December 8, 2009, 7:55 am by dc-agape.

A Vision of a New Jerusalem

The good news is that I finished the proposal for my trip to Korea!  The bad news is that I still have 2 journal articles to write and prepare 2-3 presentations for upcoming professional conferences!  Hopefully I will have time to devote to this blog again.

In attempting that I want to discuss the next Scroll from the Dead Sea Scrolls entitled “A Vision of a New Jerusalem”.  But this scroll will take two posts.  This post is dedicated as an introduction, whereas the second post will be the actual reading of the scroll.  The concept of a new Temple and a New Jerusalem is the reason for this scroll and I want to cover a little history before delving into the actual Scroll.

Of course the Old Testament has a number of references to a new Temple.  But only the New Testament (Ezekiel, Isaiah, Ezra and Tobit) has a reference to the New Jerusalem (Ezekiel and Revelation).  The Dead Sea Scrolls has an additional Scroll call the Temple Scroll that only deals with the New Temple itself.  What I want to do in this post is look at the other religious documents that relate to the Vision of a New Jerusalem.  These would be the five that I mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph.

The Book of Ezekiel was written between 593 and 565 BCE.  During this time Nebuchadnezzar and his armies destroyed the original Temple in 586 BCE, which Solomon built in 960 BCE.  Interestingly, when one does physical research on this “First Temple” there is not documentation (except the Bible) of it ever existing and worse is that there is no archeological proof that it existed either!¹  To add to this, even the Jewish Talmud claims that the Temple was not destroyed until 420 BCE.²  But if we should take Ezekiel at face value…his writings were either recorded as the Temple was destroyed or after the destruction.  One must keep in mind that the war between the Babylonians and the Israelites had been in progress since 597 BCE, prior to the recording of the Book of Ezekiel.  The chapters in the Book of Ezekiel of importance to this post are chapters 40 – 48.  Here Ezekiel has a vision of a new Temple surrounded by a new territory for the Israelite community.  As recorded in Ezekiel 45:1 the Temple grounds would be 25,000 cubits by 20,000 cubits (4.73 x 3.78 miles, 7.62 x 6.096 km) and the city itself would be an additional 4.48 sq. miles.  Yes that is right the temple would 8 times the size of the city of Jerusalem.  So the Temple plus the city would be 22.4 sq. miles, as big as Dover, Delaware, USA (the capital of that state)!  But 88% of the city would be devoted to the Temple.  The Levites would live in 11% of the city and the rest of Israel (the other 11 tribes) would have the remaining 11%.  This would be a very large city to cross by horse!  It is also the oddest organization of a city ever designed.  Most likely Ezekiel was fantasying about the good old days and exaggerated the size of the city.

This New Jerusalem’s design is almost as staggering as that proposed by John of Patmos who describes a city in the Book of Revelation.  In Rev 21:9-27, John of Patmos describes a city that is 1,350 x 1,350 miles in size.  That is nearly the entire area of the planet when the oceans have been removed (1,822,500 sq miles or 4,720,000 sq km)!  For a reference to this size: the USA is 9.6 million sq km and India is only 3.3 million sq km.  Heaven will be only half the size of the present day US.  I certainly hope there are not too many souls there!  India has become over populated at the present count of 1.2 billion people.

Two more of the references describe the dreams of the Israelite people and how they long for a splendor of the old days.  In the Book of Isaiah (Isa 54:11-12) the New Jerusalem is described as having layers on layers of fine jewels.

Isaiah 54:11-12 “O afflicted city, lashed by storms and not comforted, I will build with stones turquoise, your foundations with sapphires.  I will make your battlements of rubies, and all your walls of precious stones. 

Will we can certainly say that this Zion has never been built!  Earlier in this chapter two other promises from YHWH have still not been fulfilled either (Isaiah 54:3 or 8).   Reading this chapter it is quite obvious that Isaiah was describing an earthly kingdom.  Nothing of the description of the New Zion indicates a heavenly city.  It is beautifully written, and beautifully described but these three promises have not been fulfilled.  So we can be sure that these were fantasies of a misplaced society wishing for better days.  The other Old Testament reference is only found in the Catholic Bible. 

Tobit 14:5 And that again God will have mercy on them, and bring them again into the land, where they shall build a temple, but not like to the first, until the time of that age is fulfilled; and afterward they shall return from all the places of their captivity, and build up Jerusalem gloriously, and the house of God shall be built and it forever was a glorious building, as the prophets have spoken thereof.

