out of my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment