Three items appear below:

Christian Morality #68                                    D. Dowling
Two Gentlemen Who Misunderstand #69     Anonymous
The Bible: A Sanction For Evil #69                K. Straughen





Dr Joachim Kahl in his book "The Misery of Christianity" (Pelican) writes that the Christian religion caused more undeserved misery than any other world religion and "the cross is nothing but the sum total of the sadomasochistic glorification of pain." As an ex-Protestant theologian he knows his Bible and gives the direct biblical quotes to justify the persecution of the Jews, the condoning of slavery, the burning of witches, pagans and heretics, the hostility to sex and women and the psychological underpinning and conditioning for authoritarian undemocratic political regimes. All, as Dr Kahl says, leading to centuries of outbreaks of violence, mass psychosis, perversion, sadism, cruelty and neuroses. And yet all this does NOT count as evidence that the Christian religion is cruel and sadistic. Such is infallible religious belief.


(1) THE FERSECUTION OF THE JEWS

The Jews could NOT have been persecuted for 2000 years if there was not complete biblical justification in the Gospels and Paul. The Christians blame the Jews for the death of their Messiah. (Matt 27:25, Paul 1 Thessalonians 2:15 ff, Mark15:10, John 8:44, Mark 2:6, 16; 3:6. Luke 23:4, 14, 20, 22, 25)

But research ("The trial and Death of Jesus" by Jewish judge Haim Cohn) indicates that it was a Roman political trial and crucifixion, but when Paul went to Rome to convert the Romans to Christianity he shifted the blame for murdering the Messiah from the Romans to the Jews for obvious reasons.

This (slight?) distortion of history culminated in Auschwitz, Buchenwald and Belsen. Either way though, the Christians don't seem to realise that if there had not been a crucifixion and death there could not have been a Resurrection. The Jews (or Romans) should be thanked, not vilified.


(2) SLAVERY

In Cruden's Complete Concordance there are 2 pages of the biblical references condoning slavery.  "Servants" pages 582 to 584. ("Servants" = Slaves), "slaves" page 607. e.g.  Luke 12:42 ("servants" and severe or light beatings) 17:7, Matt 18:23 ("servants" sold), Paul 1 Cor.7:20-22. 1 Tim 6:1, Titus 2:10, Philemon letter, Exodus 21:1-8, 20, 21, 26. 1st letter Peter 2:18, Ephesians 6:5, 6, Colossians 3:24.

The Christian Church later became the largest slave owner and further justification came from the fathers of the Church, Tertullian, St. Augustine and St. Aquinas who accepted Aristotle's view in his "Politics" that the slave was an inspired tool of his master and "slaves must be admonished even more than children." ("The Open Society" vol 2 page 282, Karl Popper)

In 1548 Pope Paul 3rd. granted all clergy the right to keep slaves – "tools with souls." Just imagine being a negro slave in the good Christian Southern States of America and having Luke 12:42 quoted as you were being beaten.


(3) WITCHES

The burning of witches was justified by Exodus 22:18, Deuteronomy 18:10, Galatians 5:19. The official witch-hunts lasted 600 years from 1234 to 1836. The infamous 1487 Malleus Maleficarurn (The Hammer for Witches) was the Inquisitor's handbook of questions and torture to be used by the best legal minds of the time. It had 30 reprints by 1669. Midwives who carried the ancient contraceptive methods (including 200 herbal) were special targets of the Inquisition.


(4) HOSTILITY TO SEX AND WOMEN

The stoning to death penalties for sex offences are given by
(1)    Premarital promiscuity, Dt. 22:20-24.
(2)    Fornication, Hebrews 13:4, 1 Thess 4 3, 1 Cor 6:18, Rom 1:18-27.
(3)    Adultery, Dt, 22:22, Lv 20:10, 1 Cor 7:2, Exodus 20:14-17.
(4)    Homosexual intercourse, Lv 20:13.
(5)    Divorce, Mark 10:11,12, Math 19:9, 1 Cor 6: 9, 10.
(6)    Bestiality Lv 20:15,16.

Christians oppose/opposed contraception, abortion, sex education in schools, coeducation, prostitution and are the experts in the censorship of books, magazines theatre and films. The hostility to sex and women reached its peak in the witch-hunts (see S. A. Post Jan/Feb 93)


(5) CONDITIONING for TOTALITARIAN REGIMES

The Bible is used by men in power to maintain their power. Disobeying their laws means you disobey God's. The Greatest sin is to deny the Authority of God, John 3:18, Mark16:16. Islam means submission to the Will of Allah.

