The Christian god is NOT the god of the bible

The god that Christians claim exists is NOT the god of the bible. How can that be, you might ask?  Well, let’s look at the most common characterization of the Christian deity they call “god™.” Christians define their god as omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent. In order for this to be the same god found in the bible, there cannot be a single line of scripture that contradicts that description. However, one needs to look no further than Genesis to find that the god Christians describe is different than the one of the bible. So, let us examine each character trait one at a time and see if the bible offers any contradictory information.

The Christian god is said to be omniscient; in other words there is nothing that this god does not know. If there is even one thing that this god does not know, then it cannot be omniscient.

Gen 3:9-10 god called to [Adam] “where are you?” “Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

In this passage, god is ignorant to Adam’s whereabouts and appears uncertain as to whether Adam actually ate from the tree. But, wait… what’s this you say? god knew Adam had eaten the apple and was merely posing the question like a parent would to a child?

Even if you want to look at the question of the apple from a parental prospective, when parents interrogate children in this manner, they do so with a good idea of what happened (a hunch or suspicion), but without absolute knowledge. The child’s response is what usually confirms initial suspicions. Unless caught red-handed (which clearly wasn’t the case with the apple) there always remains a sliver of uncertainty/doubt in these situations. With such uncertainty/doubt present, absolute knowledge (omniscience) cannot be claimed. 

Gen 4:9 god to Cain: "Where is your brother Able?" Again, a question asked in ignorance or parental disbelief (as seen above).

In the story of Sodom & Gomorrah, god investigates some rumors:

Gen 18:20 Then the lord said “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so great that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me.”

The fact that the matter had to be investigated demonstrates ignorance and thus a lack of knowledge.

These are but a few of many examples that demonstrate that the god of the bible cannot be omniscient. All that is required to disprove the idea of omniscience is one example, but here we have four clear examples.

Now demonstrating that the god of the bible cannot be omniscient is enough to show that this is not the god the Christians worship. Remember that all 3 O’s are required characteristics of their deity. If one is disproven then that deity cannot exist within the bible.

Let’s take a look at omnipotence. This is the idea that there is nothing that god cannot do. It is all-powerful. In order to maintain omnipotence, there can be nothing that interrupts or otherwise interferes with god’s use of power.

Well, one feeble, incestuous, old man by the name of Lot apparently has the ability to interfere with god’s power. Again, we refer back to the story of S&G to find god ready to rain fiery doom down upon the sinful cities… but wait, what’s this? Lot is in the way and god cannot act:

Gen 19:22 “But flee from there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach [safety].”

Well, you may say that god COULD act, but simply refused to do so. That defies the scripture that says that he CANNOT act. The fact that god has to wait at all demonstrates that Lot is actually influencing god’s ability to act and thus is influencing his power. Either way, scripture clearly states that god cannot act, and if there is something that god cannot do, it cannot be omnipotent.

The third and final characteristic of the Christian god is that it is omnibenevolent. It is an all-loving god who cannot act out of anger, spite nor do anything that might be considered morally corrupt. Do I really need to cite specific passages for this one? There are too many examples of vile and disgusting behavior, including genocide, infanticide, slavery, subjugation of women, etc.

So, in examining the characteristics of the god Christians describe, we can see that this is clearly not the god of the bible. If Christians choose to equate the two (the god they describe and the god of the bible), that deity becomes a literal impossibility.

So, if it is your belief that the god of the bible is omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent, then you believe in something that does NOT exist.

Day 5

Please pardon the hiatus, but the “begots” got me down. What a bunch of convoluted and unnecessary crap. We get it, you’re establishing the path to Jebus, but why do you feel that this is important, yet Jebus’ teenage years weren’t? Apparently god in his infinite wisdom forgot to have someone edit his work. But then again, this wouldn’t be the first time… what happened with the platypus?  Way to go god.

Thank Dawkins! Finally reached Exodus. Let the fun begin!

·         Thou shall not lie, but if thou does, it should be a funny one!

A couple of midwives ignore the Pharaoh’s order to kill all male children born to Israelites. When the Pharaoh  discovers that the male children were allowed to live he investigates the matter. The midwives tell him that “Hebrew women are not like Egyptian women; they are vigorous and give birth before the midwives arrive.” (Ex 2:2)

Something about “vigorous” birthing conjures funny mental images.

·         “Moses and the Burning Bush” anyone else find that heading amusing?

