August 4, 2009, 2:41 pm by dc-agape.

August 3, 2009

I promised one of my readers to go into more detail about how I over came my Southern Baptist indoctrination.  In previous posts I have mentioned my love of science (specifically chemistry), my loathing of hypocrisy, the lack of evidence that prayer works, and even my distrust of the proofs that the Holy Ghost exists.  But there are certain characteristics of my upbringing that I should point out that were essential to my de-conversion.

I am not sure if the first one comes from my romanticized image of the rebellious nature of the Southern Rebel or if it comes from my parent’s obsession with explaining everything to me as a child.  I know that many Southerners do not question everything…i.e. the Southern Baptists.  But I do know that I have always questioned everything.  Since a very early age I have been told the answer to the questions that I asked my parents.  They were always patient with my “Why?”  Only the church leaders told me “take it on faith”.  This annoyed me from as far back as I can remember.  My thought pattern went something like this: “If everything else has a reason…that can be explained to me, why does religion have to be so vague?”  Answers like “you’re not ready for that”, “your too young to understand”, or “it’s too complicated” would only make me want to know the answer more!  And my curiosity was insatiable. 

Another factor from my childhood was my father’s job.  This may sound strange but the nature of his work influenced my perception of the world.  Both my parents were well educated.  My mother graduated top of her class with a BS in Education, and my father was a civil engineer.  His job was with the US Geological Survey.  As a result, we moved a lot.  By the time my parents divorced (when I was 12) I had already lived in NC, FL, SC, and TN.  To a preteen each of these experiences was true “culture shocks”.  I struggled after each move to make new friends, but most of the time they were “transplants” just like me.  As a result, the moves themselves made me more accepting of differences in people.  Since most of my friends were also not from the new state originally, I accepted an even greater diversity of opinions.  But I was always an outsider, a misfit, a geek, and of course the worst insult possible “a fag”. 

Being a “fag” without actually being attracted to boys or girls was another factor in my childhood that influenced my outlook on life and religion.  The same children that called my “fag” were also the most religious!  So my irritation at the blatant hypocrisy grew.  These religious kids were judging me, when their own religion specifically demanded that:

Matt 7:2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Of course, I acted different than them; I was not from the same town, the same church, the same background.  I even remember thinking at one point: “If they really think I’m gay…maybe I should try it”.  I certainly did not know anyone who was gay.  Not until I reached high school was there anyone who was even remotely “flamboyant”.  So all I knew was what other ignorant children told me about homosexuals.  As it turned out one of my best friends in high school was gay…and I did not even know it until after I “came out”.  In fact, when I did finally go to a “gay club” one of the first people I met was the football captain from my Junior year (and I studied him and one of the cheerleaders in our Trigonometry class)!  We did not “hook-up” both of us were so shocked to see each other we barely spoke.

The biggest blow, in childhood, to my acceptance of Southern Baptist (and religious) tradition was the Southern Baptists themselves.  There are two jokes about the SBs that truly reflect my opinion of them.  I will give the punch line to save time, but if you want to read the jokes in full here are the links:  Visiting Heaven and Sinning on Saturday.  In the first joke, a man is visiting heaven…when Peter takes him to where the SBs are worshiping, Peter tells the man to be very quite.  After leaving the area the man asks why and Peter tells him that the SBs believe they are the only ones there.  The second joke is about the difference between Catholics and SBs.  Catholics go to Mass on Sunday so they can be forgiven of their sins…SBs sin all week long so they have to go to church on Sunday.  It’s a subtle difference, but one that I quickly learned…and despised.  Every summer the SBs have “Revival”.  It’s a time in the year where people “re-dedicate” themselves to YHWH.  I never understood why rededication was required…once your dedicated (by a supernatural being no less) shouldn’t you stay dedicated.  I mean seriously isn’t that the meaning of the word dedicated!  If YHWH and the Holy Spirit couldn’t keep these people dedicated for at least 365 days, what type of supernatural being is YHWH?

I have posted before about one specific incident in TN before, but it is worth repeated here.  When I moved to TN I was not like the other middle-TNers.  In 6^th grade I was completely ostracized by my growing personal opinions.  Due to my curiosity and my parent’s willingness to share their knowledge my responses to specific topics were not the same as most of the other students in my class.  I trusted in evolution, I agreed that women were equal to men, I knew that computers were going to change the future (this was 1981), and since I was never going to have one I could not understand why I had a right to deny a woman the right to an abortion.  To say the least, I was a complete outsider and made many enemies with these opinions.  But I also made some friends who thought I was foolhardy but brave for standing up for what I thought.

