THE BIBLE: or teach your children to pillage and murder the way God intended it
“The Bible” is the best-selling book of all time (Wikipedia). With some six billion copies of this sacred text spread all over the world I wonder about its affect the children who are using it as a source of morals (All-Time Bestselling Books and Authors). A Google book search reveals that over 170,000 other books relating to the Bible have been published as well, so it looks like people are really involved in the Judaeo-Christian concepts (Google). With numbers like these you would naturally assume that most people would know the stories and messages in the book quite well, but surprisingly, statistics in America show that nearly half of the American people haven't even bothered to read the thing at all, and 80% of these people say that it's too confusing (Whelan). So what about the men, women and children that have actually read the Bible for a moral code? What has the Bible taught them? Are the children any better off having read this book, or does the Bible promote something other than love and compassion? I believe that the Bible is indeed very confusing, but not because of its language or format. The Bible that promotes love, compassion, kindness, and at the same time promotes genocide, slavery, injustice, cruelty, violence, and intolerance. So which parts of the Bible are we teaching our children?
Before we begin to look at the passages of the Bible that cause concern, it's important to note that the Bible was written centuries ago and is a compilation by several different gospels and voices (Ehrman 6). It was not written for the sake of historical reference, but rather as a compilation of the stories and events as described by their proper authors (Ehrman 63). The historical accuracy and inerrancy of the Bible is a highly debated topic that has been the subject of many doctrines and various books (Johnson; Dallas Theological Seminary). This is important because it creates a division among believers: those who believe that the events and stories of the Bible are accurate historical representations of what actually happened, and those who believe that most of the events of the Bible were not actual events but are rather stories with moral or ethical lessons (in this case a person picks and chooses which passages are fact and which are allegories or parables). These two nearly opposing views create a very blurry division among believers and this discrepancy is often used as a 'way-out' for apologetic Bible defenders (Miller; Till, Part 1). For the time being, I'm not going to worry about this too much because in the end, no matter how you look at it, we'll see that you still reach the same conclusion.
Why do people use the Bible for their moral code at all? From our childhood, our parents, teachers and church officials have told us that Christianity is all about love and worship. We were cited the Ten Commandments which said that, “thou shalt not kill” (Exodus, 20:13), that “thou shalt not commit adultery” (Exodus, 20:14), and that "thou shalt not steal" (Exodus 20:15). We were told not to lie (Exodus 23:1). We were taught not to hate (Leviticus 19:17) and to treat all people fairly (Leviticus 19:33-34). We were read from The Children's Illustrated Bible which had entertaining chapters entitled, “The Plagues of Egypt,” “Noah's Ark,” “The Flood,” and “The Resurrection” which were packed with moral lessons (Hastings 276). From a child's perspective these looked like wonderful, heart-warming tales, especially in the way the book was illustrated, with bright colors, majestic figures and smiling people walking to accomplish God's plan (Hastings 18).
Similar illustrations are present on children's websites which were constructed to walk the child through each Bible story. One of these websites caught my attention. The website is called JesusAndKidz.com and is an illustrated Bible guide written by Ellen Kent. In the story “Moses and the 12 Spies,” Moses sends twelve spies into the Canaan territory to investigate the land that God has promised to the people of Israel. When they return they bring back fruits and milk to demonstrate the richness of the land, but ten of the spies say that the area is heavily fortified by other people living there, and there are too many of them there to win the land over. Two other spies, Joshua and Caleb say that they should go there anyways because God has promised the land to them. Kent describes the passage as follows:
Caleb and Joshua, the other two spies said, "The land we saw is a wonderful land. The Lord has promised it to us, and if we have faith in His promise, we shall surely win this land."
But the people were frightened and angry and began to stone Joshua and Caleb.
