Have we got a video? An Atheist Reads the Bible Part 12
An Atheist Reads the Bible – 12 – The 10 Commandments
Contradictions in the Bible?
Quiz Show (Bible Contradictions)
Westboro Baptist is coming!
Looks like I’m going to be treated to a little crazy as the Westboro Baptist Church has added my local university to their “picketing schedule” due to the fact that Millersville University intends to hold a screening of an anti-hate film on Sunday night.
At MU, Westboro is targeting the showing of “The Anatomy of Hate,” a film about hate and hate groups that features Westboro. The film is part of a five-day “Silencing the Hate” program of lectures, forums and other events sponsored by student campus groups.
Updated 04/12/2010: The were a no-show.
Baby Names for Anti-Semites
Hmm… Jews lie and hate the Christian bible versus you have no clue about name origins or the so-called “Christian” version of the bible. My money is on the latter. I do believe the first mention of the name Rebekah (or Rebecca as you spell it) is in Genesis 22:23. Is not Genesis part of the Torah? In fact most of the books of the Old Testament are found in the Jewish Tanakh. They just prefer to not call it the “old” testament since they still believe those covenants have not been fulfilled by a messiah.
In Hebrew, the books of the Torah do not have names. They are identified by the first prominent word in each book. The English names are derived from the Greek names given to the books in the Septuagint, which are based on the thematic content of each of the books, as follows:
1. Genesis – Bereshith
2. Exodus – Shemot
3. Leviticus – Vayikra
4. Numbers – Bamidbar
5. Deuteronomy – Devarim
And I could be wrong, but wasn’t the “Christian” bible originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic? I mean, that would make sense considering Jesus himself was a Jew.
The Bible contains the central religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. Modern Judaism generally recognizes a single set of canonical books known as the Tanakh, or Hebrew Bible, as it is written almost entirely in the Hebrew language, with some small portions in Aramaic. It is traditionally divided into three parts: the Torah (“teaching” or “law”), the Nevi’im (“prophets”), and the Ketuvim (“writings”). Christianity recognises as canonical the books of the Tanakh, in a different order, as the Old Testament. In Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, additional books, called the Deuterocanonical, are included, which Protestantism regards as apocryphal.
Well if that’s not enough history, let’s just do this the easy way and look at a baby name website.
The girl’s name Rebecca \r(e)-bec-ca,reb(e)-cca\ is pronounced ree-BEK-ah. It is of Hebrew origin, and its meaning is “to bind”. Biblical: Rebekah, noted in the Genesis account as a maiden of beauty, modesty, and kindness, became the wife of Abraham’s son, Isaac. The name was used by the Puritans and was common through the 19th century. Use of the name in the novel and film “Rebecca” also revived it. Philanthropist Rebekah Harkness; author Rebecca West; actress Rebecca De Mornay.
How very interesting indeed.
an awkward fox news moment
One of my favorite YouTubers, AtheistMediaBlog (I highly recommend you subscribe), has posted a rather interesting video from Fox News this morning. The video shows religious questions being posed to and answered by Father Jonathan Morris, a news contributor and analyst for Fox News. First watch the video (it’s short):
Ok, so the questions was, “If God created Adam and Eve and they had Cain and Abel, with who exactly did Cain and Abel create children with? In other words how did Adam and Eve’s kids have kids?” You’d think the Fox News editors would at least edit the question for correct grammar and punctuation, but we’ll leave good old Fox alone for now.
At first Father Morris doesn’t understand the question. Then after hearing it again he starts to comprehend, but dances around the answer for a few seconds. He even jokes about how tough it is and how he may need consult with the Pope. He then seems embarrassed because he can’t answer the question with a snap of his fingers. I find that interesting because most children, upon reading the bible for the first time, will ask this question straight away; I know I did.
So finally Father Morris gets to his answer which is, “we don’t know how things happened.” He also doesn’t know if Adam had a belly button.
Father Morris then tries to spin his answer into a faith question, “I think the great lesson here is not whether or not Adam and Eve had belly buttons, and not whether exactly how it all happened, you know, but rather what can we learn.” The Fox News team starts to laugh. Even they know he still hasn’t answered the question and seems to be more concerned with belly buttons.
Father Morris is not an idiot, as his Wikipedia page shows. He worked as a theological adviser on Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ,” and was at one time appointed vice-rector of the Legionaries of Christ seminary, the largest seminary in Rome. He knows the answer to this question; in fact I’m sure he knows how uninformed Derek from Philadelphia is in his knowledge of Adam and Eve. However, it is obvious he does not want to answer the question.
How was Derek from Philadelphia misinformed? Anyone who has studied the bible, even an atheist like me, knows that Adam and Eve had more than just two children:
1 Adam [a] lay with his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the LORD I have brought forth [c] a man.”
2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.
25 Adam lay with his wife again, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another child in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.”
4 After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters.
So from simple bible reading we know there were three sons that are named, “other sons and daughters”, and we also know that Cain killed Abel so therefore Abel isn’t even to be considered as a possible ancestor of mankind. In fact, when Luke traced the genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3:23-38 he lists the line going back through Seth, a child Derek from Philadelphia and Father Morris do not mention. I don’t know, but Seth seems pretty important to me:
Luke 3:38
the son of Kenan, 38 the son of Enosh,
the son of Seth, the son of Adam,
the son of God.
This is what we literally know from reading the bible. So who was Enosh’s mother? We know of one named woman, Eve, and we know of “other sons and daughters” which were born of Adam and Eve. We do not know how long Eve lived, but in Genesis 5:5 we learn Adam died at the age of 930 years old. That’s a long time to push out more babies. So who was Enosh’s mother? Unless God “created” some other woman from some other man’s rib and didn’t tell us, Enosh’s mother was also either his aunt or his grandmother (or depending on when he was born, even one of his own sisters).
