Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am doing the Lord's work.

Adolf Hitler

Robert G. Ingersoll, the great nineteenth century agnostic and philosopher, put it succinctly when he said, "Somebody ought to tell the truth about the Bible!" The Bible, characterized by many as that "most uniquely consistent of all books," is, in reality, a horrible story of murder, torture, rape, incest and genocide. The law of Moses, i.e., the Moasic code, is male supremacist, patriarchal and, above all, requires blind obedience to a deity who, as it turns out, is often immature, fickle and inconsistent. The blood of innocent victims drips from practically every page. It is filled with the most repulsive atrocities all of which are committed in the name of God

Killing, much of it nothing more than senseless murder, is just business as usual in the Bible, euphemistically known as the "Good Book" . The unvarnished truth is that killing, or the threat of killing, most of it totally irrational, occurs unabated throughout the Bible from Genesis through Revelation. In fact, the notion that the Bible is a perfect guide to morality is nothing short of ludicrous, given the contents of the book. Human sacrifice, genocide, slavery, and misogyny are consistently celebrated. The oft quoted sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," is routinely and consistently ignored.

In about half the versions I consulted the word "kill" in the sixth commandment (Ex. 20:13) has been changed to "murder." This amounts to a significant revision. Kill is an umbrella term covering all cases, whereas murder is more narrowly defined. Forbidding murder creates much less of a problem for the Bible believer, hence the change. This revision helps them, of course, but they are by no means off the hook. Need I remind them that Moses, a man after God's own heart, was a murderer (Ex.2:12) never brought to justice for his crime. However, God, himself, is the most notorious murderer of them all. In fact, the Holy Bible is full of draconian laws and edicts demanding excessive and unjust punishment, much of it whimsical, arbitrary and totally unjustified, as we shall see.

Biblical killing begins early in Genesis 4 when Cain, the first born son of Adam and Eve, murdered his younger brother Abel. But why would Cain do such a thing, you ask? Well, it seems that when Cain, a tiller of the soil, and Abel, a keeper of the flocks, dutifully brought their offerings to God, as was required. He accepted Abel’s offerings but for reasons that remain unknown spurned Cain’s. As a result, Cain was understandably upset and angry. So, in a fit of uncontrollable jealousy and resentment he killed Abel (Gen. 4:8). Now strictly speaking one would have to acknowledge Cain’s culpability in this matter. But shouldn’t God, who is said to be omniscient as well as omnipotent, bear part of the blame? After all didn’t He set the whole thing up with an irresponsible act of capricious favoritism?

Consider the story of the great flood (Genesis 7), the most appallingly inhumane record of murder and genocide in history. If we are to take this story seriously, and many Christians do in spite of its obvious absurdity, it must be recognized that, except for Noah and his immediate family, God deliberately murdered every man, woman and child on earth including fetuses some of whom had to have been viable. He also killed practically all of the animals to say nothing of plant and insect life all of which had to have been completely wiped out. However, another baffling aspect of this irrational story is that aquatic life apparently went untouched. Did God just forget about it? For more information on this subject see The Myth of the Great Flood on this web site.

The story of the tenth plague (Ex.11 and 12) is perhaps the most shameful in this book of shame. In it God calls Moses aside and tells him that, "About midnight I will go into the midst of Egypt. All of the firstborn of Egypt will die, from the first born of Pharaoh (don't forget that Moses grew up under the care and protection of Pharaoh's court) even to the firstborn of the maidservant who is behind the millstones and all the firstborn of the beasts" (Ex.11:4-5).

In addition to this story's general repugnance, deliberately specifying such individuals as the maidservant underscores God's indiscriminate cruelty since she could have in no way influenced Pharaoh's policy toward the Israelites. Also, why take it out on the beasts? But while the Israelites dined securely behind their blood-smeared doors, not Moses, not an "angel of death," but God Himself went about the dreadful business of murdering all of the firstborn of Egypt (Ex.12:29). It should be noted that Egyptian history of this period makes no mention of such a traumatic event or anything else recorded in the Book of Exodus. This and other evidence has lead Bible scholars to declare the Book of Exodus to be fiction and nothing more.

Genesis 9:6 ~ Whosoever sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made He man. This is the verse used to justify the death penalty

Genesis 9: 22-26 ~ And Ham, the second of Noah's three sons and the original ancestor of the Cushites (Ethiopians), the Egyptians and the Canaanites (Gen. 10:6,) saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness. And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren." Not only does this passage promote racial discrimination, it condone human slavery. In the period just prior to the secession of the southern states, this passage, referred to as "The curse of Ham," was frequently cited as a justification for slavery because Ham was considered to have had black skin (see Holman Bible Dictionary).