Then the Lord appeared in the tent of meeting. "How long will these people reject Me and lose faith after all the signs I have shown them? I think I must punish them and reject them as My people." But Moses begged the Lord to forgive them. The Lord said "I have pardoned them as you ask. But as their punishment you will not enter the Promised Land for 40 years, and this generation will never enter, but only their children." (Kent 6-8)
There is a grave problem with the way Ellen Kent has interpreted this story for young children and an even graver problem with the story itself. Let's make a list of things that this story is teaching children: God has made promises to the people of Israel; the people of Israel shall receive land and items belonging to others (meaning the original land-owners will lose everything they own and either get killed or thrown out of their houses (Deuteronomy 12:10)); when faced with problems all you need to do is have faith in God and He will solve them for you; you can go to war with others because of what God has told you or promised you; your God is always right and you must not argue or question Him; you can stone or violently attack people who do not agree with you or God; God is not forgiving and even if He pardons you He will still punish you when you don't do as He asks. Now I'm not sure about the general reader, but to me these don't seem like morally just lessons. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that these lessons are vulgar, sadistic and completely inappropriate for any human being, much less for young children who do not have the mature reasoning skills necessary to determine what is truly right and wrong. More than that, these lessons seem to be contradictory to the previous lessons, mentioned above, about not hating and killing others and being fair and kind to everyone. With such messages of intolerance, having the website decorated in bright colors, rainbows and smiling stars while talking about murder makes something inside of me twist in disgust. What is really going on here? What is the lesson that Kent is trying to teach children?
If we begin looking inside the Bible itself we begin to see various examples of this violent, and unjust nature of God: “Moses murders an Egyptian after making sure that no one is looking” (Exodus 2:11-12 ); “God explains to Moses that he intends to smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast“ (Exodus 12:12 ); “After hardening Pharaoh's heart a few more times, God drowns Pharaoh's army in the sea“ (Exodus 14:4-28 ); “After a woman gives birth, a priest must kill a lamb, pigeon, or dove as a sin offering. This is because having children is sinful and God likes it when things are killed for him” (Leviticus 12:6-8); “God hardened the heart of the king of Heshbon and so that he could have him and all of his people killed” (Deuteronomy 2:30). The list of cruelties under the hand of God is incredibly lengthy and tremendously disturbing in the way some of the acts of terror are committed (Cruelty and Violence in the Bible). The Skeptic's Annotated Bible is an entire Internet community that goes into detail finding and analyzing all the injustices, and the cruelty in the Bible, the Koran and the Book of Mormon. Their findings are absolutely terrifying, and yet Biblical apologists continue to try and find excuses (Brucker). But what about the young children? They have no way of being able to defend their beliefs and to judge what is truly right and wrong? Christianity is teaching children that murder should be a form of punishment. This must stop.
It seems evident to me that we cannot be teaching from this book to our young children. It seems evident that we cannot be teaching from this book to any rational person at all. The latest news shows the religious agenda forcing its way into our education system where it infiltrates our scientific centers and brainwashes our students (Wallis). Some people, who refer to themselves as “evangelical scientists” (which is an oxymoron if I ever heard one), have even taken their religious movement to refute the idea of evolution with their "Intelligent Design" movement. This sparked a popular satire about the religious right refuting the idea of gravity, calling the it “flawed” and introducing a theory of “Intelligent Falling” (Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory). These are the same kinds people that are trying to teach us what's morally right and wrong? Religion cannot be the source of moral codes. The latest evidence suggests that moral codes are deeply rooted in our genes and get passed down from generation to generation (Hauser xix). It is a process of nature and has nothing to do with religion or reading things in a book or even our parents. It doesn't matter if the Bible is telling us what really happened or simply providing us with parables, it's still teaching us the wrong things. At what point do we say, “enough is enough” and begin educating our children using proper codes that pertain to our modern time?
Works Cited
“All-Time Bestselling Books and Authors.” The Internet Public Library. The Regents of the University of Michigan. February 19, 2007.
Brucker. Annotated Skeptic's Annotated Bible: A lay Christian's honest response to perceived flaws in the Bible. February 22, 2007.
“Cruelty and Violence in the Bible.” The Skeptic's Annotated Bible. February 20, 2007.
Dallas Theological Seminary. Doctrinal Statement. February 20, 2007.
Ehrman, Bart D. Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005.
Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory. The Onion. August 17, 2005: Issue 41-33.
Google: Book Search. Bible. February 20, 2007.
Hastings, Selina. Children's Illustrated Bible. New York: Dorling Kinders Publishers Ltd., 2005.
Hauser, Marc D. Moral Minds. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006.
Johnson, C. “Inerrancy and Infallibility of the Bible.” BELIEVE: Religious Information Source. February 20, 2007.