The Book of Tobit was canonized in 397 AD.  So if it existed as an Old Testament book written by the Jewish people we have no proof of that.  So here we have a catholic writer pretending to be a Jewish writer wishing for the better Jerusalem.  Is it just me, being an Atheist that this sounds wrong?

One verse in the Old Testament does describe how the people of Israel were disappointed by the New Temple.  This would be from the Book of Ezra.  In verse 12 of that book it describes how the older members of the community wept bitterly for they knew that the New Temple was not what the prophets had described.  So here the bible explicitly indicates that the Second Temple was not the prophesied Temple of YHWH.  So even though an earthly temple was described by the prophets, as of this date no such temple has been built.  As an Atheist this would seem to be an unfulfilled prophecy, making it a false prophecy.  Yet to get around this problem, Christian apologist claim that the prophecy is related to a heavenly Jerusalem instead of an earthly one.  What a load a crap!

¹ D. Langmead and C. Garnaut (2001). Encyclopedia of architectural and engineering feats (3rd, illustrated ed.). ABC-CLIO, Inc. pp 314-319.

² Seder Olam Rabbah; An Ancient Post-exilic Judaic document written in the Hebrew language.

Posted in Contradictions, Vision of a New Jerusalem, Dead Sea Scroll, Inerrancy - My Ass, Tall Tales, Readings | Print | 1 Comment »

October 14, 2009, 9:59 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 21

This post will be the final post from the Gospel of John.  John does not write about the ascension of Jesus.  I will say more about this in the next paragraph.  He also writes a prophecy of Jesus that took place in his own lifetime…and just happens to have taken place before he wrote this Gospel.  That will be one of the major topics of this post.  The third most interesting thing that occurs in this Gospel is the number and locations of Jesus’ appearances after his crucifixion.  John, the only Apostle to be an eyewitness to everything that happened to Jesus, only records three visits. 

John ends his Gospel having left out the ascension of Jesus.  As far as John is concerned, this event, if it happened, was not import enough to record.  The other possibility is a John was not present at the ascension.  But it seems difficult to believe, since our only sources come from two men: John Mark (a follower of Peter while in Rome) and Luke (a follower of Paul).  In both these reports the ascension of Jesus is recorded as having happened in the presence of all the believers.  So what is John not include this very important Christian concept?  Why is it not important?  Of all the miracles, attributed to Jesus, is not the ascension of Jesus by far the most important?  It almost seems as if, the apostles themselves, either did not experience witnessing this, or but nothing about it!  It is only the followers of the original disciples that record this event.  Even the Gospel of Matthew does not record the event.  Relying on secondhand (or third hand) records seems very dangerous to the non-believer.  Stories always get manipulated, distorted, or exaggerated with extended retelling.  This seems to be the same case.

In the Gospel of John the prophecy and the death of Peter is record.  Unless, the death of Peter is a later addition, the date of writing this gospel can be insured to have occurred after Peter’s death in 67 AD.  As a result, recording a prophecy after the prophecy has occurred weakens the power of the prophecy.  Adding that this book was recorded some 35 to 40 years after the prophecy, the memory of the specific words Jesus used should be taken into account.  To make matters worse, our records of how and when Peter died are sketchy at best.  The truly are Traditions of Men and not sanctified holy script.

John ends his gospel with an interesting twist:

John 21:25 Jesus did many of the things as well.  If every one  of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.

This most certainly is an exaggeration.  Recording the events of a ministry that lasted less than four years would not create that many books.  But we are told:

John 21:24 This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down.  We know that his testimony is true.

This is a very odd addition to a personally written document.  Basically he is saying, since I wrote these down they must be true.  To  the non-believer, this is arrogant, this does not prove the trustworthiness of the document, and adds nothing to validate the testimony given in this Gospel.

To the non-believer these issues are not solved by faith.  They only add more confusion, lack of unity in the Gospels, and create more questions that cannot be answered.  If these Gospels were inspired by an all-powerful Holy Spirit it would seem that these problems would not have occurred.  If these Gospels were inspired by the loving YHWH, who wants everyone to believe, these problems would not occur.  Instead, we have different stories (not different perspectives), Tall Tales, differing accounts, disorganized chronology, and difficulty tracing Jesus’ actual route used in his ministries.  I do hope that I get the chance to make a full scale map showing an organized chronological description of Jesus’ ministries.  Unfortunately, it will be very difficult since only the Gospel of John describes the additional trips to Jerusalem.