Genesis 19:26 ~ Because he disapproved of their lifestyle, God murdered all of the people in Sodom and Gomorrah except Lot and his family. But he whimsically turned Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt thus murdering her simply because she couldn’t resist a natural impulse - looking back. This brings up a nagging question. Gen. 19:26 clearly states that she was behind Lot. Therefore in order to have been aware of his wife's terrible fate, wouldn't he also had to have looked back?

Genesis 38:7 ~ Er, Judah's first born, was wicked in the eyes of the Lord, so the Lord murdered him.

Genesis 38:8-10 ~ Because he refused to impregnate his widowed sister-in-law, God murdered Onan.

Exodus 19:5-6 ~  God orders Moses to tell the Israelites, "If you obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession out of all the people. Indeed, the whole earth is mine, but you shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation." So, here again we have a blatant appeal to racism and exclusivity.

Exodus 19:12-13 ~ Whosoever toucheth Mount Sinai shall be put to death whether it be beast or man. Why such an obviously paranoid fear? Well, perhaps it's to keep the people from discovering the hoax just as any theatrical magician would understandably attempt to prevent. But, why include the beats?  Also, how about the traveler who when passing through the land didn’t know one mountain from another?

Exodus 21 ~ In addition to the general condoning of the infamous institution of human slavery, detailed instructions are given in this chapter for selling female family members into slavery.  In that regard, see verses 1 through 11.

Exodus 21:15 ~ He that smiteth his father or his mother, shall surely be put to death. No allowance is made for self defense. 

Exodus 21:17 ~ He that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death. This one would wipe out practically the entire pre-teen population.

Ex. 22:2-3 ~ "If a thief be found breaking in, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him. If the sun be risen upon him, there shall be blood shed for him; for he should make full restitution: if he have nothing, then he shall be sold (into slavery) for his theft." This one defies logic. It says that when a burglar is caught breaking in and is fatally beaten, there shall be no charge of manslaughter against the ones who killed him, unless, it happened after dawn, in which case there is manslaughter. One can readily understand why this law is not quoted, since the time of day would have little or no relevance to whether or not a killing was manslaughter. What difference does the time of day make? If the thief is slain at night, it's OK, however, if he is slain in daytime it's manslaughter.

Exodus 22:18 ~ Thou shall not suffer a witch to live! So, God, that awesome creator of the universe and all that's in it, believes in witches although he never gets around to defining the concept. But that aside, this one little sentence composed of eight one-syllable words stands directly responsible for the imprisonment and execution of thousands of innocent women most of whom were old, indigent and defenseless. Ain't God good?

Exodus 22:19 ~ The man who lieth with a beast shall be killed. This one would probably do away with almost all farm boys.

Exodus 22:20 ~ "He that sacrificeth unto any god save unto the Lord (Yahweh,) he shall be utterly destroyed". This one speaks for itself.

Exodus 31:15 ~ Whoever does any work on the Sabbath will be killed. Would anyone care to see this one enforced today?

Exodus 35:2 ~ Here the "caught working on the Sabbath" death sentences repeated apparently for emphasis.

Leviticus 11:7-9 ~  This one does away with football because it forbids touching the carcass of a pig. It also forbids the eating of shrimp, oysters, scallops, catfish, lobster, crabs and mud bugs.

Leviticus 18:7 ~ The nakedness of thy father . . . shalt thou not uncover. Yet in Genesis 19:30-36 we learn that in order to preserve his seed, Lot made his two daughters pregnant. It worked! Apparently this act of incest was okay with God.

Leviticus 18:22 ~ God forbids homosexual acts between men thereby justifying homophobia. Although Mosaic law never mentions lesbianism, one can be sure that the Bible writers expected their masculine nouns and pronouns to be interpreted generically, especially where punishment is concerned. Here it should be noted that King James I of England, the patron of the King James Bible, which is so highly esteemed by evangelical Christians and so widely distributed by the Gideon Bible Society, was a homosexual who, when he tired of them, had his young male lovers murdered. He also victimized countless "heretics" and women while justifying his despicable acts by invoking the "divine right" of kings. (See The Christ Conspiracy by Acharya S., page 292).

