WWFStern

Because I think it is a good argument for atheism (or simply a good argument for being anti-God) whether you believe the Bible to be reliable or not, I'll quote the Scripture:

Now the LORD had said to Moses, "I will bring one more plague on Pharaoh and on Egypt. After that, he will let you go from here, and when he does, he will drive you out completely. Tell the people that men and women alike are to ask their neighbors for articles of silver and gold." (The LORD made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people, and Moses himself was highly regarded in Egypt by Pharaoh's officials and by the people.)
So Moses said, "This is what the LORD says: 'About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. There will be loud wailing throughout Egypt-worse than there has ever been or ever will be again.
Exodus 11:1-6

Rather than simply smacking the Pharaoh upside the head for refusing to let the Jews go free, God instead chose to brutally slaughter every firstborn son in Egypt. This, of course, was after already turning the sea water to blood, thereby killing all the innocent fish, as well as afflicting the livestock with pestilence, in addition to other such acts of goodwill and charity.

What did the poor slave girl do to warrant her firstborn son being butchered? Did the slave girl set the Pharaoh's policies? Did the slave girl's firstborn son set the Pharaoh's policies? To me, God seems to be shifting the blame from its rightful shoulders (those of the Pharaoh and his minions) to a whole mass of innocent people.

Even if the Christian God does exist, I staunchly refuse to worship such a ruthless, evil, violent deity. Indeed, I would scorn such a breathtakingly cruel God were I to believe the deity existed.
:angry:

offa

the history of judeo/christian ethics is deplorable. A poll does not solve anything (did you have "none of the above" listed?). Moses was never in Egypt, his Egypt was a la-la land (I sputter) but you have to get the point.

EssEff

Certainly calls into question the supposed "Culture of Life" of the so-called Christians.

WWFStern

I certainly do not believe the Moses story either. In fact, I strongly doubt Moses ever even existed as a historical person.

Here is some information about Moses from Wikipedia.com...

"The school of skeptics called Biblical minimalism, whose views are commonplace among academics, suggest Moses never actually existed as a historical figure, and the events of Exodus, uncorroborated, are the products of pure myth. There is no extra-biblical evidence that Moses existed as a historical person."

"Several professors of archeology claim that many stories in the Old Testament, including important chronicles about Moses, Solomon, and others, were actually made up for the first time by scribes hired by King Josiah (7th century BC) in order to rationalize monotheistic belief in Yahweh. Evidently, the neighboring countries that kept many written records, such as Egypt, Assyria, etc., have no writings about the stories of the Bible or its main characters before 650 BC. Such claims are detailed in "Who Were the Early Israelites?" by William G Dever, William B Eerdmans Publishing Co, Grand Rapids, MI (2003). Another such book by Neil A Silberman and colleagues is "The Bible Unearthed", Simon and Schuster, New York (2001)."

"It is important to note that to date there is no historical mention of the enslavement of Jews by Egypt or of their rescue in any capacity by any person outside of The Bible. There is no archeological evidence that any group of people, much less one of about 600.000 people, wandered a desert for 40 years. Biblical purists chalk this up to the fact that Egypt eliminated any type of failures from their history and did not make records of such events, and surely the loss of a group of slaves would have been viewed as a failure."

To me, this seems to be the final nail in the Moses myth's coffin.

Clearly, the God of this Bible story does not wish to engender a culture of life. On the contrary, the God of this Bible story appears to be a bloodthirsty butcher who is more than happy to shift the blame from its rightful shoulders onto the shoulders of innocent people, and then proceed to slaughter those innocent victims without a bit of remorse. That sounds to me an awful lot like a sociopathic serial killer, and seems to be the antithesis of Omnibenevolence.

offa

Here is some information about Moses from Wikipedia.com...

Umm, this is the infidels. We have to cut away from dogma.

offa

WWFStern

Wow, judging by the response to this poll thus far, not a lot of goodwill toward God with respect to this Biblical passage. Seems that, among this crowd, savage butchery of innocent children isn't something to be worshipped, but rather, disdained. How commendable.

offa

Wow, judging by the response to this poll thus far, not a lot of goodwill toward God with respect to this Biblical passage. Seems that, among this crowd, savage butchery of innocent children isn't something to be worshipped, but rather, disdained. How commendable.

My response is goodwill to those silly persons that believe in spooks. Currently the Chinese and the Japanese are squabbling over "The Rape of Nanking", about Japanese soldiers using Chinese girls as sex-toys, then, after a guantlet of being raped, the girls were strangled. What the Japanese did in comparison to what GOD's people did is minute. But, who really gives a damn?

offa

Darth Dane

Isaiah 45:

7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

It seems God is both...

WWFStern

...and therefore NOT omnibenevolent...

Triona

No, that specific passage shows little about his lack of ethics. I got rid of my bible years ago, but I do recall that there is a passage somewhere in that area where Yahweh explains that his plan is to make sure the Pharoah doesn't let the Israelites go so that he (Yahweh) can torture the Egyptian people with his "wonder" and "power". That shows how truly despicable that creature is. What sane and rational being with a single ounce of compassion or empathy would create such a situation?

~Karen