All these experiences culminate into one life lesson (well actually many) that influenced my de-conversion.  I learned early in life that what other people think about me really does not matter.  This also lead me to learn that most people are easily “herded” by tradition and/or charismatic people due to the desire to accepted.   Having grown up in an agricultural society, I knew being considered similar to a cow (heard-able) was considered equal to be being stupid.  I certainly knew that I was not stupid.  I might come across as arrogant, but I was certainly not stupid.

Posted in The Usual Suspects, My Beliefs, Traditions of Men, Family Values?, State of Mind | Print | 7 Comments »

July 17, 2009, 8:01 am by dc-agape.

Exodus 21:12-36

This section is about personal property.  Mostly it is about slaves, but one section is about pregnancy and some of the other parts are about livestock.  The rest is about punishment for crimes.  These crimes include treatment of parents.  I will attempt to make this as organized as possible but these rules skip and jump from topic to topic.

The first section is about punishments that deserve being stoned to death.  This is very specific, they are not to be allowed to die in any other way except being stoned to death.  These crimes include: deliberate murder, attacking one’s own parents, kidnapping another person, selling another person into slavery, and cursing one’s own parents.  If an accident occurs that kills someone, then the person responsible for the accident is allowed a chance to make amends.

But the treatment of slaves is completely different.  An owner can beat his slaves with one limitation.  They must be able to get back to work in “a day or two”.  YHWH is perfectly fine with owners beating slaves.  He finds nothing wrong with this and does not even consider it a sin, unless the slave dies.  Even the punishment for killing a slave is not recorded.  We do not know if stoning is the appropriate punishment or if something less severe is acceptable.  We do know that when a slave owner beats his slave there are two conditions where the slave can go free.  These are if the owner damages the eye or the tooth of the slave.

The abortion rights groups love this one paragraph in this chapter.  In the case of a pregnant woman being hurt by a man, Hammurabi’s Code is invoked.  That is “eye for an eye, limb for limb, and life for life”.  So it would seem that YHWH does demand punishment for abortions.  What is so obviously overlooked from this chapter is all the other punishments!  How many children would be alive today if striking or cursing your parents was punished by stoning to death?  Why is slavery not still practiced, YHWH is perfectly accepting of this?  You have to take it all or none, one cannot pick and choice which Bible verse will be followed.

The rest of the chapter is about livestock.  Specifically three cases.  The first one is about bulls that gouge humans.  They must be stoned to death.  The owner is not responsible for the beast’s actions, unless he knows that this animal had a habit of attacking other creatures.  Guess what the punishment is in that case?  You guessed it, stone him to death.    Another case is about livestock and pits.  If livestock fall into a pit dug by someone else, the owner of the pit must pay for the injured/dead animal.  The pit owner does get to keep the animal.  The final case is about the death of a bull by another bull.  If this death occurs with no warnings, then both owners will split the profits from the living bull.  But, again, if one of the bulls is known to be aggressive, then ownership will switch.  The owner of the docile dead bull receives the aggressive bull in payment for the dead bull.  This does not seem quite as fair as it seems.  Now the owner must prevent the aggressive bull for doing harm!  And he had owned a bull that was completely docile.  Some of YHWH’s rules are not as logical or just as they may seem.   

Posted in Exodus, YHWH & slavery, Family Values?, Readings | Print | 10 Comments »

July 16, 2009, 9:37 am by dc-agape.

Exodus 21:1-11

YHWH does not only accept slavery of other nations, he allows Hebrews to be slaves as well.  But YHWH treats male slaves differently than female slaves.  Male slaves are only to be owned for 6 full years.  Then they are free.  There is a caveat, if the owner gives the slave a wife, the slave must choose between his wife and freedom.  If he chooses to stay with his new wife he will be a slave for the rest of his life.  Cute little trick there!  Because you see woman slaves are not allowed to go free unless certain conditions are met.

Female slaves are obviously for sexual purposes:

Exodus 21:10 If he marries another woman, he must not deprive the first one of her food, clothing, or marital rights.

A number of conditions will free a female slave.  First, if the owner is not satisfied by her she can be redeemed.  The other way a female slave can be set free is by breach of contract.  This breach would occur if the owner did not provide the female slave with: food, clothing, or marital rights.  In other words, he has purchased a wife – a slave wife.