This is my last post from the New Testament for the time being.  My next posts will be from the Dead Sea Scrolls.  I have still not decided which order I will present the scrolls that I want to focus on.  But They Will Include: the Book of Secrets, Charter of a Jewish Sectarian Association, Charter for Israel in the Last Days, the Book of Jubilees, Work with the citation of Jubilees, the Secret of the Way Things Are, and the Temple Scroll.  This may seem like a large number of documents to cover before I start back into the Nag Hammadi Library.  But no actuality, many of these scrolls are either very short or very fragmented.  The total number of pages covered in the seven scrolls is actually only 105 pages.  Many of the pages are introduction to the scrolls.  Since the meaning of the scrolls are not as complex as the gospels, and that print type is much larger than in the New Testament, the pages should not take that long.  In actuality, only the Charter of a Jewish Sectarian Association, the Book of Jubilees, Secret of the Way Things Are, and the Temple Scroll have any length to them at all. 

Posted in Contradictions, Gospel of John, Dead Sea Scroll, Traditions of Men, Tall Tales, Readings | Print | No Comments »

September 2, 2009, 6:47 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 10  

This passage is about the “Good Shepherd”.  Of course, this is also where the concept of Christians being the sheep is also reinforced, which is definitely not a good quality in humans.  Being like sheep leads to “like sheep to the slaughter”.  It indicates the gullibility of the human race to believe anything.  It indicates how humans can be lead by a strong voice to do anything without questioning the intent of the “Shepherd”.  This human characteristic has lead to 45,000 denominations in the Christian faith.  Most of the “Shepherds” of these denominations are the “thieves and robbers” that Jesus speaks about.  These “Shepherds” prey upon the human quality to not question even the most absurd statements.  If it is said with “Authority” the sheep will follow, even to the slaughter.

Even more telling in this passage is this verse:

John 10:3 The watchmen opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice.  He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.

Sheep are not intelligent enough to have freewill.  Those that the “Shepherd” has authority over follow him blindly.  But those sheep were also selected by the “Shepherd”.  The sheep did not choice which “Shepherd” they wanted.  This is more Biblical proof that those that are “saved” and those that belong to a different “Shepherd” are not chosen by human freewill.

But Jesus goes on.  He promises something that cannot be proven.  He claims that those who are his sheep will:

John 10:10 the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

There is no proof that “spiritual life” is granted by being a sheep in Jesus’ flock.  Even claiming that Jesus came back from the dead, we have no proof that following one particular “Shepherd” will lead us to eternal life.  From my own experience, I have attempted to follow numerous Southern Baptist congregations, one Presbyterian, and even the teachings of the Boston Church of Christ.  In all of those cases, the first thing that struck me was that each one taught a different Jesus.  They focused on different passages as the “most” important.  There was not “One Flock” but many different flocks.  It, of course, took me 22 years to explore those few options that presented themselves to me.  In one lifetime, one could never explore each and every Church that claims they are the way to salvation.  Even if one were to attempt to search, night and day without working, without eating, without staying in one location.  It might be true that one of them multiple churches in one of the multiple cities on this planet is the “Flock” that belongs to Jesus.  But unless a person is born in the right place, sent to the right city, has the opportunity to run into the right person, and has been taught from childhood that they must search for the right church, will there even be the slightest chance that an individual will find the mysterious “Flock”.  The “Flock” does not advertise their existence by either their actions or their doctrine.  Most advertise their hypocrisy with loud voices.  They show no compassion to the “lost”, they show that they do not believe in justice (but will use every means possible to eliminate justice), and they deny (vigorously) that geology, biology, chemistry, physics, and astronomy are false, yet at the same time gladly use the results of these sciences in their daily lives.  The computers that we use, the internet that connects us, the medicines and machines that keep us healthy and alive (beyond Natures limits), the light that we see at night by, even the electromagnetic signals we use to send television and radio waves to distant locations and a host of other simple observations prove that science is correct and cannot be denied.  Yet many of these “Flocks” demand that some form of voodoo science exists that invalidates all the science that provides humans with the ability to have raise us above being hunters and gathers.  Many the Amish are the True Flock!

Jesus goes even further with an un-provable promise, one that can never be affirmed.

John 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.

