One of the most bloodthirsty myths in the Bible is also one of the most celebrated:
I’m talking about the “Passover.” The culmination of Ten Plagues inflicted on the Egyptians by Jehovah to prove he was the bigger god. The day when Jehovah killed every first-born in the kingdom (every one, from king to slave to cattle) passing over (geddit) only those households with the foresight to have smeared lamb’s blood on their front door…
This slaughter gave the Ancient Israelites the impetus, somehow, to escape Egyptian bondage and head into the desert in search of a promised land. (Stopping along the way only to plunder and drown their former captors.)
Nice story. No wonder that (according to a later fairy story), Jesus and his disciples celebrated the slaughter. (That’s what they were doing at the Last Supper, remember, and why they were in Jerusalem.) And no wonder that to this day the Ten Plagues are still so celebrated, by both Christians and Jews! (There’s even Passover for Kids. Nice, huh.)
But the celebration is about a slaughter. A killing of every first-born in the country. Wholesale slaughter by a supposed “god of love.” Heck, you might even call if a heaven-sent holocaust!
Fortunately, however, like so much in the Bible, and the Torah, the whole story is a fiction:
- there is no record of large numbers of Hebrew slaves living among Egyptians, and none of 40,000 walking out. (Egyptian records confirm payments of salt to royal guards; you don’t think they’d mention the loss of of 40,000 slaves?)
- there is no record of the Ten Plagues.
Sure, there are suggestions the Ten Plagues happened as the result of the massive eruption of the Santorini volcano, which snuffed out the glory of Minoan Crete (for which we do have records) turned the sky dark (the Ninth Plague) and the water red with ash (The First Plague), etc.
But Santorini erupted around 1600BC, at least eight centuries after Moses and the Red Sea Pedestrians are supposed to have begun their journey. And even at a stretch (a big stretch) there is no coherent explanation of how the explosion might have effected only Egypt’s first born (nor, as we’ve said before, and record of this occurring). And if the “miracles” of the slaughter were natural and not heaven-sent, then what made Yahweh even greater than the gods he was supposedly trying to supplant?
It’s all just so much incoherent balderdash.
Especially the idea that a god this bloodthirsty would be worth worshipping.
Or one with whom you’d want to make any sort of “covenant.”
Or that “god is love.”
Or that anyone subscribing to this sort of genocidal nastiness should be anywhere near any levers of political power.
[Pictures from the Brick Testament stories of Exodus.]
14 comments:
PC, your household definitely have no smeared lamb’s blood on the front door, so when Jehovah's justice come, then you will be the first heathen to scream for help from us Christians.
There is good reason to believe that Jesus didn't even exist.
A couple of links here that discuss this -
http://nobeliefs.com/exist.htm
The above link is particularly good.
http://www.vexen.co.uk/religion/christianity_nojesus.html#JH
@Christian Libz: Yes, thanks for that.
(Nice people, you lion chasers.)
For someone who doesn't beleive God exists you sure spend a lot of time hating him Peter.
George
@George: You think it's wrong to abhor how others' belief in the myth poisons their politics, their ethics and their reason?
You think it's unjust to question why anyone would want to worship a god whose mythology is littered with random genocide?
Or wonder why anyone would invent a god who performs barbarities like this, and then call him a god of "love"? (About as absurd as calling Islam a "religion of peace.")
Or to be ashamed that in the New World in the Twenty-First Century it's still necessary to point out the absurdity of worshipping an Old World desert-based mythology first invented in the Bronze-Age?
Fact is, however, I spend no time at all "hating him." After all, there's no "him" to hate.
Given your unabashed enthusiasm for slaughtering Arabs I'm surprised you care so much about the sufferings of ancient Egyptians.
Seriously though, you can rant and rave about Christianity all you like, it changes nothing. Millions of people the world over from all walks of life, all sorts of professions and levels of education DO believe in "desert-based mythology". Far more than believe in the philosophy of a Russian pulp novelist.
I regularly read this blog but I don't normally comment, I am making an exception for this due to the negative comments above. I very strongly believed in God and considered myself Christian for all of my life until a year or two ago. Becoming educated at university and learning to apply logic to find answers made me start to question my beliefs, but I still rationalized them under the guise that Christianity is about love and forgiveness so even if some of the bible doesn't fit with scientific facts it's okay because it still teaches love and forgiveness. However, learning more about the frankly horrible things that the bible also teaches in part by reading blogs including this one made me realise there is no reason to hold on to a belief I knew deep down was false because I can still practice the positive teachings of the bible as an atheist without holding on to the much uglier teachings (and meaningless rituals). So thank you PC for posts like this as they are informative and do help :)
It is often said that everyone is free to believe what they want. That is true.
However, I reserve the freedom do question the mental health of religious types and I apply that judgement when doing business.
Bye bye Not PC.
Iain H
@Anon: I think PC's unabashed enthusiasm for slaughter is not reserved for Arabs but for the radical Islamist hate-mongers who are open about wanting to murder those who don't embrace their death-cult.
Although I am an atheist and I would call myself a rational person, I still find these ridiculous myths and beliefs interesting in a macabre sort of way.
I am fascinated by the process of how a huge percentage of the earth's population came to absorb such ludicrous vicious nonsense as Judaism, Christianity and Islam into its collective psyche.
Almost every tenet of the judeo-Christian belief system is crazy, illogical, irrational and ridiculous. One could go on forever with examples about plagues, the virgin birth, the son-of-god, the Red Sea parting, Noah, everlasting torture and damnation etc etc. None of it makes any sense at all and the rational conclusion is that a mind which accepts this absurd junk is one very sick little mind indeed.
How did such huge numbers of people fall for this repulsive bullshit? I think it is probably a mind virus perpetuated by the process of brainwashing young children at an early age before they have the rational capacities to resist it. This is why these religions stress the importance of evangelising so much and why I never allowed my own children to be exposed to it when they were very young.
In this I have, of course, committed a huge sin. I prevented my children from being terrified by a tradition of psychotic fear-based horror and passive guilt and allowed them to think rationally for themselves. I think they thank me for it and they are certainly wonderful and full personalities with minds which work.
Dave Mann
That was an interesting link, Thor42, I read a book some time ago that claimed Jesus actually existed & supported these claims with military records at the time of his existence.
The conclusion of the book was that he was just an ordinary person & what actually happened back then has been changed over the years to suit religious needs thru the centuries.
People who believe this sort of nonsense & vote for people like Santorum are sick cunts. That is simply a fact.
Being Christian you certainly have allot of hatred and pain in your heart. It seems you need to fight to defend your belief when simply believing and having faith is enough.
Christianity and the Bible was meant to promote love and unity just like the Koran, but as always, it's the people with codependency issues and a feeling of desperation and emptiness in their heart who stain their faith with hatred and violence.
I hope for a world without religion so we can stop using it as an excuse for mass murder, hatred of our fellow man and woman and constant fear and guilt.
I was once Catholic, but now am Atheist after years of watching wars in the name of God, people killing each other who believe in God and going to churches lined with gold such as the Vatican when people all around the world suffer in war and starvation...and you call it Gods will.
Stop hiding behind your religion and become the amazing being you are and don't be afraid to love and care for those who truly need it....
V.
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