So back to Father Morris and the awkward situation. There are two obvious answers for him: 1) “I don’t know” which he chose and subsequently made himself look incompetent, and 2) “Adam and Eve’s children committed incest” an answer that the church tries to back away from, and a can of worms Father Morris wouldn’t want to open on the conservative Fox News talk show.
Sadly, both answers are a big fat FAIL for Christianity.
biblical misogyny
The bit.ly link goes to an article at The Christian Post which dicusses the church’s view on the decision made by former President Jimmy Carter to sever all ties with the Southern Baptist Convention due to their treatment of women. The author of the article makes a valid point,
“It is true that some have abused Scripture in pursuing oppressive agendas, like arguments for slavery, apartheid, and the denial of rights to women and minorities. But these abuses cannot be supported by an appeal to God’s word, especially when Scripture is interpreted according to the grand tradition of the Church.”
Fine, all churches interpret the bible differently (I love that excuse). But my issue is with the twitter user when he/she says, “Carter hasn’t read his Bible correctly.” Ok, so let’s do some reading:
1 Timothy 2:11-1511 A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. 12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. 15 But women[a] will be saved[b] through childbearing—if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.
16 To the woman he said,
“I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you.”1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 “Say to the Israelites: ‘A woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a son will be ceremonially unclean for seven days, just as she is unclean during her monthly period. 3 On the eighth day the boy is to be circumcised. 4 Then the woman must wait thirty-three days to be purified from her bleeding. She must not touch anything sacred or go to the sanctuary until the days of her purification are over. 5 If she gives birth to a daughter, for two weeks the woman will be unclean, as during her period. Then she must wait sixty-six days to be purified from her bleeding.
6 ” ‘When the days of her purification for a son or daughter are over, she is to bring to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting a year-old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a dove for a sin offering. 7 He shall offer them before the LORD to make atonement for her, and then she will be ceremonially clean from her flow of blood.
” ‘These are the regulations for the woman who gives birth to a boy or a girl. 8 If she cannot afford a lamb, she is to bring two doves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for her, and she will be clean.’
19 ” ‘When a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening.
20 ” ‘Anything she lies on during her period will be unclean, and anything she sits on will be unclean. 21 Whoever touches her bed must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening. 22 Whoever touches anything she sits on must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening. 23 Whether it is the bed or anything she was sitting on, when anyone touches it, he will be unclean till evening.
24 ” ‘If a man lies with her and her monthly flow touches him, he will be unclean for seven days; any bed he lies on will be unclean.
25 ” ‘When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge, just as in the days of her period. 26 Any bed she lies on while her discharge continues will be unclean, as is her bed during her monthly period, and anything she sits on will be unclean, as during her period. 27 Whoever touches them will be unclean; he must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening.
28 ” ‘When she is cleansed from her discharge, she must count off seven days, and after that she will be ceremonially clean. 29 On the eighth day she must take two doves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. 30 The priest is to sacrifice one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. In this way he will make atonement for her before the LORD for the uncleanness of her discharge.
31 ” ‘You must keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean, so they will not die in their uncleanness for defiling my dwelling place, [a] which is among them.’ “
32 These are the regulations for a man with a discharge, for anyone made unclean by an emission of semen,
1 Corinthians 14:3434 women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says.
18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
This could go on forever because there are countless more verses dealing with biblical misogyny, so if you’d like to do some more reading I suggest:
Numbers 5:11-31
Deuteronomy 24:1-4
Deuteronomy 22:13-21
Exodus 21:7-11
Numbers 30:1-16
Ephesians 5:22-24
Matthew 5:32
Nahum 3:4
Proverbs 31:3
…and many many more that I just can’t be bothered to post links for. I’m actually a little sick to my stomach right now.
It’s no wonder the suffragettes went through so much pain and horror campaigning for the vote. Women, like Lucy Burns, were jailed and beaten for speaking out against their oppression. The poster at the left (circa 1909) was distributed to educate the public of what was happening to these women. “Forcible feeding” was a form of torture, used on women who began hunger strikes while imprisoned for protesting. According to History.com, “forced feeding involved inserting a tube in the prisoner’s mouth or nostril, into which a solution of milk and eggs was poured. The result was often vomiting, pain, and lacerations. As one victim reported in 1909, ‘The drums of the ears seem to be bursting and there is a horrible pain in the throat and breast. The tube is pushed down twenty inches; [it] must go below the breastbone.’”
It was because of these primitive chauvinistic views of women, which the bible has kept in contemporary teachings, that these women suffered. We look at the way women are treated in Muslim countries and are appalled, but from what I see Christianity is no different in its treatment of women. It is only because we live in a progressive democratic country that we have begun moving past these evils. After women won the right to vote, their protest movement paved the way for civil rights and gay rights. With proper education, compassion for our fellow humans and the liberation of antiquated religious doctrines from mainstream ideology, we may have a decent chance for humanity.
This twitter post has inspired a new blog tab, “illiterate bible readers.”
whoredom
This is one of my favorite bible passages, Hosea 1:2, and it’s best when read by the King James Version:
2 The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.
I just love the word “whoredom.” And even better, the Merriam Webster definition of whoredom is “the act of whoring.” We just don’t use these phrases as much as we should.
The verse does lead me to question how we follow the whole “Thou shalt not commit adultery” part of the ten commandments, but I’m sure I’m taking the bible too literally…or not literally enough. Not sure.
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Don’t feed the trolls