Not only does YHWH condone slavery he has set specific rules for freeing them.  In these rules YHWH is a misogynist.  It is obvious that women were only used for reproductive purposes.  And YHWH was clearly accepting of this practice.  Could YHWH have changed, of course not.  He is still the “god” of the Old Testament.  Could YHWH have been accepting of a practice that he found revolting, of course not.  No the image of YHWH is without doubt a misogynist.

Posted in Exodus, YHWH & slavery, Family Values?, Readings | Print | 2 Comments »

July 7, 2009, 7:10 am by dc-agape.

Exodus 18

In this chapter Jethro, Moses father-in-law and a Midianite priest of YHWH, comes to visit.  It begins as a family reunion with a burnt offering.  Moses shares the sacrifice with all the elders of Israel.  During this time, Moses tells Jethro about everything that has happened since he left to return to Egypt.  Jethro is impressed by the hideous atrocities that YHWH and Moses performed in Egypt.  He also reconfirms his loyalty to YHWH.  Two things are of interest in this section.  One is the advice that Jethro gives Moses on leading the people.  The second is how YHWH repays Jethro for everything the man has done for Moses, Israel, and YHWH. 

This is the first incidence of seeing how the “government” of Israel is carried out.  Moses spends the entire day passing judgment on the people’s disputes.  He alone takes on the entire load of governing 2,000,000 people.  The advice Jethro gives Moses is to teach the people:

Exodus 18:20 Teach them the decrees and laws, and show them the way to live and the duties they are to perform.

Further, Jethro recommends dividing the work of judgment among numerous YHWH-fearing men.  But here is the catch, he recommends dividing the people into: thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens.  We can assume that the children will be looked over by their parent, which is a common practice in the modern world, right (sarcasm)?  But even at the slightly smaller number of 1,200,000 this would lead to:

1,200 judges of the thousands

12,000 judges of the hundreds

24,000 judges of the fifties

120,000 judges of the tens

Out of 2,000,000 (1,200,000 adult) people there would be nearly 160,000 leaders.  What exactly would constitute the encouragement of these men to judge properly?  What test would be involved to ensure they judge indiscriminately?  There is no police, no investigative department, only 13% of the population acting as judge, jury, and executioner.  And yet we still have the golden calf issue (Exodus 32).  Of course, we also have the problem that no laws or decrees have been provided by YHWH yet.

The second thing that seems to be overlooked about Moses family is how YHWH treats Jethro and his people, the Midianites.  Remember that Jethro is a priest of YHWH, yet:

Numbers 31:3 So Moses said to the people, “Arm some of your men to go to war against the Midianites and to carry out the Lord’s vengeance on them.

Is this the way to repay the man who advised Moses how to run the government of Israel?  Is this the way to treat the man who was the father of Moses wife?  Is this the way to treat a priest of YHWH?  Yet, for some unknown reason, the entire Midianite community has been rejected by YHWH.  Our only glimpse is one single verse:

Numbers 25:3 So Israel joined in worshipping the Baal of Peor.  And the Lord’s anger burned against them.

The problem with this is that Peor was a Moabite community, not a Midianite community.  Of course, the other problem is that the Israelites chose to follow the Moabites.  Yet YHWH blames the wrong community for the acts of his own people!  He punishes the Israelites, but he also causes great suffering for the Israelites for many generation.  The Midianites become a thorn in Israel’s side:

Judges 6:3 Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and other eastern peoples invaded the country.

If you remember correctly the Amalekites were the ones that YHWH promised to “blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven” (Exodus 17:15).

The Book of Judges takes place after Joshua dies at the age of 110.  He most likely was near twenty years of age when he began to be Moses’ aide.  Add to this time the number of judges after Joshua and Judges Chapter 6: 47 years.  About 150 years after the promise to blot the Amalekites for memory and from the time that Moses lived with the Midianites, YHWH had still not fulfilled his promise.  I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait 150 years for YHWH to get around to fulfilling promises.  Worse is that YHWH has not dealt with the Amalekites even in King David’s time! 

So here we have examples of YHWH’s failures.  He holds a grudge against the wrong nation, he punishes an nation that actually worships him, and he does not fulfill his promises.  YHWH is worse than a cruel arbitrary god of mythology; he is a monster that no one should even believe exists.  The Midianites were never a threat to Israel, yet YHWH causes the conflict that will cause his people trouble for generations.  Great going super being!