This is a whooper of a promise, and yet there is no validation of the promise!  Do we chemically die yet some un-measurable part of us survives?  But even more questions arise if this is the case.  The Buddhist philosophy also believes this, but instead of being judged by one supreme being, they believe that we are reincarnated!  So right there we have two different theories, neither one having any way of testing that describes what happens to this un-measurable quantity of our individual self.  Of course, the humanist/materialist has a completely different theory…that this un-measurable portion does not exist!  Since we can now measure things as small as a single atom (and under certain conditions even the things that make up the things that make up the atom (protons, elections, quarks, and neutrinos), if this un-measurable portion exists it is either smaller than an anything we have ever measured or not made from the physical world.  If, as the religious person claims, this un-measurable something is supernatural in essences and is not reincarnated, many questions are raised.  Where do these un-measurable things come from prior to each individual birth?  What are is this material made from?  How does this un-measurable thing interact with the physical world?  When does it attach itself to the individual life – at birth, at conception, at the age of accountability?  How does it remain attached to the physical body without any physical evidence?  When does it leave the physical body – when the heart stops the first time?  When the brain no longer functions?  Oddly, the Word of God is completely silent on these questions.

Jesus ends this passage telling the unbelieving Jews that even if they do not believe his words they should believe his miracles (John 10:38).  Yet today, we only have his recorded words, we are not give his miracles (except in written form) to trust that he is the Son of Man.  We see no blind man receiving sight (except a few through the act of medicine), we do not see healing of disease like AIDS, cancer, diabetes (except through the act of medicine), and we certainly do not see miracles such as curing the amputee or the effects of Thalidomide!  So we are stuck believing words that were written nearly 1900 years ago (and edited numerous time, with poorly translated versions, and in languages that have cultural and historical idioms) to relay on the salvation of this mystical magical un-measurable quaintly of human life (that no other species in the universe possesses).

Posted in Gospel of John, Tall Tales, Freewill, Readings | Print | 14 Comments »

August 23, 2009, 9:59 am by dc-agape.

John Chapter 6:1 - 24

Here we have the most harmonious story of Jesus prior to the Triumphant entry into Jerusalem.  In fact, this and one other passage (Jesus’ departure from Judea – Matt 4:12, Mark 1:14, Luke 3:19-20 and John 4:1-4) are the only things that all four Gospel mention prior to the end of Jesus’ ministry.  Now there is some harmony!  If we had anymore harmony I can’t imagine what it would look like!

The story is about Jesus feeding the 5,000 people Do not confuse this with the later story about feeding 4,000 people found in Matt 15:32-38 and Mark 8:1-9, which the Gospel of John does not bother to report.  Since I have already posted on this topic, I see no reason to repeat myself.  I will correct myself about “throwing the Gospel of John out”, at least John starts this story with “Sometime after this…” but the story is still problematic.  John claims that Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee, where as the Gospel of Mark says that he only moved down the shore a few miles.  Humans running around the Sea of Galilee would not be able to follow Jesus if he crossed the Sea, unless he traveled near the shore (which by definition is not crossing the Sea).  The depth and the width of the Sea would make it easy for the disciples to lose anyone following them.  8.1 miles is considered the distance to the horizon.  Seeing a small boat (12-18ft long) is limited by our limit of visibility, as described here.  By doing the math…the best vision would pick up the boat that the disciples were in at 3.8 miles distant, if visibility was unlimited that day, and the sun was not setting behind the viewer!  But we know that it was late in the day, meaning that the sun was in the western portion of the sky…behind the viewers.  This means that the people following Jesus had limited light to see the tiny boat crossing the Sea of Galilee.  In the end, either the Gospel of John was wrong (about crossing the Sea) or the Synoptic Gospels were wrong about traveling along the coast.

I have also posted on the story about Jesus walking on the Sea of Galilee.  When the story is repeated, even by different “points of view”, I attempt to cover the story in one post – to get the big picture.

Posted in Gospel of John, Contradictions, Tall Tales, Readings | Print | 4 Comments »

August 13, 2009, 6:56 am by dc-agape.

Exodus 39:32 – 40:38

We have come to the end of the Book of Exodus.   This last post on the Book of Exodus is rather anti-climatic.  From the “god-bias” it is supposed to be the exciting beginning journey of YHWH and his Israelites.  But actually, the Books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are just expansions on the stories in the Book of Exodus.  The Book of Exodus covers the first 80 years of Moses’ life and the other three Books cover his last 40 years.  This, of course, is also the 40 years the Israelites spent in the desert as punishment for the Golden Calf Incident.  Not until the Book of Joshua does the conquest and butcher of Canaan begin.

In the study notes the editors have added some spiritual guidelines/meanings to these passages as well.  But to an Atheist they seem rather patronizing.  Things like “Moses was so good because he did exactly what YHWH wanted”, seems like modern humans saying that their dog is so smart because he obeys their commandments!  The editors also add some mumbo-jumbo about “just like the creation story, the creation of the Tent of Meeting ends with ‘and it was completed’”.  The editors end with “how glorious it is that YHWH tents with the Israelites and leads them to the fulfillment of promises”.  This commentary completely ignores the Book of Judges, the divided Kingdom, the Exile, and the Books of the Minor Prophets.