Leviticus 19:19 ~ "You shall not allow your animals to breed with a different kind". In the field of animal husbandry scientists have achieved some very beneficial improvements in domestic livestock herds by cross breading.

Leviticus 20:2 ~ "Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death." Who or what is Molech? According to Wikipedia, Molech is either the name of a pagan god or the name of a particular kind of human sacrifice associated historically with Phoenician and related cultures in north Africa and the Levant.

Leviticus 20:9 ~ For everyone that curseth his father or his mother shall be put to death. See Exodus 21:17 above.

Leviticus 20:10 ~ Adulterers shall be put to death. This would include a lot of preachers I’ve heard about.

Leviticus 20:13 ~ Here again God  forbids homosexual acts between men, but takes it a step farther by ordering that the participants be put to death. Homophobia, it should be noted, is not exclusive to the Old Testament nor just to men. In Romans 1:26-27 the Apostle Paul reminds us of God's rejection of homosexuals, and in a gesture of gender equality he includes women. Paul issues an additional condemnation of homosexuals in            1 Corinthians 6:9-11. In 1 Timothy 1:9-10 we see yet another condemnation of homosexual acts.

Leviticus 20-14 ~ If a man is caught having sex with his mother-in-law both of them are to be put to death. If his wife is in on it, she dies along with them. What a terrible price to pay for a little harmless, innocent fun.

Leviticus 20:16 ~ The woman who mates with a beast shall be killed. What if the woman turns out to be mentally ill?

Leviticus 20:27 ~ A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones. When combined with Exodus 22:18 (see above) this passage condones and confirms the lynch mob mentality.

Leviticus 21:16-20 ~ And the Lord said to Moses, "Say to Aaron, None of your descendants throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God. For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles." Obviously God has no problem discriminating against the afflicted. But what is curious is his obsession with testicles. In that regard, see also Deuteronomy 23:1.

Leviticus 24:16 ~ And whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall certainly stone him, the stranger as well as him who is born in the land. When he blasphemes the name of the Lord, he shall be put to death. This passage denies freedom of speech thereby violating the First Amendment of the U. S. Constitution.

Leviticus 24:21 ~ He that killeth a beast shall restore it: but he that killeth a man shall be killed. Note there are no exceptions made for war or self defense. This passage is used by Bible believers to justify capital punishment.

Leviticus 25:44-46 ~ Both thy bondmen, and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you; of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land: and they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever. Here God openly condones slavery.

Numbers 1:51 ~ Any layman approaching the tabernacle will be killed. Note that no exception is made for the blind.

Numbers 5 ~ Of all the deplorable attitudes toward women found in the Bible, none is more flagrantly sexist than is the "test" for unfaithful wives. When a husband "suspects" his wife of being unfaithful, he brings her to the temple where she is required to drink "holy water" mixed with sweepings from the temple floor. This concoction is know as "the bitter water that brings a curse." If she is guilty the curse will cause her "belly to swell and her thigh to rot" (vs:19-22). But no such test is required of men suspected of having been unfaithful to their wives.

Numbers 15:32-36 ~ A man was caught gathering firewood on the Sabbath day in violation of commandment #4. Those who found him brought him to Moses and Aaron, and the entire congregation. Because it was not clear to them just what punishment he should receive, they asked God. God, the personification of loving kindness, said without hesitation, "Put him to death". So they took him out and stoned him to death.

Numbers 16 ~ As a penalty for daring to question Moses’ leadership, three men, Korah, Dathan and Abiram, along with their wives, children, servants and other followers (250 in all) were either buried alive or burned to death. But it gets worse! The next day all of the Israelites rebelled against Moses and Aaron because they "killed the people of the Lord". Well, this really made God angry. In a fit of pique He sent a plague on them killing no less than 14,700 Israelites before Moses and Aaron could effectively intercede and appease Him.

Numbers 21:5-6 ~ The Lord sent fiery serpents to bit the people because they complained. As a result, some of them died. Only a sick control freak would do an awful thing like that?

Numbers 23:19 ~ God is not a man that he should lie; neither the son of man that he should repent. (See also Ezekiel 24:14 and 1 Samuel 15:29.) But, in Exodus 32:14, Jeremiah 42:10 and Amos 7:3,6 we learn that God did repent after all. Apparently some of his actions were so disreputably loathsome that he was repulsed by them himself to the point that he openly repented after emphatically declaring that he would never do so. Also, God was not above lying. One of the most blatant of God's lies is recorded in Geneses 2:17. Here He warns Adam and Eve, " But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." In spite of this clear warning Adam and Eve ate the fruit. They did not die. In fact, Adam lived to the ripe old age of 930 years according to Genesis 5:5.