Posted in Exodus, Inerrancy - My Ass, Family Values?, Readings | Print | 2 Comments »

June 19, 2009, 8:16 am by dc-agape.

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Exodus Chapter 5:22-6:27

Moses, still arrogant enough to press YHWH, whines to his god about the failure to change the Pharaohs mind and the additional suffering that the Israelites are now suffering.  A number of things come to my Atheist mind as I read YHWH response.  First, YHWH continues to show that he has planned the whole thing out, every detail…the suffering, the sin, the punishment, and finally (very late) the rescue.  It also shows me that YHWH is at the same time somewhat forgetful.  After four generation and at least 240 years, he finally “remembers” his covenant.

Exodus 6:5 Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.

Even though YHWH is supposed to be omniscient he seems very forgetful if he has to “remember” what he has promised, even if it is hundreds of years earlier.  The last thing that YHWH’s response to Moses shows me is how he planned all this suffering (both the upcoming Egyptian and the present Israelite suffering) for one purpose.  That purpose is to make it known that he is their dictator:

Exodus 6:7 I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.  Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

Not only is this extreme arrogance but it is the most naïve thing possible.  Does not this omniscient being know that it will not even take a generation for them to forget the purpose of his plan for their suffering?  He certainly does not get the title omniscient from the Book of Exodus.

Well Moses goes to the elders of the Israelites with this new revelation.  They have no faith in Moses and do not believe that YHWH will save them.  But would you?  Instead of improving, this whole set of events has made things worse and there is no time to even think about hope.  That is how bad Moses and YHWH have made things.  Moses reports back to YHWH and tells him that he does not believe that the Pharaoh will be any more responsive than the elders.  And for the moment that is where the story ends with YHWH commanding Moses and Aaron to get the people out of Egypt.

For some unknown reason the chapter switches to a lineage of Moses and Aaron.  Two odd things are important here.  One is who Amram, Moses’ and Aarons’ father, marries.  The second is which tribes are listed with the heads of the family.  Amram marries his father’s sister!  You have to remember that YHWH has not set down the rules of marriage yet, that won’t take place until the Book of Leviticus (Lev 18:12).  So it was OK then but then YHWH changed his mind!  This means that YHWH is not immutable; he does change with the times.  In this same list of family leaders two other marriages are described, both of them are not married to close relatives (Exodus 6:23 and 6:25).  The other odd thing about this list of family heads is that it only lists three tribes: Reuben, Simeon, and Levi.  Only three sons of Leah are mentioned.  Why are the three younger sons of Leah, the sons of Rachel, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah not mentioned?  Either someone has edited out the other nine tribes of Israel or YHWH really does not think they are important. 

This chapter has shown a number of things about YHWH that are not favorable.  In fact, they are so hideous that I wonder why anyone who reads these things would believe that this monster exists.  I have shown that YHWH is uncaring, forgetful, naïve, arrogant, and he is not immutable.  But I guess with the “god bias” these things are overlooked.

Posted in Exodus, Inerrancy - My Ass, Family Values?, Readings | Print | 1 Comment »

June 17, 2009, 7:48 am by dc-agape.

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Exodus Chapter 4:18-31

Moses leaves the Mount of Sinai (or Mount Horeb) with the goal of doing YHWH’s bidding.  A few interesting things happen in this section.  First we get a tidbit of the conversation on Horeb that were left out inserted as extra.  Then we get a new conversation between Moses and YHWH.  As Moses sets out for Egypt YHWH attempts to murder him.  Then we get a discontinuity.  Aaron somehow meets Moses on the mount of Horeb.  The end of the chapter is where Moses and Aaron meet with the elders of the Israelites.

As Moses sets out from Midian he says good-bye to his step-father Jethro.  Oddly, Moses lies to Jethro.  He tells him that he wants to go back to Egypt to see if anyone is still alive.  Moses just finished talking to an omnipotent supreme being and was told to return to Egypt to free the Israelites.  Maybe he lied to keep Jethro from worrying.  But it really doesn’t matter anyway since YHWH plans on killing the Midianites, including Jethro (Num 31:1-2).  Then we get a flash back to a previous conversation.  This flash back, YHWH tells Moses that all the people who wanted to kill him are dead.  So Moses packs his wife and sons up to return to Egypt. 

