Man vs. God

Even during my childhood when I whole-heartedly believed in God, I knew that something was a little bit off when Christians would answer a question pertaining to their religion. There was always something missing; something to be desired. Usually an answer was something like “because that’s God’s will” or “God works in mysterious ways”. Clearly, both of those answers are just nice ways of saying “well, I have no idea because it doesn’t make sense”, but the answer that I hated to hear more than those two are “because that’s what the bible says”.

Whenever someone of the Christian faith is asked a question about their beliefs, they point to the bible. Christianity is the way it is because the bible says so. Christians believe what they believe because the bible tells them to. And why is the bible so important? Well obviously the bible is so important because it’s the word of God. But here’s the thing: it isn’t.

God didn’t write the bible. Man wrote the bible. This is a historical fact.  Yeah, sure, these men may have claimed that they were communicating the words of God but were they really? What do you do when someone you’ve never met tells you that God speaks to them? You don’t sit down and listen and take the guys word for it. You acknowledge that the man is crazy and you go on your way. So why would you take the bibles word for it?

Well, most people take the bible’s word for it because most people believe that the bible is the word of God.  People believe that the bible is the word of God because either someone told them that it was (usually a parent or religious leader of some sort) or because the bible itself says that it’s the word of God. There are so many things wrong with this logic that I don’t even know where to begin when tearing it apart.

By this logic, God told some guys to write a book about Him and essentially what he demanded of the human race. He told them how humans should live and how they should worship Him. Now, I’m no expert here but isn’t God all-powerful? He can’t write his own goddamn book? He needed men to do it? And for that matter, why didn’t he just tell everyone what he wanted? If he can talk to a select few, I’m sure he would have the power to talk to everyone all at once. After all, he listens to everyone at once doesn’t he?

 So we have this book written by man claiming to be the words of God, and that’s all fine and good, but what can we take from it to be true? Surely if it’s truly the word of God, we have to take everything in it to be true. But if it’s simply man’s interpretation of God’s word, there must be room for error, and so what can we take as true or false?

 

It’s common for bible-thumpers to throw around anti-gay passages from the bible in an effort to convince people that homosexuality is wrong. They say it’s an “abomination”. The bible says so after all, so it must be true. Well if that’s the case, let me share with you one of my personal favorite passages from the bible…

"Of the animals that live in the sea or in a river, if the animal has fins and scales, you may eat it. But whatever lives in the sea or in a river and does not have fins and scales -- including the things that fill the water and all other things that live in it -- you should hate. You must not eat any meat from them or even touch their dead bodies, because you should hate them. You must hate any animal in the water that does not have fins and scales."

Leviticus 11:9-12

Yep. All you shrimp-eaters out there are going to hell. The bible says that you can’t do it and you still went out and did it anyways? Not good. I bet you didn’t even know that was in the bible huh? That’s because man has no hidden agenda against shrimp or lobsters. But many men have an irrational fear and hate of homosexuals, so they’re quick to quote the bible on that.

I guess my point here is that even if God is real (which he’s not), and really did inspire the words of the bible (which he didn’t), you can’t take everything that the bible says to be true. If you’re going to take some of it to be true, then you have to take all of it to be true. You can’t just pick and choose to your liking. If you look at some passages from the bible and think “wow, that’s ridiculous”, what makes you think that anything else in the bible is any more credible?

For now, I’ll leave you with some of my favorite passages from God’s book (with a few comments of my own)

If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear. -- Deuteronomy 21:18-21            Killing children is very Christian-like.

And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat. -- Leviticus 26:16

Christians don’t just kill their children, they eat them too! How very green of them. Wasting is a sin you know…

Exodus 31:13-15
Six days my work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.

Ever work on Sunday? Dead.

Well, that’s all for now. There are countless passages from the bible that are ridiculous and laughable but I’ll leave them to another blog post. So tell me, what’s YOUR favorite passage from the bible? What are your thoughts on my post? I want to know!