Why I Can Never Be A Christian

[Spectrox]

Here are the reasons why I can never accept the Bible as being moral (with a few verses thrown in as supporting evidence).

 

GOD SUPPORTS GENOCIDE

 

Numbers 31

 

Vengeance on the Midianites

 

1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 “Take vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites. After that, you will be gathered to your people.” 3 So Moses said to the people, “Arm some of your men to go to war against the Midianites so that they may carry out the LORD’s vengeance on them. 4 Send into battle a thousand men from each of the tribes of Israel.” 5 So twelve thousand men armed for battle, a thousand from each tribe, were supplied from the clans of Israel. 6 Moses sent them into battle, a thousand from each tribe, along with Phinehas son of Eleazar, the priest, who took with him articles from the sanctuary and the trumpets for signaling.

7 They fought against Midian, as the LORD commanded Moses, and killed every man. 8 Among their victims were Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur and Reba—the five kings of Midian. They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword. 9 The Israelites captured the Midianite women and children and took all the Midianite herds, flocks and goods as plunder. 10 They burned all the towns where the Midianites had settled, as well as all their camps. 11 They took all the plunder and spoils, including the people and animals, 12 and brought the captives, spoils and plunder to Moses and Eleazar the priest and the Israelite assembly at their camp on the plains of Moab, by the Jordan across from Jericho.

13 Moses, Eleazar the priest and all the leaders of the community went to meet them outside the camp. 14 Moses was angry with the officers of the army—the commanders of thousands and commanders of hundreds—who returned from the battle.

15 “Have you allowed all the women to live?” he asked them. 16 “They were the ones who followed Balaam’s advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the LORD in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the LORD’s people. 17 Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, 18 but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.

 

Need I say more. How does this make God any different to Genghis Khan or Hitler?

GOD SUPPORTS SLAVERY

Exodus 21

 

Personal Injuries

 

20 “Anyone who beats their male or female slave with a rod must be punished if the slave dies as a direct result, 21 but they are not to be punished if the slave recovers after a day or two, since the slave is their property.

1 Peter 2:18-25

 

New International Version (NIV)

 

18 Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh. 19 For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. 20 But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.

 

It is morally wrong for any person to be owned. And yet The Bible does not challenge this at all. In the NT it says "slaves obey your masters." And then yes it goes on to say something like masters treat your slaves well or words to that effect.

Where's God's vision for the future? If slavery was crucial to the economy/culture and could not be stopped immediately then fair enough, but why couldn't God say something like "I foresee a time when no person shall be owned by another because all men are equal under God." That would have have really helped William Wilberforce in his Abolition of Slavery Bill (which by the way took him over 10 years to get through parliament because he was opposed by the majority of Christian MPs and the then Archbishop of Canterbury, who correctly - but immorally- argued that he was not Biblical!). There's no vision for the end of slavery in The Bible. It isn't there. It's missing.

 

GOD IS HOMOPHOBIC

 

Leviticus 20

 

Punishments for Sin

 

13 “‘If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.

 

Stoning gay people to death in Leviticus and Paul's comments (where he puts homosexuals in the same sinful list as thieves and murderers) is not acceptable anymore. Jesus doesn't specifically mention the issue but he says that the Torah is true, so he doesn't escape the issue either.

 

GOD IS SEXIST

Ephesians 5

 

Instructions for Christian Households

 

22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

 

Paul's Letter to Timothy "I do not allow women to preach or have authority over a man" will not have helped the cause of women vicars either. The main point is that it's God the Father and Jesus is a man. The Bible was written by men (as far as we can tell). It should be a 50:50 split in the interest of equality.

 

JESUS AS SACRIFICE

In the modern world, we don't execute someone when some other person or persons has committed a crime. This would be an infringement of basic justice.

 

HELLFIRE & DAMNATION

 

Matthew 18

 

Causing to Stumble

 

6 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. 7 Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come! 8 If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

 

The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant

 

21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.[ g]

23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold[h] was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins.[i] He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.

29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’

30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

 

Nice.

 

Other things which add to my disbelief

 

CREATION/EVOLUTION

 

The Bible: The Garden of Eden was paradise. No pain. Adam and Eve disobeyed God and he puts a curse on the Earth. It is now a hellish place and animals are now savage. This is the whole reason for jesus' mission.

 

Evolution: Trexs were killing and devouring other animals millions of years before man came on the scene. A cheetah didn't suddenly start ripping a gazelle to pieces when Adam bit the apple.

 

BIBLICAL-STYLE MIRACLES

 

The virgin birth

Turning water (H20) into alcohol (C2H5OH)

Jesus raising others from the dead including himself

Gravity-defying walking on water

Glowing in the dark on a hilltop

Feeding thousands of hungry people with hardly anything more substantial than a KFC Bucket

Withering a fig tree for being out of season (the only story I've ever read in which I feel sorry for a tree - it wasn't the trees fault)

The last great miracle before the crucifiction - the sticking back of the ear

Jesus dying on the cross and long dead holy men rise from their graves and parade around Jerusalem like something out of Shaun of the Dead

 

Several tall tales that litter the Old Testament including a talking snake and a talking donkey - the only thing missing from this story is a green ogre and a princess voiced by Cameron Diaz.

 

I have heard Christians defending this lot. I think the quotes are a disgrace to the human race.

[freeasabird]

I agree. Intellectual integrity demands you to reject the bible as immoral long past folklore. I could not in good conscience live with myself if I spent my life trying to reconcile these passages you cited and more. That is what makes me that much more frustrated with people who do, I feel like they've thrown their humanity in the garbage. Welcome to Ex-c!