Then YHWH has a quick little conversation with Moses.  Two parts of this conversation are very important to understanding the mind of YHWH.  YHWH tells Moses to perform a few miracles in front of the Pharaoh.  But YHWH promises Moses that he will harden the Pharaoh’s heart (Exodus 4:21)!  And because of this hardening, that YHWH does, YHWH will then murder the Pharaoh’s firstborn son!  Here again we get the image of YHWH punishing the innocent for the acts that YHWH himself creates.  There is no justice or love in these acts.  They are the brutal egotistical actions of a despot.  YHWH shows no signs of being a loving just supreme being in the following chapters.

In fact, in the very next paragraph, Moses is on his way to do YHWH bidding. But during a night lodging Moses is almost killed by YHWH.  We are told this is because Moses forgot to circumcise his youngest son.  So here we have Moses, a cold-blooded premeditated murder, a liar to his own family, a whiner to YHWH (five times), and someone who has disobeyed the strictest commandment from YHWH (Gen 17:14).  Even though either or both sons were supposed to be cut off from the people of Israel, their descendants became major leaders (1^st Ch 26:25, 27:16) and even priest of the tribe of Dan (Judges 18:30).  But Zipporah, Moses’ wife, saves his protects Moses from YHWH by performing the circumcision right there and then.  So a Midianite saves the life of the leader of the Israelites from YHWH’s attempt to murder Moses!  Yet still YHWH will destroy the entire Midianite nation within a few weeks.  YHWH gives Moses 10 second changes, but to the Midianites that have done nothing wrong even worship YHWH, and have saved Moses’ life twice, YHWH plans their destruction.

After that we come to the oddest mistake in the Word of God so far.  Previously, YHWH has told Moses that Aaron was on his way to meet him (Exodus 4:14).  Now we read YHWH command to Aaron to go meet Moses.  Moses has already left the Mount of Horeb, he has already packed up and headed to Egypt, and he has slept at least one additional night (when YHWH attempts to kill him).  So does this mean that YHWH lied to Moses, it certainly looks that way!  But what is even more odd is where the brothers meet.  They meet at the Mount of Horeb.  Now historical tradition puts Jethro home village about 44km from Mount Horeb.   Yet even with Moses having a couple days’ head start, Aaron escapes from Egypt (he is a slave, too) and travels all the way to Mt Horeb before Moses can travel the shorter distance to the same location.  I guess it is possible, but it seems that something is out of place here. 

The brothers get back to Egypt and sneak into the slave encampment.  They meet with the elders and show them the miracles that YHWH has given them to perform.  Then the elders and everyone else believes that YHWH has heard their century old cries for help.  Isn’t this just the most loving image of YHWH?  He nearly murders Moses and he has waited close to or more than a century to rescue his chosen people.  Talk about “mysterious ways” and “in his own time”!  It tells me, an Atheist, I better just do it myself.

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June 6, 2009, 10:39 am by dc-agape.

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Tales of the Patriarchs (Part 7)

I want to take a particularly close look at the story of how Abram lied to the Pharaoh and as a result two things happened: Abram became enormously rich and the Pharaoh and his entire court suffered terribly for two full years.  I know from a Christian or Jewish point of view this story is about how YHWH protects his people and punishes those who do not worship him.  But this story proves that the protection does not occur, that YHWH’s people rarely trust him, and more troubling is that YHWH punishes unjustly.

After Hyrcanos goes back to the Pharaoh with the news of how beautiful this 70+ year old nomadic woman is, the Pharaoh has to see for himself if this is true.  Well, it turns out that the Pharaoh is also into weather beaten old women, he thinks she is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen and is completely amazed!  Since Abram and Sarai have been lying for the last five years about their relationship (the lie is that they are siblings), the Pharaoh sees nothing wrong with requesting Sarai to be his wife.  He immediately marries her.  That very night Abram cries out to YHWH and begs that the Pharaoh be punished for not knowing that Abram had been lying!  Can you image the audacity?  Instead of tell the truth and trusting YHWH to protect him, Abram has been lying for five years!  When the lie is finally done its damage, then Abram calls upon YHWH. 

Now YHWH does something and punishes an innocent man, who was acting within every acceptable standard ever written.  But to make thing even worse, YHWH punishes everyone in the Pharaoh’s court with the same disease.  To spread the unjustness even further, YHWH punishes anyone who attempts to elevate the court’s pain and suffering.  The unjustness of these actions is atrocious!  There can be no greater evil than what Abram and YHWH have done. 