From the Atheist point-of-view three main points are worth mentioning from this section of the Book of Exodus.  The time it took to finish the Tent of Meeting, Aaron’s descendents place in the future, and the process of moving from one place to another.  After a three month trip to Mount Sinai and a three month stint with Moses up with YHWH at the top of the Mount (1^st and 2^nd trips) it takes an additional six months to complete the Tent of Meeting.  The Israelites are camped at the foot of Mount Sinai for an entire year (minus 14 days).  YHWH makes it quite clear that Aaron’s sons will be priests for all generations to come.  This of course is not true.  And the movement from place to place is proscribed by YHWH presence in the Tent of Meeting, which just happens to keep Moses out of the Tent!

The people have already complained about food and water just in the first three months of the trip (Exodus 15:24, 16:3, and 17:2).  Now they are camped at the foot of Mount Sinai for nine months…with only manna to eat.  Today this region is home to less than 200,000 people and that is the entire Peninsula!  2,000,000 people just at the base of the mountain seems like quite a stretch of the imagination.   Further the addition of food stocks for the animals would make this a great exaggeration.  With an annual rain fall of less than 22.4 inches (570mm) per year, even the “miracles” that Moses performed in the first three months would not be enough for the entire camp for nine additional months.

The second thing that I want to point out from this section of the Book of Exodus is a specific verse that indicates, once again, that the Word of God is not completely true.  And of course, once even one verse is in error, how do you trust any of it?

Exodus 40:15 Anoint them just as you anointed their father, so they may serve me as priests.  Their anointing will be to a priesthood that will continue for all generations to come.

This is the Word of YHWH recorded in the Word of God by Moses himself!  Yet it claims that Aaron’s descendents will be priest for ALL generations.  This would indicate that YHWH had no plans to change the priesthood!  Yet Christians claim that Jesus took this place but we know that Jesus was not a descendent of Aaron (thanks to the Gospel of Matthew).  So a contradiction like this is at the core of the Christian faith.  The Bible says one thing in Exodus and yet in the Book of Hebrews (written by Barnabas or Apollos), – chapters 5 and 7 – uses Psalms 110:4 to claim that Jesus is a new priesthood.  Which leads to a schism between the “forever” that YHWH gave David and the “all generations to come” he gave to Aaron.  Christian apologist will of course, claim that YHWH does not change, yet this is a clear example of YHWH changing three times.  The first change is to make a permanent priesthood out of Aaron’s lineage.  The second change is to give this power to David’s lineage.  And the third change is to make it permanent in Jesus.  Apologist will also claim that these changes were planned ahead waiting for the time of Jesus.  What the apologist fail to do and possible ignore is that the Word of God uses words like “all generations to come” and “forever”.  Both of these words are permanent, which either leaves the translation of the Bible in error or leaves the Word of God in error.  For the first case, all English speakers are royally screwed if we cannot trust YHWH to ensure the proper translation of “his word” into our language.  In the second case, the entire Word of God becomes suspect!  And this, of course, is where Atheists find difficultly from the literal translation of the Word of God.

The final section that is of interest to an Atheist reading of the Bible is the last four verses of the Book of Exodus.  The most puzzling verse is this one:

Exodus 40:35 Moses could not enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled upon it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

When YHWH left the Tent of Meeting this was the sign of at least 40 years to get moving.  But why can Moses not enter the cloud now, yet was able to for numerous other occasions previously?  Also, why mention Moses’ ability to enter the Tent?  It was Aaron that was required to maintain the Tent of Meeting on a daily basis.  Remember Aaron was to light the Lamps (Chapter 27) and fill the Incense Altar (Chapter 30).  Aaron was also required to tend to the Table (Chapter 25).  Could Aaron enter the Tent of Meeting to accomplish his required duties?  So this section seems to be slightly skewed toward unimportant information.

Posted in Exodus, Contradictions, Traditions of Men, Inerrancy - My Ass, Tall Tales, Readings | Print | 10 Comments »

August 9, 2009, 1:55 pm by dc-agape.

Exodus 33:7 - 23

The beginning of this chapter is a little back history.  Prior to the instructions for the Tent of Meetings Moses had used a small tent of meeting.  So it was an up-grade from the altars of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel.  It was also an up-grade from the altar that YHWH commanded Moses to make from un-worked earth (Exodus 20:24-25).  But this tent of meeting was not inside the Israeli camp. 