Hitler, Goebbels and Himmler were all baptised Catholics, were never excommunicated and "Mein Kampf" was never put on the Prohibited Index. The authoritarian Catholic and Lutheran education of German children was ideal conditioning for adult blind obedience to Authority, no matter how evil.

Even after W.W. II it was the Vatican which provided the Rat-line for surviving Nazis to escape to Catholic South America.


(6) SHORTAGE OF ANGELS TO CORRECT THE BIBLICAL MISTAKES?

Now if all the biblical justifications for the cruelties and evil committed by the Christians were biblical out of context/mistakes/errors/misinterpretations, why didn't God send angels to correct the biblical mistakes?  God obviously has the power to send angels anywhere, anytime like when He sent an angel to tell Joseph he'd got it all wrong about Mary's adultery since it was the Holy Spirit who got .her pregnant and not his brother Alpheus (Matt 1:20).

In Matt 2:13 an angel tells Joseph to flee south to Egypt which contradicts Luke 2:39 where Joseph returns north to Nazareth within a month with no sense of urgency. An angel opened the tomb door at the resurrection. (Matt. 28:2), showing angels must be quite physical.

Is it that the biblical errors/out of context/mistakes/misinterpretations were not corrected because of a shortage of angels?

Then there are the biblical justifications for the persecution of pagans and heretics and the Crusades. Yet Christians have the gall and cheek to say we Christians are the moral people.

In the Middle East, Jews Christians and Moslems are killing and maiming each other. The Moslems object to the Jews believing they are God's Chosen People and therefore superior to the Moslems. Muhammed was insulted by the Jews in Medina. The Christians blame the Jews for the death of the Messiah. The Moslems did NOT believe Jesus died on the Cross but was made to appear so (Koran 4:157) and certainly was not the Son of God. The Christians don't believe Muhammed was God's last prophet. The Jews are still waiting for the First Coming. The Christians are waiting for the Second Corning and so on.

In Jerusalem the Jews have their Holy of Holies and most sacred site of the destroyed Temple Mount on which the Moslems have built their Mosque of Omah, but what remained after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D. was only the Wailing Wall. The Christians have the Church of the Holy Sepulchre where Jesus rose from the dead. The Moslems have their Mosque of Omah where Muhammed ascended to heaven and back from the rock on a white horse.

All three of these authoritarian religions must appear equally nutty and certifiable. So much of man's troubles are man-made and due to believing untruths and/or deliberate Orwellian lies — as if there is not enough with God-given diseases and earthquakes.

Professor Richard Dawkins ("The Blind Watchmaker") poses the question – "Is Religion a Form of Insanity?" ("Free Inquiry" Vol.13, No. 3 1993). The answer is obvious. Who can believe Matt:27:50ff,  Matt 28:2?


(7) EUTHANASIA AND DRUGS

What are the basic religious reasons for opposition to euthanasia and why the draconian penalties for pleasurable drugs?  The reason is because of the religious doctrine of Redemptive Suffering — people who suffer are ennobled and reach maturity and realise the need for Jesus and God and appreciate, redeem, the suffering Jesus underwent when he sacrificed Himself for the Sins of Mankind on the Cross?

Pleasurable drugs take people away from Reality, suffering and God. The authoritarian religious of any religion want to have power and mind control on how others get their spiritual pleasure and happiness or changes of inner consciousness. That is why the drug laws are so cruel.


(8) THE WHY RELIGIOUS BELIEF

Man versus Nature. Suffering and Death. —

Natural disasters were explained as the unleashed anger of the Gods. To placate or buy off this anger, sacrifices were made of (other) innocent humans or animals of value to the offerer.

But to one Jewish Sect which evolved to become Christians the suffering of Man was not alleviated by sacrificing animals or doves, so there had to be the Ultimate Sacrifice  – the Son of God. Infantile?

But the Redemption of Sins by sacrifice is morally wrong and conducive to further immorality. For the personal problems of life on earth there is a comforting all-powerful, benevolent, omniscient Father to turn to and be looked after.  Mortality is solved by having eternal souls and eternal life after death in Heaven or Paradise.

Religious Experiences and Revelations

These are inner mental states, trances produced by imaginations.

In some personal crisis: Christians personally experience Jesus entering their lives, Jews, personally experience Yahweh entering their lives, Moslems personally experience Muhammed entering their lives, Confucists personally experience Confucius entering their lives. Hindus experience their trinity of deities, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva entering their lives. Alcoholics personally experience pink elephants entering their lives.

Now no one doubts that alcoholics really do experience their pink elephants but these experiences are inner mental states and are NOT of existence in the external world, which is the province of science.