Kent, Ellen. Moses and the Twelve Spies. JesusandKidz.com. February 18, 2007.
Miller, Glenn. Good Question... How could a God of Love order the massacre/annihilation of the Canaanites? A Christian Thinktank. October 2000.
Till, Farrell. “A Good Question But Not A Good Answer.“ The Skeptical Review Online. September 21, 2005. Canton, IL, U.S.A.
Wallis, Claudia. “The Evolution Wars.” Time Magazine. August 15, 2005: 9-15.
Whelan, Dr. Jamie. QUOTES and NOTES. McNeese State University. February 20, 2007.
Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. List of Best-Selling Books. February 20, 2007.
Before we begin to look at the passages of the Bible that cause concern, it's important to note that the Bible was written centuries ago and is a compilation by several different gospels and voices (Ehrman 6). It was not written for the sake of historical reference, but rather as a compilation of the stories and events as described by their proper authors (Ehrman 63). The historical accuracy and inerrancy of the Bible is a highly debated topic that has been the subject of many doctrines and various books (Johnson; Dallas Theological Seminary). This is important because it creates a division among believers: those who believe that the events and stories of the Bible are accurate historical representations of what actually happened, and those who believe that most of the events of the Bible were not actual events but are rather stories with moral or ethical lessons (in this case a person picks and chooses which passages are fact and which are allegories or parables). These two nearly opposing views create a very blurry division among believers and this discrepancy is often used as a 'way-out' for apologetic Bible defenders (Miller; Till, Part 1). For the time being, I'm not going to worry about this too much because in the end, no matter how you look at it, we'll see that you still reach the same conclusion.
Why do people use the Bible for their moral code at all? From our childhood, our parents, teachers and church officials have told us that Christianity is all about love and worship. We were cited the Ten Commandments which said that, “thou shalt not kill” (Exodus, 20:13), that “thou shalt not commit adultery” (Exodus, 20:14), and that "thou shalt not steal" (Exodus 20:15). We were told not to lie (Exodus 23:1). We were taught not to hate (Leviticus 19:17) and to treat all people fairly (Leviticus 19:33-34). We were read from The Children's Illustrated Bible which had entertaining chapters entitled, “The Plagues of Egypt,” “Noah's Ark,” “The Flood,” and “The Resurrection” which were packed with moral lessons (Hastings 276). From a child's perspective these looked like wonderful, heart-warming tales, especially in the way the book was illustrated, with bright colors, majestic figures and smiling people walking to accomplish God's plan (Hastings 18).
Similar illustrations are present on children's websites which were constructed to walk the child through each Bible story. One of these websites caught my attention. The website is called JesusAndKidz.com and is an illustrated Bible guide written by Ellen Kent. In the story “Moses and the 12 Spies,” Moses sends twelve spies into the Canaan territory to investigate the land that God has promised to the people of Israel. When they return they bring back fruits and milk to demonstrate the richness of the land, but ten of the spies say that the area is heavily fortified by other people living there, and there are too many of them there to win the land over. Two other spies, Joshua and Caleb say that they should go there anyways because God has promised the land to them. Kent describes the passage as follows:
Caleb and Joshua, the other two spies said, "The land we saw is a wonderful land. The Lord has promised it to us, and if we have faith in His promise, we shall surely win this land."
But the people were frightened and angry and began to stone Joshua and Caleb.
Then the Lord appeared in the tent of meeting. "How long will these people reject Me and lose faith after all the signs I have shown them? I think I must punish them and reject them as My people." But Moses begged the Lord to forgive them. The Lord said "I have pardoned them as you ask. But as their punishment you will not enter the Promised Land for 40 years, and this generation will never enter, but only their children." (Kent 6-8)
There is a grave problem with the way Ellen Kent has interpreted this story for young children and an even graver problem with the story itself. Let's make a list of things that this story is teaching children: God has made promises to the people of Israel; the people of Israel shall receive land and items belonging to others (meaning the original land-owners will lose everything they own and either get killed or thrown out of their houses (Deuteronomy 12:10)); when faced with problems all you need to do is have faith in God and He will solve them for you; you can go to war with others because of what God has told you or promised you; your God is always right and you must not argue or question Him; you can stone or violently attack people who do not agree with you or God; God is not forgiving and even if He pardons you He will still punish you when you don't do as He asks. Now I'm not sure about the general reader, but to me these don't seem like morally just lessons. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that these lessons are vulgar, sadistic and completely inappropriate for any human being, much less for young children who do not have the mature reasoning skills necessary to determine what is truly right and wrong. More than that, these lessons seem to be contradictory to the previous lessons, mentioned above, about not hating and killing others and being fair and kind to everyone. With such messages of intolerance, having the website decorated in bright colors, rainbows and smiling stars while talking about murder makes something inside of me twist in disgust. What is really going on here? What is the lesson that Kent is trying to teach children?