·         “[Moses] came to Horeb, the mountain of god. There the angel of the lord appeared to him in flames of fire within a bush… when the lord saw that [Moses] had gone over to look, god called to him from within the bush.” (Ex 3:1-4)

What?!? The bible tells us that god has a mountain and provides us its name? It even tells us that it’s in Egypt. How difficult can it be to find a mountain? Seriously, think about how obvious a mountain is. All we have to do to find god is seek the mountain with god’s burning bush! (snicker, snicker…).

Now the question remains” who actually appeared in the bush? Was it “The angel of the lord” or god him/itself? Since it claims to be god, lets take it on its word and say its god (after all, wouldn’t you believe a burning bush?). So this is yet another personal appearance by god. His powers must have weakened over time. He’s gone from appearing in flaming bushes to appearing on pieces of toast, grilled cheese sandwiches and Wal Mart receipts. Whatever agent booked him those appearances needs to be fired.

·         “The lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them…” (Ex 3:7-8)

Oh, how compassionate. God makes a personal appearance to rescue those who are suffering. Need I point out what a crock of shit this is? Did humanity have only one get out of jail free card, or had god become lazy and apathetic? What about all of the other people who are suffering in this world? You’d think that an all loving, all knowing, all powerful god would be making personal appearances left and right to alleviate the suffering in this world. Perhaps god has outsourced that job to heathenistic liberal celebrities… and the right-wingers would have you believe they’re bad people.

·         “god said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” This is what you are to say to the Israelites: “I IM sent me to you.” (Ex: 3:14)

Ok, now god has flipped his shit. He’s claiming the name “I AM.” How many names does one deity need?

·         Wholy- fuck! God really wants people to know he’s god. “What if they do not believe me… and say ‘the lord did not appear to you’? Moses threw his staff on the ground and it became a snake…Moses reached out and took hold of the snake by the tail and it turned back into a staff in his hand. “this,” said the lord, “is so that they may believe that the lord, the god of their fathers… has appeared to you.” (Ex. 4:1-5)

Not only does god make personal appearances, but he provides his messengers with evidence of his existence via miraculous means. Is that too much to ask for these days? Let’s update it to say… a beer bottle that turns into a beautiful woman when set down. I’d feel compelled to believe a god exists if that happened. I guess I could settle for a staff turning into a snake… either way, god is trying really hard in the OT to be known, what happened?

·         Oh, it keeps getting better! God gave Moses two more miraculous signs: the ability to alter the flesh of this hand and to turn water into blood! (Ex. 3:6-9). I hate to say it, but you Christians have really lowered your standards for what you’ll accept as proof of god.

Day 4

This is only day 4? Christ! Here we go. After a much needed break, I’m back… and it looks like I’ve reached Sodom and Gomorrah. Let’s begin, shall we?

·         Gen 18:20 Then the lord said “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so great that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me.”

He doesn’t know? This occurs so often that whenever god doesn’t know something that he should, I’m simply going to respond with “omniscient” instead of elaborating on this contradiction as I have in earlier posts.

·         Gen 19:8 “Look, I have two [virgin] daughters. Let me bring them out to you and you can do what you like with them.”

This is Lot’s solution when faced with an angry mob that are looking to rape angels…”No,no, rape my daughters instead.” He couldn’t come up with a more reasonable solution, like a circle jerk and a group therapy session? That would ease the sexual tension and probably would have saved the city from the wrath of god. So much for critical thinking and Christian morality…

·         Gen 19:16-23  In these verses, god is attempting to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, but Lot is taking his sweet time leaving the area, preventing god from destroying the cities:

“But flee from there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach [safety].” (Gen 19:22)

So, a mere human has rendered god powerless over the situation? An omnipotent being couldn’t protect Lot while destroying the cities? Is god devoid of that ability, or perhaps he can’t multi-task?

·         Let’s take a look back, shall we?

god just destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19:24) after promising Abraham that he wouldn’t (Gen 18:23-33).

In this conversation between god and Abraham, Abraham shows concern for god killing righteous people, to which god replies “I will not destroy it,” with “it” referring to Sodom. Abraham poses scenarios to god “what if you find 50 righteous people there,” eventually working his way down to 10. With each number thrown out, god says “I will not destroy it.” One can logically conclude that god is saying that no matter how few the righteous may be, he will not destroy the city if they exist. To believe otherwise is to believe that god’s concern for the righteous is limited to 10 or more, meaning he’s willing to kill up to 9 righteous people at any one time.

