The Bible and Circular Logic
If you ask a Christian why they believe in God, they will tell you, usually, very blatantly, "because the Bible tells me so." You might then ask why they believe what the Bible tells them, and, usually, they will tell you because the Bible is written by men inspired by God. So you ask, "how do you know they were inspired by God and not just making things up?" They will tell you that they have faith in God that the Bible is what they think it is.
Do you see the circular logic here? You can't say: "This book is true because it tells me it's true."
Let's say you come across two people, one of them is a liar and one of them can only tell the truth. You ask both of them if they are liars, and both of them tell you no. How do you know which one of them is the liar?
The answer, simply, is that you cannot know. And it is similar with the Bible. Christians have a faith in the Bible because the Bible tells them to have faith. That's not enough for me. I cannot take the word of men who claim to be truth tellers and have faith that they are what they say they are. I do not have faith in men, and therefore, I do not have faith in their God.
It all comes down to a choice. To believe or not to believe. I choose not to believe.
If the Bible is True
Would I be a God fearing man if the Bible is true? Yes. Yes, I would be. Would I submit to Him, bow down, and worship Him? No. This God is no friend of mine.
Slavery
For one, I wouldn't befriend a fellow human for keeping slaves, why would I befriend an omnipotent being, whose morals are supposed to be greater than mine, for not only allowing slavery, no, not just that, but condoning it. I have seen that many Christians will argue that God did not condone slavery, and that the slaves spoken of in the Bible were actually servants. Well, I call bullshit and I can prove it within the context of the Bible itself. Clearly we already agree that a servant and a slave are two different things. If that is true, then consider the following passages from Leviticus, Chapter 25:
39. ‘And if one of your brethren who dwells by you becomes poor, and sells himself to you, you shall not compel him to serve as a slave.
40. ‘As a hired servant and a sojourner he shall be with you, and shall serve you until the Year of Jubilee.
(If you are skeptical about context, please go and read it for yourself, and if you don't have a Bible, I use Blue Letter Bible, where you can search using almost any English translation of the Bible. I am using the New King James Version, for clarity; however, you will find much the same written in other translations.)
So what you see in the two verses above is where God is commanding not to take your brethren as a "slave," but to take them as a "hired servants." You can see here that even the Bible distinguishes between what is a slave and what is a servant. Now that that has been established, let's move on to where God's law shows a condoning of slavery. We are still in Leviticus Chapter 25.
44. ‘And as for your male and female slaves whom you may have—from the nations that are around you, from them you may buy male and female slaves.
45. ‘And you may take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them as a possession; they shall be your permanent slaves. But regarding your brethren, the children of Israel, you shall not rule over one another with rigor.
Within this context, you will see that the "brethren" mentioned in verse 39 is a child of Israel from verse 45. This conclusion is reached within context where "brethren" are not to be slaves, and the children of Israel are not to be ruled by each other.
What exactly is it saying? You may have slaves and keep them forever, as long as they are not Israeli.
If you doubt what I say, because, lo, I am but a man, please, go read this for yourself. In fact, read it in multiple versions of the Bible. Use KJV, ESV, NIV, whatever. They all say the same thing, as long as you read it in the context it has been written.
World Domination, Holocaust, and Infanticide
Yeah. I'm going there. So let's forget about the notion that if God doesn't have His way with you, He will send you to a fiery prison for eternity. That's bad enough as it is. Instead, let's talk about God's other atrocities.
Like the flood, Genesis Chapter 6:
5. Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
7. So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
Wait, wait, wait. Let's break away for a second... Sorry that He made them? Let's go back a little bit, back to Genesis Chapter 1:
24. Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so.
25. And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
31. Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
So everything was good, but He later says He is sorry for having made them? My apologies, I had to follow that path of contradiction. Was it good or wasn't it? Anyway.
God decides to kill everyone because they're not doing what He wants them to be doing. Also, why not kill EVERYTHING, not just humans, but animals as well, because the people aren't doing what God wants them to do. And let's face the fact the Bible outlines for us time and again: anything God doesn't want you to do is defined as wickedness and sin. Christians proclaim, "My God is a jealous god." Why is that something to be proud of. Sounds like a selfish prick to me.
Let's further this massacre study.
Now again, you can do your own research, and I suggest that you do, but if I did it for you, it would take me a full year to research and write everything, and then I would have to publish it, so that would take another one to two years, and then you'd have to buy it, which you wouldn't, so I'm just going to give you bits and pieces here, and if you want to confirm or try to refute, you can follow me down the rabbit hole.
Read 2 Samuel, Chapter 12, and you will find where God kills David and Bathsheba's baby. Abortion anyone? And this is outside of the womb. You could argue that God killed the baby because it was born of David's sin, and I would call you a lunatic because what direction does your moral compass point to make you say, "Kill David's baby instead of David, even though David is the one who did wrong."
Hosea 13
16. Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.
Woah.
1 Samuel 15
3. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
At this point, there are no words, and there are so many more verses that show God's countless crimes against humanity. The very humans that, according to the Bible, He created, and of whom He said referring to humans and the rest of His creation alike: "[...] it was very good." Now of course, you may say that these were people that acted against God, but can you say the same for all of the children he kills? The infants and sucklings? Like I said, it's bad enough God will punish everyone who does not claim Him by sending them to Hell, but He decides to kill people as a punishment, and then, oh hey, Hell is your second punishment. Fantastic.
Finally, according to prb.org, the estimated number of people to ever have lived on the earth is 107,602,707,791... give or take a few trillion. According to the Bible, God created these people. This unimaginable number of people. How many of them do you think are going to Heaven according to the Bible's standards? Half? Probably not. Third? Not likely. Quarter? Maybe less. I mean, I don't know, and neither do you, but it's intriguing to think that regardless of what number you come up with, if you subtract the portion that might go to Heaven... the remaining number is the amount that would be subjected to Hell.
Are there any parents out there that could do this to their children? Because that's what the Bible says we are to God. "We cannot understand the ways of God" is not a good excuse. If God can send his children to an eternity of cruel and unusual punishment, what kind of parent does that make Him. Having been created in God's image and likeness, would you not think that the emotions expressed by God would be paramount when compared with ours? If that is so, then He could never send anyone to Hell, because you know you wouldn't send your own child. Even if you were so unfortunate to have Hitler as your offspring. Is eternity just? At first you might say yes, but I really want you to think about eternity for a moment. Eternity. Forever. Infinite. Never ending. Even Hitler does not deserve that, and neither do you.
Conclusion
I have only scratched the surface for you here. There is so much more for you to discover. Perhaps having you read this and for you to do your own research, your faith will be tested and you will find further strength in God.
Or you will experience the awful fall from faith I did, and it will hurt when you hit the ground. But you will get up, your eyes will open, and you will be born again. I know saying that may be offensive, but it's not the kind of born again that the New Testament offers. It's having to restructure your thoughts and place in life due to the overwhelming influence of the lies the church has spoon fed you for however long. You have to face the idea that maybe when you die, that's all that happens. Your consciousness ceases to exist. Or maybe it lives on in another form, because I am not opposed to the idea of life after death or a higher being(s) or even perhaps a One True God. All I know is that I do not know.
I do not believe the Bible is true.
If it is, I do not believe God is moral or just in deserving of my faith. I would not take sides with Hitler or Stalin, why would I take sides with someone who has committed potentially far more crimes against humanity?
And maybe there is a god. And if there is, I hope it is nothing like the God of the Bible.
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