— That is, all religions satisfy very deep psychological needs —

I don't mind people having religious fairy tale beliefs to get them through life. My objection is the misery, cruelty and suffering intrinsic to these religious beliefs justified by direct quotes from their Holy Books. The absurdities and contradictions are contained in the Holy Books.

Because religious belief is a form of insanity it is difficult to use reason, logic, facts and evidence in debates against them. So the best weapon against the religious is their own Holy books.

Walter Bagehot in 1879 wrote "Great and terrible systems of divinity and philosophy lie around us, which if true, might drive a wise man mad."

(Thanks to my mentor Jeff Scott for some of the ideas on "WHY")


 

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Dean Dowling (No. 68) and Kirk Straughen (No. 60) between them claimed the Bible endorses slavery, execution of witches, persecution of Jews, rape, hostility to women, etc.

In addition Investigator No. 64 (January 1999 p. 3) says further information — The Bible: A Sanction for Evil — is forthcoming.

Both gentlemen either misunderstand or misrepresent the Bible on these matters — I presume both are relying on certain books published by Prometheus Press.

The Old and New Testaments endorse, "sanction", and  teach that God requires, the following:



After Mr Straughen's article is published I hope to explain how and where the two gentlemen went wrong together  with some comment on the use and application of the Law of Moses.

Following my communication to Barry Williams, editor of The Skeptic, that cigarette smoking is both harmful and contrary to Bible principles (Investigator 62 p. 24), Mr Williams announced he has given up:


My communication also referred to the harmful consequences (summarized in Investigator 48) of premarital sex.

Anonymous — SA


 

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Introduction

Most Fundamentalists believe that the Bible is the "Word of God." Moreover, they also claim that God is an all-wise and morally perfect being. If Scripture is indeed the word of such an entity then the Bible, if it has been written under the guidance of this intelligence, would not provide sanctions for the commission of evil. On the other hand, if the Bible encourages the perpetration of injustice, cruelty and degradation, then it is highly unlikely that an all-wise and morally perfect being would have been involved in the production of this allegedly sacred book. It is my contention that the Bible is not the word of an all-wise and morally perfect being, and I shall now proceed to demonstrate this fact.


Anti-Semitism


This is anti-semitic propaganda, and unfortunately is not an isolated example as the following quote clearly shows:


Saying that a particular race has the Devil as their father, killed Jesus, the prophets and oppose all men, is a sure way of inciting hatred, fear and persecution. As we can see, the Jews have been stereotyped, the first stage of a process that eventually leads to prejudice:


The Bible's prejudiced statements contributed to anti-semitic sentiments because making derogatory comments about a particular ethnic group can increase the level of negativity with which they are viewed:


The authors of Scripture have disregarded the fact that most Jews are just as decent as most Christians. Unfortunately, Biblical anti-semitism infected the minds of the Church Fathers —Tertullian wrote a treatise against the Jews, and John Chrysostom wrote eight sermons in which he accused the Jews of being sensual, obscene, lascivious, demonic, money-hungry, accursed, murderers of the, prophets, Christ and God, drunkards, whoremongers, and criminals.

Needless to say, this campaign of centuries long vilification resulted in the persecution and murder of Jews — 3.5 million during the period from the 12th to the 16th centuries — and eventually culminated in the Holocaust that resulted in approximately six million deaths.

Would the word of an all-wise and morally perfect being portray people in such a way that they would become one of the most hated and persecuted races in history? I doubt  that it would.


Child Abuse


Is this an enlightened way to treat a son who has  behavioural problems? Would an all-wise and morally perfect being approve of the death penalty in this instance? No counselling techniques are given such as those employed by Alcoholics Anonymous, instead parents with problem children are advised to kill them in a cruel way.

Here is some more ill-conceived advice:


Discipline children by all means. However, beating them with rods can result in broken bones, fractured skulls, and death. Indeed, the alarming number of children who have in fact died from such beatings demonstrates the utter folly of this dangerous advice. The Bible, not content with this, goes even further:



Note. The words fool, foolish and foolishness as used in Scripture generally denote sin or wickedness, rather than stupidity in the modern sense.

Children often appear mischievous in the eyes of adults, and it is easy to see how someone who believes in the Bible could arrive at the conclusion that children must be beaten in order to drive out wickedness and evil, especially when Scripture says:


Unfortunately, this is exactly the way children were treated in less enlightened times:


In view of such harsh child raising techniques it is no wonder that Medieval society was so cruel, for cruelty begets cruelty, and a vicious cycle is established in which the abused often become abusers. Indeed, if we are to establish a less violent society, we must teach our children that the use of violence is not an appropriate way of solving problems:


Needless to say, the Bible's unqualified support for the use of violence against children clearly demonstrates that it is not the product of an all-wise god.