Another of God's lies occurs in 1st Kings 22:21-23. Here God hatches a devious plot against Ahab, King of Israel, based on a lie. Also, in 1 Samuel 16:1-3 God tells Samuel to lie if asked why he is visiting Jesse. God even makes up the lie for him, "Take an heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to the Lord. And call Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will shew thee what thou shalt do: and thou shalt anoint unto me him whom I name unto thee." In this passage God not only instructs Samuel to deliberately lie, he openly conspires with him in a dastardly, underhanded plot to depose Saul and anoint someone else, a son of Jesse, king of Israel.

Numbers 25:9 ~ Because he suspected them of of worshiping other gods as well as lusting after the (non-Jewish) women of Moab, God arbitrarily sent a plague killing 24,000 of his own people. Why so many? Certainly not all of the Israelite plague victims deserved such a cruel fate.

Numbers 31:1-18 ~ The Lord tells Moses to "take full vengeance" upon the Midianites. So, the Israelites dutifully made war on them killing all of the men. However, they took the women and children captive. Big mistake! Now, when Moses and the chief priest, Eleazar saw this they were livid. Moses said to them, "Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him. But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves." Here God not only breaks commandment number six, thou shalt not kill, he also breaks number ten, thou shalt not commit adultery. Surely some of the Israelite soldiers were married men with families of their own. But the most disgusting aspect of this appalling account of genocide is that in verses 17and18 the sexual molestation of little children is not only condoned, it is actually encouraged. This is without a doubt one of the most revolting and disgusting passages in the entire Bible.

Numbers 31:31-40 ~ "Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the Lord commanded. The plunder remaining from the spoils (taken from the defeated Midianites) was 675,000 sheep, 72,000 cattle, 61,000 donkeys and 32,000 women who had never slept with a man.... And the half-share, the portion of those who had gone out to war, was....16,000 women, of which the tribute for the Lord was 32". So, here we learn three important facts. First, in God’s holy word women rank right up there along with cattle, donkeys, and sheep. Second, in order to survive an Israelite massacre women captives must be virgins. Third, Yahweh likes girls and lots of  'em! Just imagine, 32 young virgins all to yourself. WOW! Ain’t God good.

Here it might be well to note that  the Judao/Christian God is male, and there is no doubt of that. God's name in the Bible, Yahweh (Jehovah,) is as masculine a name as Ralph or Richard. (The feminine would have been Tahweh.) The biblical authors regularly identify God with masculine verbs and adjectives. Yahweh is pictured as a father, not a mother; as a husband, not a wife; as a king, not a queen; as a lord, not a lady. And, historically, on occasions when the ancient Israelites lapsed from monotheism, they pictured their God with a female consort. An inscription from Kuntillet 'Ajrud refers to "Yahweh. . . and His Asherah." Asherah was a goddess, also known as the queen of heaven. In the biblical text itself, as well, the prophet Jeremiah criticizes the people for worshiping the queen of heaven. The problem in Jeremiah is not that they are worshiping this goddess instead of Yahweh, but rather that they worship her in addition to Him (Jer 7: 2,18; 44: 15-26). See Author's Note #1, The Disappearance of God by Richard E. Friedman, page 285.

Deuteronomy 7:5 ~ Here God instructs Moses on how to deal with non-Israelites, "But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars, and dash in pieces their pillars, and hew down their Ashe'rim, and burn their graven images with fire." Not only does this contradict the golden rule, said to be so important to Christians, it amounts to vengeful intolerance at its absolute worst.

Deuteronomy 13:5 ~ If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams . . . urging you to go worship other gods which thou hast not known . . . that prophet or dreamer of dreams shall be put to death.

Deuteronomy 13:6-9 ~ How's this one for family values? "If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend secretly entices you, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods,' which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall you pity him, nor spare him or conceal him; but you shall surely kill him." Here God directs the murdering of family members and friends over religious differences.

Deuteronomy 13:12-16 ~ “If you hear that in one of the towns which Yahweh your God has given you for a home, there are men, scoundrels from your own stock, who have led their fellow-citizens astray, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods,' hitherto unknown to you,  you must put the inhabitants of that town to the sword; you must lay it under the curse of destruction - the town and everything in it. You must pile up all its loot in the public square and burn the town and all its loot, offering it all to Yahweh your God. It is to be a ruin for all time and never rebuilt.” For obvious reasons the church conveniently ignored the final edict demanding the destruction of heretic property which they eagerly confiscated for their own profit. Otherwise this detestable passage was carried out to the letter thereby giving authority as well as justification to the enforcers of the Spanish Inquisition.