Some issues occur with the concept of putting a tent outside the camp.  The Word of God tells us that all (2,000,000) Israeli would worship when Moses interred the tent outside the camp.  I have in past posts attempted to describe the size of this camp.  I have also explained that if there were 600,000 men (over the age of 20) then there were at least an equal amount of women and children.  What must also be added to this are the cattle, donkeys, sheep, and goats.  So Moses setting up a tent of meeting outside the camp meant that it had to be (giving each person even a 3’x3’ area (1m²) – on average – up to at least 1.25 miles (2 km) from some of the Israelites.   Yet all the Israelites stop what they were doing while Moses was in this tent.  Somehow, even with the “pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent” people could see that up to 2km away.  The other issue that tent brings up is that if everyone stopped to worship, camp routine would be disrupted.  How long did Moses stay in the tent of meeting and how often did he inter the tent?  Animals had to be tended, food had to be prepared, children had to be looked after and most important – sanitation had to be continually dealt with.  Disrupting camp routine numerous times a day or even a week would leave the camp in massive disarray.  Animals would die, children become lost, and waste would spread disease.  You would also think that after spending over 3 months in one location modern humans would find the refuse from this many people staying near Mount Sinai.

Joshua would remain in the tent at all times, except when he accompanied Moses to the top of Mount Sinai.  During the first 40 days that Moses was on Mount Sinai no one tended to the tent. I guess that since YHWH wasn’t there the tent was useless.  But we have no dimensions of this tent, was Joshua also in the presence of YHWH during this time, or was there two rooms in the tent so Joshua was separated from YHWH?

The second part of this chapter continues Moses argumentative character.  Moses nearly demands that YHWH tell him who will travel with the Israelites and guard them from enemies.  YHWH clearly tells Moses:

Exodus 33:14 The Lord replied, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

But for some reason this does not satisfy Moses:

Exodus 33:15 Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not do with us, do not send us up from here.

Moses goes on to demand answers to how other nations will know that YHWH is pleased with Moses, himself, and the Israelites if YHWH is not with them.  He even wants to know what will distinguish the Israelites from other nations.  (So would any Atheist todayJ)  But Moses becomes even more bold.  He demands to see the presence of YHWH.  This initiates a situation that has two interesting conclusions.  I will start with the second one.  YHWH promises to show Moses “all his goodness”, but with a hitch.  Moses will only be able to see YHWH from the rear, after YHWH has passed by the place where Moses is waiting.  The first situation is actually the most important, and I want to end on it:

Exodus 33:19 And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence.  I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.

Of course, Moses is only allowed to see the tail end of YHWH’s goodness, but at least he will hear YHWH name – Jealousy (Exodus 34:14) I mean Lord.  But that is not the point I wanted to make.  It is that second part of the verse that is important.  Notice how YHWH makes one thing clear:  he will choice who he has mercy on and who he will show compassion to.  This, to an Atheist, indicates that YHWH chooses who will be saved and who will go to hell.  Then, as a result, this verse means that humans, under Christianity or Judaism, do not have freewill.  There is no choice; YHWH decides who receives peace and who receives punishment.  How does this indicate a loving supernatural being?  Arbitrarily deciding who will be punished for eternity, because YHWH has chosen not to have mercy on a soul, is not a sign of love.

Posted in Contradictions, Exodus, Tall Tales, Freewill, Readings | Print | 9 Comments »

July 5, 2009, 7:00 am by dc-agape.

Exodus 16:1-36

The Israelites have been traveling for a month, with their children and herds towards Mt Sinai.  Now both Moses and Aaron know the way, because both of them were at the base of the mountain:

Exodus 4:27 The Lord said to Aaron, “Go into the desert to met Moses.”  So he met Moses at the mountain of God and kissed him.

Both men had travelled this way round trip.  They would have known were to get food and water.  But the problem was the number of people and animals in their community.

We also know that there were over 600,000 men that came out of Egypt (Numbers 1:44-46). 

Considering that most societies have a 1:1 ratio, there would be that many women as well.  To add to that there were children from the age of birth to 20.  And we cannot forget about the livestock!  That is for approximate numbering of mouths to fill…over 3,000,000 people and animals in a desert.  Two things come immediately to mind: food and water.

It is reported that 2.5L of water is a daily requirement for human life.  So daily the Israelites would need at least 6,000,000L of water…in a desert!  And no they weren’t hardier than today.  Even if they were they were in a desert!  This is a place where rain falls only 33mm – 200mm/year.   That’s about .2L of water in an entire year.  A liter of water weighs 2.2 lbs (1 kg).  Daily the Israelites would have had to find 6,000,000,000 grams of water.  In no way, shape or form could the Israelites carry enough water with them.  I do believe we have the beginnings of another Tall Tale.