But it goes further than that.  It takes a full two years before Hyrcanos figures it out what the source of the painful curse is.  So YHWH does not even answer Abram’s prayer for two full years.  When the Pharaoh hears that Abram has been lying for the last seven years…you would think that he would go ballistic.  But instead, he comes with great courtesy and humbleness before Abram.  This is how the Pharaoh approaches the evil that Abram has perpetuated:

1 QapGen Col20 row 26-27 So he called to me and asked, “What have you done to me because of your wife Sarai?  You told me, ‘She is my sister’, yet she was actually your wife!  

The Pharaoh shows no sign of being the most powerful man on earth, as the Pharaohs were.  Instead he is the perfect gentleman to the vile and corrupt Abram.  For years the Pharaoh had been offering gifts and great courtesy to Abram, yet Abram pays him back by lying and asking YHWH to punish the Pharaoh.  In the end, Pharaoh does tell Abram to get out of Egypt, but in the process continues to give Abram many more gifts. 

Abram leaves Egypt, after overstaying his welcome, and heads back to Bethel.  At each of the spots where he worshipped YHWH he stops and repeats the act again, until he reaches Bethel.  But then comes the most ludicrous thing yet.  Abram praise YHWH for the ill-gotten flocks and goods that the Pharaoh gave him during the seven years of living a lie!  YHWH had nothing to do with these stolen goods.  It was the lie that Abram told that provided the shelter and the goodwill of the Pharaoh!  In fact, Abram does not even call upon YHWH until the lie takes a turn for the worst! 

As an Atheist, reading this story without the god-bias, I just cannot see how anyone misses the true evil that is perpetrated in this story.  Lies are told, unjust punishments are doled out, and ill-gotten wealth is retained by the villains of the story – YHWH and Abram! The Pharaoh in this story is blameless, yet he and his court have to pay the heaviest burden of all.  This story caused me great trouble in justifying when I was a Christian, but now that I am an Atheist it proves two things.  First, this story proves that YHWH is a capricious villain and no better than Zeus or Quetzalcoatl.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that both Zeus and Quetzalcoatl were better Gods.  YHWH is just as fictitious as these other supernatural beings.  Second, that the “god bias” deeply twists humanities ability to recognize great acts of evil.

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June 4, 2009, 8:00 am by dc-agape.

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Tales of the Patriarchs (Part 6)

Unsurprisingly, when the Tractate switches to Abram, we again know nothing of his youth.  The Israelite authors of every religious text seem to have an aversion to discussing childhood.  The Tale of the Patriarchs catches up with Abram when he is 75 years old (Gen 12:4).  The 19^th column of the Tales is pretty drab stuff.  It starts off with Abram making an alter at Hebron and claiming that Hebron had not been built yet.  Oddly we know that a town existed there, prior to Abram changing the name to Hebron.  The Canaanites called it Mamre (Gen 13:18) and also Kiriath Arba (Gen 23:2). So here we have the author(s) of this tractate completely covering up that this location had been occupied by other humans prior to the arrival of Abram.  Here are more examples of making the old stories more palatable to the reader.

The Tractate moves on to the famine in Canaan.  Isn’t it odd how there are many famines in Canaan, yet Egypt always seems to have extra grains and food stocks?  In the process of heading down to Egypt, Abram has a dream.  In the dream a cedar and a date tree are combined by a single root.  People come to cut the cedar down but the date tree begs them not to.  Abram wakes and believes that this is a portent of future events in Egypt.  He warns his wife Sarai to lie to anyone about their marriage.  He tells her to tell everyone that she is his sister! 

They spend at least five years in Egypt, teaching people with great wisdom from a book called the Words of Enoch.  At this point Abram must be at least 80 years old and we know that Sarai was 10 years younger than him (Gen 17:17), making her at least 70 years old.  We also know that Sarai dies at the age of 127 (Gen 23:1), so she is not a young woman.  We can be pretty certain that life back then was pretty hard on the aging populace so Sarai could not be that beautiful by this time in her life.  She was certainly past the age of childbirth, for she even knew that she was barren (Gen 11:30).  Yet, the Pharaoh learns of Abram and his wife/sister and three of the Pharaoh’s councilors come out to meet Abram.  During this process, and due to his wisdom and his wife/sister, the Pharaoh had been giving many gifts to Abram. 

I will end this post with just the message that Hyrcanos gives to the Pharaoh about Sarai.  Hyrcanos is one of the three councilors that meet with Abram and Sarai.  This is what he tells the Pharaoh about Sarai:

1QapGen col.20 row4 How shapely is her breast, how gorgeous all her fairness!