Well, not only did god destroy the city (which contained Lot, his wife, their two daughters and the daughters boyfriends/fiancés… all deemed righteous by god)  but he turns Lot’s wife (a righteous person) into a pillar of salt (Gen 19:26)

So much for the word of god…

·         Gen 19:23 Lot’s daughters: “Let’s get our father to drink wine and then sleep with him and preserve our family line…”

Great, the bible advocated incest…  this is the part of the story they leave out of Sunday school.

·         Gen 20:12 “she really is my sister, the daughter of my father… and she became my wife.”

Keeping it in the family… classy!

·         Gen 20:14 More Slaves!!!

·         Gen 22   As a test of faith, god orders Abraham to kill his only son and give him as a burnt offering… of course the son is saved at the last minute (is god not merciful?), but that’s just fucked up. What kind of sick, sadistic being would come up with a test like that? So much for the supposed freewill of man… when one operates out of blind faith, one cannot have free will since they are obligated to the demands of their faith… thus the word “blind.” You can see no other options because your faith and conviction are so strong.

The "True Believer"

I’m going to deviate once again to address a reoccurring theme in my discussions with the Christian community. This is the concept of the “true believer. Let’s examine this concept, shall we?

The concept of the “true believer” is a defense mechanism conjured up by Christians to distance themselves from any negative associations with their religion. The crusades, for example are a huge stain on Christianity’s reputation. The Christian defense of the action is that they were not “True believers” or “True Christians” because their actions were in defiance of the religion. So, even though an act was done in the name of religion, it can’t be representative of the religion simply because the act(s) aren’t in accordance with Christian teachings. By making the label Christian one of convenience, they avoid any accountability.

Another way to look at it is from the perspective of an auto manufacturer. In the auto industry, you get something referred to as a lemon. In case you’re not familiar with the term it simply refers to a vehicle that is faulty, or not up to manufacturer specs. For the purpose of this argument, let’s use Ford, just because I like the sound of its name… Ford. It feels good to say. Anyway, let’s assume that Ford decides it will no longer recognize lemons produced by its company as TRUE Ford’s. When you ask: “Why not?” Ford replies, “Anything that does not follow the guidelines and specifications of the Ford Company and does not act like the ideal vehicle cannot be considered a TRUE Ford.” But if it’s manufactured by the Ford Company, bares the Ford logo, looks and feels like a Ford, then how is it not a Ford? Even a faulty Ford is still a Ford. No matter how much the Ford Company would love to distance themselves from faulty products, it doesn’t change the fact that they still exist and are still considered to be Fords. Not even the most fundamentalist Christian in possession of a lemon would consider it to be anything other than a Ford. It’s not like they’d suddenly be pissed at Lexus. That’s because, even they know, that good or bad, it’s still a Ford.

Below are excerpts taken from exchanges I had while addressing this very issue. Notice how each tries to shift the blame away from the religion itself. For the sake of clarity, assume that each action discussed is done in the name of religion since that’s the context they were chosen from and since logic tells us that acts not done in the name of something can’t be representative of that something:

·         If a Christian murders, let's say, an abortionist -he violates a commandment. If he commits adultery, he violates another one. The issue is the caliber of a believer's obedience, not the God the Christian is attempting to serve. And failure in that area is always attributable to the human, not God. A believer is only as obedient as he chooses to be. That's on the believer, not on God.

·         There are so called Christians that do terrible things and attempt to rationalize then in the name of the God of Love but it is just as legitimate to suggest they only claimed to believe and were outside what Christianity teaches. 

Both suggest that acts done in the name of Christianity, but contrary to its teachings aren’t really acts of Christianity. Just because an act doesn’t represent an ideal, doesn’t mean it should automatically be disqualified. Should an act, done under the very real belief that it is endorsed or sanctioned by god, no matter how atrocious, be written off and not associated with the religion it tried to represent? The answer is no.

Take notice of the second excerpt, how that the author suggests some people do bad acts in the name of Christianity by claiming they believe when they really don’t in order to tarnish its reputation. To suggest that Christians only “claim to believe” when acting outside of Christianity’s teachings is a farce and suggests some sort of conspiracy to defile Christianity’s image. By this “reasoning,” the crusades and inquisition weren’t about spreading the faith, but about a plot to soil Christianity’s reputation by doing evil deeds using its name. This is an interesting variant as it stretches well beyond the bounds of reason into the realm of conspiracy theories.