Just as important is food.  On the first day of the second month of travel the Israelites begin to complain about hunger.  Here again, we must truly wonder if they were slaves in Egypt:

Exodus 16:3 the Israelites said to him, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt!  There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

This is the second time they have complained (Exodus 14:11-12) and even YHWH was worried they might want to return if they had to fight the Philistines (Exodus 13:17).  This is the third time that Egypt did not look so bad. And how many slaves do you know that owned livestock (Exodus 9:7)?  Just look at the size of the community that was slowly traveling through the Desert of the Sinai Peninsula.  Well, YHWH takes care of the food problem.  Once in 40 years he gives them quail but the rest of the time he gives them manna.  To be exact he gives them an omer per person per day.  An omer is 2.11 liters.  Doing the math again this would mean that over 6,000,000 liters of manna would have to be gathered each day.  Manna was described in the Word of God as:

Exodus 16:14 When the dew was gone, thin flakes like frost on the ground appeared on the desert floor.

Let’s be generous (very) and say that this manna was 0.5 cm thick…a cubic cm is one milliliter.  So these 6,000,000 liters of manna would have covered 12,000,000,000 cm² or 1.2 km².  And on the day before the Sabbath it would have to cover 2.4km².  That is doable, except that the manna could not be collected within the confines of the encampment…animal and human traffic and excrement, that kind of stuff.  The act of scrapping this off the desert floor without gathering too much dirt/sand would have been a time consuming activity.  This is somewhat reasonable until you think about the size of the camp that the Israelites had to make each night.  3,000,000 living beings would require a camp of at least 12 km² just for sleeping.  I would imagine that, since they did have cooking capabilities (Exodus 16:23) the camp had to be at least 24 km².  The people in the center of camp would have to travel up to 12 km just to get breakfast and then the whole group would move on to another spot.  I do believe we have a Tall Tale.

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June 27, 2009, 7:20 am by dc-agape.

Exodus Chapter 10:21-29

I have finally reached the one truly indescribable plague in this entire series.  Somehow Egypt was in darkness for three days.  Nothing in nature can produce this type of phenomenon.  But does that mean it really happened?

I believe in my post on the plagues that I have given well enough reasons to know that all these plagues may have been Tall Tales.  I believe that I have covered the possibility that Moses used the natural disasters to his benefit.  And I believe that I have also given good enough reasons to know that many errors have occurred in the retelling of these events. Should we believe that the darkness lasted for three full days?  Should we believe that the Egyptians could not light a torch and continue to carry on as if it was a normal, but extended, night?  But this is what the Word of God claims:

Exodus 10:23 No one could see anyone else or leave his place for three days.  Yet all the Israelites had light in the places where they lived.

This of course, adds one more mistake to a growing list.  For the very next verse claims that the Pharaoh summoned Moses:

Exodus 10:24 Then Pharaoh summoned Moses and said, “Go, worship the Lord.  Even your women and children may go with you; only leave your flocks and herds behind.”

If no one could see in Egypt, and no one could leave their houses, how did someone reach Moses to summon him and how did Moses reach the palace of the Pharaoh?  The Word of God clearly states that lights were only available in Goshen!  So without a doubt here is another error in the Word of God.

I will end this reminding my readers that here again YHWH took freewill from the Pharaoh:

Exodus 10:27 But the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart, and he was not willing to let them go.

If anyone claims that we have freewill and that YHWH exists they are making a contradiction.  YHWH had planned these events from the time of Abram, he controlled the entire nation of Egypt and Israel so that these things would be able to occur.  From each and every birth, to the natural disasters that forced Jacob to move to Egypt, and all the way to hardening the Pharaoh’s heart, YHWH controlled every little event required for these plagues to take place.  This would include formation of the Red Tide that turned the water to “blood” and all the consequences of that single natural phenomenon.  It would also include allowing the Egyptians to “sin” against YHWH so that he could “punish” them.  And it would also include the cold blooded murder of millions of Egyptian people, livestock, and crops.  This combination of events proves without a single lingering doubt that if YHWH existed, Satan is the good guy!

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June 21, 2009, 6:32 am by dc-agape.

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Exodus Chapter 7:13-24

Because YHWH has hardened the heart of Pharaoh (Exodus 7:3) the last bit of simple sorcery did not work (7:11-12).  Now the Tall Tale gets even Taller.  Moses and Aaron leave, but YHWH tells them to return to the Pharaoh the next day.  Again, why would a ruler of close to 4,000,000 people even see someone that belongs to the slave ranks and second has already had their case dismissed as lacking any merit. 