1QapGen col.20 row6 How perfect her thighs!  Neither virgins nor brides entering the bridal chamber exceed her charms.

Now either someone likes older (very older woman) or someone is lying!  There is no way, even with supernatural help that a 70+ year old woman exposed to nomadic life could have shapely breasts, perfect thighs, and exceed virgins and brides in charm.  It is impossible.  I may be gay, and my opinion slightly skewed about women, but this is just the most unbelievable tell.  It has got to be another Tall Tale from the inerrant Word of God!  I may also be an Atheist, but at some point doesn’t everyone start to see that these stories are identical to Alfred Bulltop Stormalong or Paul Bunyan?

Posted in Dead Sea Scroll, Genesis Material, Tales of the Patriarchs, Word of God, Inerrancy - My Ass, Tall Tales, Family Values?, Readings | Print | 8 Comments »

May 29, 2009, 7:50 am by dc-agape.

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Tales of the Patriarchs (Part 3)

Childhood does not seem to be very important to the Jewish writers of Religious materials.  Just as in the case of Jesus, this story of Noah tells of his birth and without fragmentation jumps to his adult life.  Unlike Jesus, Noah brags about his birthright and how righteous he is.  Then we find out that he marries a woman by the name of Emzara.  They have three sons and an unknown number of daughters.  Then we get to a confusing part, a Watcher who is a messenger from the Holy Ones comes to Noah after he has had a vision about the Flood.  The last section I will cover in this post is again the Flood, a repeated topic in these Tractates.

The first thing we read from Noah, as an adult, is his bragging about how righteous he is and will always be!  Isn’t that pride?  And marrying off your children to your brother’s children is, of course, now considered a sin (but I will get to that in a second)!  He also killed all his daughters by not allowing them on the ark (that is coming up in the next paragraph as well).  And we know that he gets drunk off the first wine after the Flood.  I guess these small flaws are OK, and that he is still a righteous man, both in his eyes and in YHWH’s eyes.

Cousin marriage was acceptable at the time, even though YHWH would eventually decide that it was a sin worthy of death (Lev 18:6)!  So remember that either YHWH does change or go for it, marry your cousin…YHWH approves.  The worst thing about this section is that it clearly states that Noah had daughters, yet we know that they did not join him on the Ark.  This means that he sacrificed his own flesh and blood, because of the Flood that YHWH created.  What a loving father!  Even more what a loving YHWH to force a man to do such a hideous act, can you imagine the pain Noah felt as he watched his daughters drown?

Noah has a vision, which he shares with no one.  And then a Watcher comes to give him a message from the Holy Ones about the flood.  I will have to amend my last few posts.  The Watchers are different from the Nephilim, which are different than the Sons of Heaven.  It seems from this passage that it is the actions of the Nephilim that cause YHWH to create the Flood that kills all live on dry land, except plants.

I will close this post with the most horrific description of the Flood presented in any Religious Document:

1QapGen Col.6 row 25-Col.7 row 4 until the Floodgate of heaven [opened…destroying] humanity and cattle and wild animals and birds […] […] upon them.  The earth and all that was upon it, in the seas and on the mountains […] all the constellations, the sun, the moon, and the stars.

So in this version the flood gates did kill all the animals in the seas as well as all the animals on the dry land.  Since some of the fragmentation occurs at critical points we cannot tell what happens to the sun, moon, and stars.  Are they witness to the horrific actions of YHWH or could the Flood be so intense that even they were destroyed?  The worst is yet to come.  One of the Watchers then tells Noah

1 QapGen Col.7 row 5 “I hereby grant you your reward from me”

Noah’s reward was to be the only man standing after such horrific violence.  He was King of the World.  And of course, what does Noah do?  He rejoiced and “shouted for joy”!  He was overwhelmed with excitement that YHWH had destroyed the entire planet.  He was ecstatic that his daughters had drowned in the Flood.  He was all bubbly because even Methuselah was now dead.  If you calculate the age that Methuselah died it was in the year of the Flood.  Noah was the one and only leader of the entire human population, I bet he was excited! 

As an Atheist this tale is so horrific I cannot see how anyone could worship this monster named YHWH.  He is twisted, has horrible tastes in righteousness, and punishes innocent people due to his own actions.  The destruction of the planet by a Flood has got to be one of the worst ways to kill every living thing, including the sea life (due to fresh water mixing with the salt water).  But to chose Noah as the living representative of Humanity?  Noah was so flawed that it is no wonder that the world is so fucked up now!  Maybe this really did happen.  It does explain why some humans are such a mess.