Christians acting on behalf of their religion should be held accountable no matter the outcome. Choosing the good qualities of something doesn’t paint a very accurate picture. If you take this Christian technique and apply it to Hitler, he suddenly seems like a decent human being when you ignore the atrocities and only focus on his good qualities. It’s time for Christians to grow a pair and accept the good with the bad.

Day 3

I’m finding it difficult to keep a positive outlook when every verse seems to defy logic and rational though… Well, here goes day three:

·       Gen 9:1 To Noah- “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth…”

The only humans left after the flood are Noah, his wife, their sons and their son’s wives (ALL descendants of Adam & Eve). Talk about keeping it in the family! With such limited genetic information to pass from one generation to the next (not to mention there has been thousands of years of inbreeding already) it’s a wonder modern man can tackle the mysteries of the universe let alone form coherent sentences.

·       Gen 9:2-3 “The fear and dread of you will fall on all beasts of the earth… everything that moves about will be food for you.”

Finally! Mankind can eat meat! Only took several thousands of years! Perhaps in another thousand, the animals will be able to eat meat as well??? Oh, the suspense!

·        Gen 9:12 “Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood.”

Not ALL life, just some of it… over and over again. Is he not merciful?

·        Gen 9:13 “I have set my rainbow in the clouds and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth”

I bet god was pissed when the gay community adapted this as their sign… Then again, he knew they would? Does this mean the gays are god’s chosen people?

·        Gen 10:2 … Gomer is a biblical name?!? No, really it is. I’m not making this up! Wait, don’t tell me… Bubba and Cletus are too?

·       Gen 11:5-9  Now this one is a doozie!

The people of the world at this point spoke one language. They come together and decide to build a city and a “tower that reaches to the heavens.” god comes to earth and sees what they’re building and says “If as one people speaking the same language they have done this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us (who is this US again? More than one god perhaps? god’s reference to “us” happens a lot.)go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.

What a jerk! There I said it. Did he feel threatened? Is this some form of biblical union busting? That was just a dick move no matter how you want to look at it… but, god is good?

·       Gen 16:2-3 “The lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave…” Sari took her Egyptian slave and gave her to her husband to be his wife…”

Slavery, adultery AND polygamy are endorsed by the bible?!? It must be, for the bible tells me so!

·       Damn… god is making personal appearances left and right. Why then and not now? Instead of being able to sit down to breakfast with god and hear his mighty word, all we get are garbled religious images that appear on pieces of toast. Is god outsourcing work these days? The quality and personal touch seems to have really gone downhill.

·       Gen 17:10  Apparently circumcision is a decree from god…  Serve thy god through genital mutilation… great…  Abraham was circumcised at the age of 99?!? Brutal!

Don’t know how much more I can stomach today. I’ve had all I can stands and I can’t stands no more. Till next time!

But I Digress…

I’m going to stray from my examination of the bible for a post in order to investigate an idea I had many years ago. My recent readings jarred this long-lost memory, which is something I now find novel, but thought it would be fun to flesh-out anyway. 
 

Growing up, I reached a point, as most of us do, that I was struggling with the concept of god and to a certain extent religion. As I gained more knowledge about the world, through personal experiences, observations and of course through my schooling, I came to accept the theory of evolution as something that just made sense. Since evolution is taught in a purely scientific context, I hadn’t given any thought as to any influence it may have on the discussion of religion and the god hypothesis. To me the two were completely compatible.

 Now, one thing you must understand is that, while I did believe in god, I wasn’t particularly religious. What I mean is that I under stood god to be the creator, but somehow managed to escape the dogma and indoctrination of religion to the point that I was blissfully unaware that my particular belief wouldn’t be supported by the religion that I was born into. This left my mind free to fill in the gaps with reason and evidence that is present in the physical world.

So, how did my view that god and evolution were compatible work?  Well, I saw god to be an observationalist deity, one that simply set the universe in motion and sat back to enjoy the show. Think of god as the ultimate curious mind, watching in amazement as life and the universe evolves in unexpected ways, not daring to interfere so as not to influence the process. This sort of laissez-faire approach would allow for evolution and all the other wonders of the universe to occur.  

Of course this wouldn’t be a god of Christianity, or Islam or any of the other faiths of this world. Such a being wouldn’t dare impose its will. Of course this being wouldn’t be omniscient either. That would ruin the majesty and excitement of watching events unfold. Would you really read a book or watch a movie if you already knew the outcome?  

I’d imagine this being isn’t very bashful. It doesn’t have to hide. Perhaps this god simply awaits discovery, which of course can only happen through the scientific process. Scientific advances just haven’t reached that point yet.