If we begin looking inside the Bible itself we begin to see various examples of this violent, and unjust nature of God: “Moses murders an Egyptian after making sure that no one is looking” (Exodus 2:11-12 ); “God explains to Moses that he intends to smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast“ (Exodus 12:12 ); “After hardening Pharaoh's heart a few more times, God drowns Pharaoh's army in the sea“ (Exodus 14:4-28 ); “After a woman gives birth, a priest must kill a lamb, pigeon, or dove as a sin offering. This is because having children is sinful and God likes it when things are killed for him” (Leviticus 12:6-8); “God hardened the heart of the king of Heshbon and so that he could have him and all of his people killed” (Deuteronomy 2:30). The list of cruelties under the hand of God is incredibly lengthy and tremendously disturbing in the way some of the acts of terror are committed (Cruelty and Violence in the Bible). The Skeptic's Annotated Bible is an entire Internet community that goes into detail finding and analyzing all the injustices, and the cruelty in the Bible, the Koran and the Book of Mormon. Their findings are absolutely terrifying, and yet Biblical apologists continue to try and find excuses (Brucker). But what about the young children? They have no way of being able to defend their beliefs and to judge what is truly right and wrong? Christianity is teaching children that murder should be a form of punishment. This must stop.
It seems evident to me that we cannot be teaching from this book to our young children. It seems evident that we cannot be teaching from this book to any rational person at all. The latest news shows the religious agenda forcing its way into our education system where it infiltrates our scientific centers and brainwashes our students (Wallis). Some people, who refer to themselves as “evangelical scientists” (which is an oxymoron if I ever heard one), have even taken their religious movement to refute the idea of evolution with their "Intelligent Design" movement. This sparked a popular satire about the religious right refuting the idea of gravity, calling the it “flawed” and introducing a theory of “Intelligent Falling” (Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory). These are the same kinds people that are trying to teach us what's morally right and wrong? Religion cannot be the source of moral codes. The latest evidence suggests that moral codes are deeply rooted in our genes and get passed down from generation to generation (Hauser xix). It is a process of nature and has nothing to do with religion or reading things in a book or even our parents. It doesn't matter if the Bible is telling us what really happened or simply providing us with parables, it's still teaching us the wrong things. At what point do we say, “enough is enough” and begin educating our children using proper codes that pertain to our modern time?
Works Cited
“All-Time Bestselling Books and Authors.” The Internet Public Library. The Regents of the University of Michigan. February 19, 2007.
Brucker. Annotated Skeptic's Annotated Bible: A lay Christian's honest response to perceived flaws in the Bible. February 22, 2007.
“Cruelty and Violence in the Bible.” The Skeptic's Annotated Bible. February 20, 2007.
Dallas Theological Seminary. Doctrinal Statement. February 20, 2007.
Ehrman, Bart D. Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2005.
Evangelical Scientists Refute Gravity With New 'Intelligent Falling' Theory. The Onion. August 17, 2005: Issue 41-33.
Google: Book Search. Bible. February 20, 2007.
Hastings, Selina. Children's Illustrated Bible. New York: Dorling Kinders Publishers Ltd., 2005.
Hauser, Marc D. Moral Minds. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006.
Johnson, C. “Inerrancy and Infallibility of the Bible.” BELIEVE: Religious Information Source. February 20, 2007.
Kent, Ellen. Moses and the Twelve Spies. JesusandKidz.com. February 18, 2007.
Miller, Glenn. Good Question... How could a God of Love order the massacre/annihilation of the Canaanites? A Christian Thinktank. October 2000.
Till, Farrell. “A Good Question But Not A Good Answer.“ The Skeptical Review Online. September 21, 2005. Canton, IL, U.S.A.