Posted in Genesis Material, Tales of the Patriarchs, Dead Sea Scroll, Family Values?, Tall Tales, Readings | Print | 3 Comments »

May 26, 2009, 8:30 am by dc-agape.

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Tales of the Patriarchs

Our illustrious editors are kind enough to let us know that this is a rewrite of the Bible.  The original author(s) of this Tractate “improved” upon the stories from the Book of Genesis.  This starts as a story of why YHWH destroyed humanity and all the other living creatures on the planet with the Flood.  I won’t give you the reason yet, but let’s just say it’s a spectacular example of the stupidest thing a supernatural being could ever do!  The first Patriarch in the story is Lamech, Noah’s father.  The Tractate then turns to Noah himself.  Noah’s sons are mentioned but only to describe how they spread across the world.  Abram is the last Patriarch of this tale.  From the use of the name “Abram” it can be foreseen that this tale ends before YHWH changes his name to Abraham.

The opening of our story is the reason that YHWH drowned the entire world in his anger with the Flood.  It is actually quite simple…YHWH bound fallen angels to earth.  That’s right, to get rid of the angels that YHWH did not like he sent them to earth in fleshly bodies…where the humans lived.  Well of course these fallen angels, called Watchers (or more familiar term…the Nephilim), intermingled with humans.  This show how either naive or stupid YHWH was.  What else would you expect evil angels to do except corrupt humanity?  Worse than that YHWH did not strip them of their heavenly knowledge, so the Watchers used this knowledge to their own benefit.  They also, being angels, must have been more intelligent, more hansom, and more powerful than the humans.  So the women, of the time, sleep with these supernatural beings!  This only produced more evil offspring and the whole world was corrupted by YHWH own action.  He sent the angels to earth, what else would he expect to happen?

Here enters our first Patriarch, Lamech.  In a fit of jealousy he demands that his wife prove that she had not sleep with one of the Nephilim.  She had just given birth to Noah.  Something about Noah was surprisingly different than a normal baby, and Lamech thought that Noah was a child of the Nephilim.  Here we learn that Noah’s mother’s name was Bitenosh.  Why she should have a name in this story and not the Bible is of great curiosity.  Reading the response of Bitenosh is much more racy than anything in today’s Word of God:

1QapGen Col.2 lines 9-10 She said, “Oh, my brother, my lord, remember my voluptuousness […] in the heat of lovemaking, and my ardent response. I am telling you the whole truth […]. 

Sorry about the brackets, this is the symbol for where the scrolls are beyond recovery and the words have been lost to eternity.  Let’s hope that the term “my brother” does not mean she married and had sex with her brother!  But if this section were in the Bible I bet more people would read that Book.  Bitenosh continues the discussion of Noah’s conception, guaranteeing that Lamech is truly the father of Noah. 

One oddity appears in this section.  The author(s) use numerous terminologies for men who are not human.  To being with, when Lamech is worried about who fathered Noah, they use the term Holy Ones or Nephilim.  But when Bitenosh defends herself, she uses the term Watcher and differentiates that from the Sons of Heaven.  So it would seem that there were two extra sources of sperm in the days before the Flood other than human.  I can see how the Holy Ones and the Sons of Heaven might be the same, but then the Nephilim and the Watchers might also be the same.  We know from the Book of Genesis that the Sons of Heaven/God did have sex with human women (Gen 6:1-2).  But from reading that section of the Book of Genesis it would seem that it was the offspring of the Sons of Heaven that were the Nephilim (Gen 6:4).  Why would the Sons of God/Heaven be evil?  Why would the children of that union be evil?  In fact verse four claims that the Nephilim were “heroes of old, men of renown”.  Nothing from the Book of Genesis would indicate that humanity had any reason to become evil.  Yet right after the part about the Nephilim the Book of Genesis declares that humanity had become evil (Gen 6:5-7).  Remember that only 10 generation of humans had been born by the time YHWH grew angry (Gen 5).  It is a good thing that Noah didn’t let his children forget how to please such a temperamental YHWH!

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Posted in Genesis Material, Tales of the Patriarchs, Dead Sea Scroll, Inerrancy - My Ass, Family Values?, Readings | Print | 7 Comments »