How does this being exist? Well, because its omnipotence demands it! Ah, now that’s a kink in the hose, because, as of now, that requires faith to believe. But, perhaps that’s a question we won’t be able to tackle until science advances to the point of being able to discover the being we’ve labeled god. Who’s to say there’s only one for that matter?

Of course this is all fantasy, the creation of a mind that was seeking answers and willing to ponder the possibilities. It was a wonderfully optimistic view, one that was sadly crushed by my 7^th grade English teacher. Somehow evolution was brought up during discussion in class and she stated that you can either believe in god OR evolution. When I asked why one couldn’t believe in both, she yelled at me in anger “Because you can’t!”

 As crushing as this was at the time, it was by no means a deciding factor in my views of religion and the god hypothesis. Unlike overnight religious converts, I don’t think non-belief is such an immediate process. It’s one that seems to develop over time through the process of natural discovery and galvanized by free thought.

Ah, that was fun. Well, enough with the personal stuff… back to the task at hand!

Day 2

Trying to straighten things out and wade through the information is exhausting. This is truly taxing on my sense or reason and logic. However, must forge on. Here is day 2:

·         Life expectancy in biblical times was amazing! See below:

o   Adam lived to 930 years old

o   Seth (son of Adam) 912

o   Enosh (son of Seth) 905

o   Kenan (son of Enosh) 910

o   Methuselah 969

Don’t we now know the life expectancy of that time to be significantly shorter? Not only were these men able to surpass modern man’s life expectancy, but they were able to procreate well into their 800’s. Too bad all their offspring (except for Noah) are going to be killed by god. Longevity and an incredibly healthy sex-drive would have been great traits to pass down the gene pool.

·        Gen 6:3 “My spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are corrupt, their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” So, god arbitrarily cuts the life expectancy from 900+ years to 120… and it still surpasses modern humans?

·       Gen 6:7 “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I created--- and with them all the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground…” Now they’ve done it! The humans have gone and pissed off god. First of all, as an omniscient being, he knew this was coming and literally had thousands of years since the time of Adam to prepare emotionally for this upset… not that I’d believe an omnipotent being would be so emotionally feeble… But I digress. So, god is pissed and decides to commit genocide on the entire human race. In addition, he’s going to kill all the animals? Why?!?

Looking at this from another angle, even though the ten commandments weren’t handed down yet, an omniscient being should be well aware of the commandment he will impose on the humans that says “thou shall not kill.”…Does that make him a spiteful hypocrite?

·       Gen 6:13 “I am surely going to destroy both them (the humans) and the earth.”

If god is going to destroy the earth, why even have Noah build the ark in the first place? Where would the ark sail without an earth? Does the fact that the earth wasn’t destroyed demonstrate a limit to god’s power or did he simply lie to Noah? If god is really omniscient, then he knew he wouldn’t destroy (or wasn’t capable of destroying) the earth, so why say that in the first place?

·       Gen 6:19 to Noah: “You are to bring into the ark two of ALL living creatures (a pair), male and female.”

Gen 7:2 “Take with you 7 pairs of every kind of clean animal--- and one pair of every kind of unclean animal.”

Got that? No? Good! god is apparently terrible with giving instructions.

·       Gen 7:4  Noah had only 7 days to build the ark AND collect all the animals? Oh, those are biblical days, not modern days? So, then the average life expectancy of that time has now increased to several modern millennium… now I really feel cheated.

·       Gen 7:6 Noah was 600 years old when the floods came…

Wait, didn’t god reduce the life expectancy to 120 years? Noah really did ALL that work by himself at 600 years old?!?

·    Gen 7:12 “And rain fell on the earth for 40 days and 4o nights”

… So now it rains!

On a side note, I wonder if the command for “2 of all living creatures” (Gen 6:19) or “Pairs of ALL creatures that have breath of life in them” (Gen 7:15) included sea creatures? This seems to be an arbitrary if not confusing command, but they would be included in “ALL living creatures.” Seems to me that they would have no problem surviving a massive flood. Is it just me, or is god really inept at giving clear and meaningful instructions?

·       Gen 8:13 Noah and his family spent an entire year on the ark?!? The upkeep of having to clean after the animals must have been a daunting, if not perpetual task.

·       Gen 8:20 “Noah built an altar to the lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.”

      Gen 8:21 “The lord smelled the pleasing aroma…”  Wait… Noah sacrificed and burned animals, and the scent of burning flesh was an aroma god found pleasing? That’s dark!