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Tuesday, March 10, 2015

The View of God from my Anti-theist Bridge: Message

The essence of good communication one could argue is to create a straightforward link of understanding without ambiguity.
The messages allegedly sent from God, as manifested in the Bible and peer publications, are often unclear and contradictory, both within and between the collective religious tomes. It would seem that continual interpretations need to be given by those who ‘know what God really thinks’. How lucky we are to have them. The irony is, after ‘translation’, the messages become the utterances of Man himself … but of course, we suspected this already.
I think Richard Dawkins hit the nail on the head in The God Delusion: “To be fair, much of the Bible is not systematically evil but just plain weird, as you would expect of a chaotically cobbled-together anthology of disjointed documents, composed, revised, translated, distorted and 'improved' by hundreds of anonymous authors, editors and copyists, unknown to us and mostly unknown to each other, spanning nine centuries” 
Sam Harris interviewed by Big Think (4/7/2007) alluded to the absurdity of a Creator God delivering, through a prophet, the Great Book, full of Iron Age barbarism and superstition. God is clearly a questionable author, never having addressed the fact that moral landscapes and practices change over time and a Book that is set in stone, having no revisions, will become out-of-date. There is a lot of information on sacrificing animals and keeping slaves, but absolutely nothing about electricity, DNA or infectious diseases. Sam sums up: “This (the Bible) is not a candidate book”.
Christian apologist Professor John Lennox in answer to the question “Surely you don’t take the bible literally?” responded “Some atheists (and a few Christians) have a very black and white idea of how to interpret the Bible. You either have to take it 'literally' or chuck it away, they think. That ignores the reality of language and how it reflects truth.” Lennox I believe is reinforcing the earlier point that the ‘good books’ are not the best didactic tools.
However, consider Deuteronomy 20:13-15 (NIV):
13   When the Lord your God delivers it (the conquered city) into your hand, put to the sword all the men in it.
14   As for the women, the children, the livestock and everything else in the city, you may take these as plunder for yourselves. And you may use the plunder the Lord your God gives you from your enemies.
15   This is how you are to treat all the cities that are at a distance from you and do not belong to the nations nearby.
The message here is quite clear. What possible interpretation of this is there other than they are the words of a sadistic, vindictive and uncivilised God?

To give the Bible its due, it is a significant, important literary work that has had a marked effect on mankind. As an instruction manual for life, as some would have it be, to say that it leaves a great deal to be desired is a true understatement.


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