The very first of YHWH unjustified plagues nearly kills everyone in Egypt including the Israelites, the first proof that this is a Tall Tale.  Moses tells Aaron to turn all the water in Egypt to blood, even the water stored in the homes.  To make matters worse, all the fish in the Nile also die.  So the innocent people, including the Israelites have lost two sources of sustenance in a desert nation: water and fish.  This, of course, would also ruin the crops for the entire season.  So in one miraculous act, YHWH has basically wiped out the Israelites and the Egyptians, neither of which have been treated justly by YHWH.  Two additional things about this make it quite clear that this is a Tall Tale.  But here is where the Word of God has an error:

Exodus 7:22 But the Egyptian magicians did the same thing by their secret arts, and the Pharaoh’s heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord said.

If Aaron had already turned all the water into blood, how could the magicians repeat the act?  There was no water left to turn into blood!  But here is the second thing that makes this a Tall Tale:

Exodus 7:24 And all the Egyptians dug along the Nile to get drinking water, because they could not drink the water from the river.

As we all know too well about water pollution, it seeps into the ground water!  The Egyptians and the Israelites could not have dug along the Nile for water, for this too would have been tainted with blood.

Is there anything about this Tall Tale that actually makes YHWH look good?  From the Atheist point of view the answer is a resounding: No!  YHWH has already chosen to perform these acts, by of all things, removing freewill from the Pharaoh.  Worse, he punishes millions of people, including the Israelites, with his very first plague.  How many people died from this single cruel action?  Their food supply was either dead (the fish) or ruined (the plants).  To top that off they had no water to drink…in a desert environment!  If this is not complete fiction, YHWH is a worse tyrant than any of the old polytheist one combined.

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June 20, 2009, 6:58 am by dc-agape.

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Exodus Chapter 6:28-7:13

Again Moses and Aaron seek an audience with the Pharaoh.  The Pharaoh must have been in a magnanimous mood, he has already dismissed their claim.  This is beginning to look a lot like a Tall Tale.  Why would a ruler of nation the size of Egypt allow slaves in this presence twice?  Especially when these slaves are despicable to him (Gen 46:33-34) and lazy (Exodus 5:17).  But for now, the story is about how Moses and Aaron continue to make their way in to see the Pharaoh. 

The actual end of chapter six is a reminder that Moses complained to YHWH about his speaking abilities.  YHWH response to this and the subsequent diatribe is quite damning to the concept that the rest of the story is anything but an arbitrary supernatural being wrecking havoc on innocent people.  First, YHWH makes Moses “God to the Pharaoh”, and “Aaron will be your prophet”.  The Egyptians worshipped their leaders like gods; hence each of the rulers of Egyptian was treated like gods.  To make Moses a god to a god was audacious to say the least.  But it is the third and fourth verses in this chapter that seals the fact that this is about YHWH and not about freeing the Israelites or about sin:

Exodus 7:3-4 But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt, he will not listen to you.  Then I will lay my hand on Egypt and with mighty acts of judgment I will bring out my divisions, my people the Israelites.

You see YHWH has already decided that he will perform each and every one of the ten hideous acts of plagues.  He had already decided the fate of 3 – 4 million people.  These ten acts of terrorism were not because the Pharaoh was cruel; it was because YHWH was cruel.  YHWH hardened the heart of the Pharaoh so that he could dole out punishment that was not justified!  All the following mayhem was to glorify an egotistical supernatural being.

But before YHWH starts throwing nuclear bombs on the innocent population of Egypt, we have a humorous interlude.  The first trick that Moses and Aaron attempt to impress the Pharaoh with, even though YHWH has already hardened his heart, is a complete failure.  Moses tells Aaron to turn his staff into a snake, and it happens!  That’s pretty great right?  Well, the Pharaoh’s magicians can do the same thing; stalemate.  The only small triumph is that Aarons snake eats the other snakes.  In the end with that little bit of sorcery nothing changes, because YHWH has already hardened the Pharaoh’s heart.

Now one other thing should be pointed out.  We are finally told Moses age as to when this all began.  He was 80 years old.  That in of itself is not important.  What is important is that for the last 80 years the slavery has been enforced and we can assume that the young boys are still being killed!  Nowhere does it say that the Pharaoh has rescinded the order that caused Moses to be put in the Nile!  The male population of the Israelites must be shrinking rapidly; slave life is not conducive to long life.  This whole story is looking more and more like a Tall Tale and Traditions of Men.

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