Wallis, Claudia. “The Evolution Wars.” Time Magazine. August 15, 2005: 9-15.
Whelan, Dr. Jamie. QUOTES and NOTES. McNeese State University. February 20, 2007.
Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. List of Best-Selling Books. February 20, 2007.
Labels: Bart Ehrman, Bible, children, education, Ellen Kent, Farell Till, Glenn Miller, Marc D. Hauser, moral code, morality, religion
posted by Evgueni Naverniouk | 10:24 PM
6 Comments:
Where do I begin? Your writing fits nicely into a modern secular humanist doctrine. You are reading words written over three thousand years ago and comparing them to our current society. I would be MORE suprised if you didn't find that society had changed in this interval.
As for the exodus story, you have managed to mangle it quite well.
Out of the possible flaws you can find in the Bible, I can find you ten other principles that remain sound in our time. Did you know, for example, that ancient Isrealites did not kill their infant children. A practice that was common in the tribes around them and still common today.
Take off the glasses handed to you by a secular athiest society and truly think for yourself. I'm not saying that the Bible is right, and everything else is wrong. I'm saying, don't take someone else's conclusion, write about how it is really your conclusion, and pretend that the issue is settled.
Well the problem is that it's not I that tries to compare the Bible to our current society, but modern religious movements. I'm simply criticizing them for it.
"Out of the possible flaws you can find in the Bible, I can find you ten other principles that remain sound in our time."
I doubt that the ratio is 1:10 in your favor. It's true that the Bible does have good lessons and I mention that in my essay, but for the most part the Old Testament is full of absolutely horrifying atrocities. Which makes me wonder why we still use this book today as a means of inhibiting a moral code.
"Take off the glasses handed to you by a secular athiest society and truly think for yourself."
Well, originally I was brought up in a highly Christian Orthodox society, so my current atheistic belief comes from the evidence I have collected for myself. I am now sharing that 'evidence' with you.
"I'm saying, don't take someone else's conclusion, write about how it is really your conclusion, and pretend that the issue is settled."
That's surely not what I was trying to do, and I hope that it didn't come out in that way. My goal is simply to share with the rest of the world (or at least with those who want to listen to me) my ideas as well as other popular ideas that I have adapted into my own life.
Thanks for writing in.
Which makes me wonder why we still use this book today as a means of inhibiting a moral code.
I think you fairly pointed out that Canada is one of the most Aethiest societies in the world. Give me an example of where the Bible directly inhibits a moral code in Canada. Show me how the Bible is holding Canada back in one example.
Give me an example of where the Bible directly inhibits a moral code in Canada.
Well in Canada not so prominently because Canada is very multicultural and quite predominately atheist. Also in Canada most religious people keep to themselves and stay out of the government and public locations. Which is how it should be.
But if we move more south into the USA for instance, there you can surely see a presence of Biblical morality in every day life, in the government and in public situations. Just look at the incident with the removal of the tribute to the 10 commandments in the courthouse, or the fact that the country still supports capital punishment in most states.
So Christians and their archaic belief system are to blame for making a disturbance when archaic laws which are considereed nothing more than token in the first place are removed from a building. Also, 1000 criminals have been put to death in the US in the last 30 years, a number far less than the total number of deaths caused by lightning strikes in the US in the same time period.
I don't want to get into this debate. Just keep thinking for yourself. I admire a guy like you who is doing that.
So Christians and their archaic belief system are to blame for making a disturbance when archaic laws which are considereed nothing more than token in the first place are removed from a building.
Well I'm not blaming anyone. I'm simply pointing out a condition where religious beliefs have clearly been taken too far and begin to infringe on public social grounds.
Also, 1000 criminals have been put to death in the US in the last 30 years, a number far less than the total number of deaths caused by lightning strikes in the US in the same time period.
I'm not sure if I like this counterargument. It just makes those 1000 people murdered under the government seem even less important. It just seems strange that a religion that is supposedly supposed to promote peace and love would indulge in capital punishment (since most people in support of capital punishment are Christians). Basically, no matter what you religion, if you are able to condemn a person to death for any reason, you should probably think twice about it.
Just keep thinking for yourself. I admire a guy like you who is doing that.
Thanks a lot. I hope you continue to participate in my discussions later on.
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