Misogyny


Anyone with an ounce of humanity can see that this is an appalling way to treat a woman. Would an all-wise and morally perfect being give people into the hands of others to be treated like chattels? Consider the following scenario.

The Israelites overrun an enemy city, and one of their warriors bursts into a house. He sees a young woman, attempts to take her captive, and kills both her parents when they try to protect their daughter. The young woman is carried off against her will, and after only a month of mourning her dead parents, is married against her will (no consent is hinted at the woman is a prize of war) to the man who killed them. On the wedding night the following:


The husband, who considers he has the right to rule over his wife (Gen. 3:16) does not take "NO" for an answer and rapes her. Naturally, he finds no delight in her – unless he is a sadist and casts her into the street. What does a woman who finds herself in such situation do?  She is in a foreign country, her parents are dead, she needs money to survive. There are three basic choices: she starves, she turns to prostitution, or she submits to the will of a brutish husband.

These are the evil consequences that can arise from following the so-called "Word of God," and given that this is so, it is unworthy of being considered as such.  I shall now turn to the New Testament in order to see if its writers' conception of woman is any better.


So much for equality of the sexes. As we can see, this passage reeks with sexism women are to remain silent, be submissive, they are relegated to an inferior social position and are made scapegoats for the mythical "Fall." Unfortunately, for well over one thousand years women were held to be inferior beings the source of sin, pollution and evil. These twisted beliefs were, to a large extent, influenced by Biblical attitudes:


In the face of such fierce Biblical inspired malice it is not surprising that women were held in contempt for such a long time and, when there is no respect for a class of individuals, these individuals can become the objects of abuse. Indeed, one has only to think of the harsh treatment of women during the Middle Ages, a time when they were not highly regarded, to see the truth of this fact:



Slavery


Slavery is a degrading institution to both the slave and the slave owner. In the former case because the person's humanity is denied by being treated as a possession, and  in the latter case because the slave owner's power over his slaves often corrupts him and causes him to act in an inhuman manner. Would the word of an all-wise and  morally perfect being sanction this barbaric institution and all the inherent evil that flows from it? For example:


Is it acceptable to beat another human being to within an inch of their life, and go unpunished because the slave owner profits from their bondage? Would an all-wise and morally perfect being approve of this behaviour or sanction it? Once again the Bible sanctions the use of violence against helpless individuals.


Here we can see how the Bible denies people their basic rights — ideas are more important than individuals, and so slaves must lick the boots of their oppressors and consider them "worthy of all honour" in order to prevent "the teaching" from being defamed. What if their master is a monster who physically or sexually assaults them? How can such a person be considered worthy of honour?

If the Bible is truly the "Word of God," then it should demand that Christian masters liberate their slaves, rather than keep them in servitude and bondage. Unfortunately it does not, and this fact has been exploited by Christians to justify the ownership of slaves:



Conclusion

If the Bible was written under the guidance of an all-wise and morally perfect being, then those passages of Scripture that provide sanctions for brutality, cruelty and injustice would not exist. Indeed, if God exists and is benevolent, then It would condemn the Bible for the following reason:


Indeed, one has only to think of the 300,000 men, women and even children who were cruelly tortured and killed during the witch hunts of the 16th and 17th centuries in accordance with the Biblical injunction:


History has shown what can happen when people put into practice an illogical belief that has been divinely sanctioned. If the authors of Scripture were guided by God, then the Bible would not give credence to such irrational beliefs. The fact that it does casts considerable doubt on this supposition.


Bibliography

Aronson, E. The Social Animal (6th Edition), W.H. Freeman & Co., New York, 1992

Braun, J.J. & Linder, D. E. Psychology Today (4th Edition), Random House, New York, 1979.
    
Clifford, W.K. The Ethics of Belief, Watts & Co., London, 1947.

Haught, J.A. Holy Horrors, Prometheus Books, New York, 1990.

Kahl, J. The Misery of Christianity, Penguin Books Ltd. England, 1972.

Kennedy, D. Children, B.T. Batsford Ltd., London 1971.

Langdon-Davies, J. A Short History of Women, Watts & Co, London, 1938.

North, A.F. et al Raising a Healthy, Happy Child, David McKay Co. Inc., New York, date not shown

Phelips, V. The Churches and Modem Thought, Watts & Co., London, 1934.

Holy Bible (Revised Standard Version)

The Universal Bible Dictionary R.T.S. — Lutterworth Press, London, 1939.