Deuteronomy 17:2-5 ~ If there be found among you, within any of thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee, man or woman, that hath wrought wickedness in the sight of the Lord thy God, in transgressing his covenant, And hath gone and served other gods, and worshipped them, either the sun, or moon, or any of the host of heaven, which I have not commanded; And it be told thee, and thou hast heard [of it], and enquired diligently, and, behold, [it be] true, [and] the thing certain, [that] such abomination is wrought in Israel: Then shalt thou bring forth that man or that woman, which have committed that wicked thing, unto thy gates, [even] that man or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones, till they die. So not being Jewish could get you killed. How intolerant!

Deuteronomy 17:6-7 ~ Here is says that the death penalty must be based on the testimony of two or three witnesses. But then these witnesses must be the first to cast stones at the condemned person.

Deuteronomy 17:12 ~ Anyone who disobeys a priest shall die. I wonder if this includes resisting those priestly pedophiles?

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 ~ When a son is disobedient and will not obey his parents or pay attention when they punish him, then his parents shall bring him out to the town gate. There they shall say to the town elders, "Our son is disobedient and will not obey us." Then the men of the town shall stone him to death. Today, there wouldn’t be enough rocks.

Deuteronomy 22:20-21 ~ But if on the wedding night the husband discovers that his bride is not a virgin, he shall bring her out to the door of her father's house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die. What if the man is not a virgin? Is he accorded the same justice? No! So, here we have another clear case of gender discrimination leading to the further demeaning of women.

Deuteronomy 22:28-29 ~ If a man rapes a virgin, he must pay her father the sum of 50 shekels after which he owns her for life. The point is that women were considered as property to be sold for a profit to the highest bidder. In this case the victim is damaged property, therefore she is not worth as much.

Deuteronomy 23:1 ~  He whose testicles are crushed or whose male member (penis) is cut off shall not enter the assembly of the Lord. This arbitrary decree includes those veterans who lost their private parts while fighting to defending God's people. How unjust!

Deuteronomy 23:2 ~ A bastard shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord; even to his tenth generation shall he not enter into the congregation of the Lord. How unspeakably ridiculous! Illegitimacy is a condition over which the victim has absolutely no control. Yet this unjust and blatantly prejudicial decree was promulgated by a so-called "loving God" on these unfortunate people and their descendants. Doesn't such a heartless decree amount to punishing innocent victims?

In Deuteronomy 28, beginning with verse 15, God gives a detailed description of what the Israelites can expect to happen in the event they do not obey his commandants. In verse 49 he threatens to bring a fierce nation against them which will "show no favor." The results, set forth in graphic detail in verses 53 through 57, are too horrible to describe because they include cannibalism. Only a madman would perpetrate such an awful fate on anyone, let alone his chosen people?

Deuteronomy 31:7-8 ~ In these verses Moses personally appoints Joshua as his successor to lead the Israelites in their conquest of Canaan. However, there is general agreement among Bible scholars and historians that it didn't happen like that. The Israelite "conquest" of Canaan came about gradually over approximately two centuries of progressive infiltration and acculturation. In fact, there is absolutely no historical evidence that such persons as Moses and Joshua ever really existed.

Joshua 7:18-25 ~ Consider the sad story of Achan and his family. Now it seems that before the fall of Jericho, Joshua declared that all the spoil taken there should be given to the Lord. In spite of this order Achan, one of Joshua’s soldiers, secreted away a garment, some silver and some gold. Afterward Joshua tried to take the city of Ai. He failed and many of his soldiers were slain. Joshua sought for an excuse for his defeat and discovered Achan’s indiscretion. Thereupon Joshua took Achan along with his sons and his daughters, his oxen and his sheep and had them stoned to death. Perhaps Achan deserved it, but what had his sons and daughters or the oxen and sheep done to deserve such a cruel fate? Why didn’t God step in and save these innocent victims?

Judges 1:19 ~ During the conquest of Canaan God was unable to subdue the people of the valley because they possessed chariots made of iron. Therefore God is not the all powerful being he claimed to be.

Judges 11:29-39 ~ While Jepthah, commander of the Israelite army, was on his way to make war against the Ammonites he made a vow to the Lord, "If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return, shall surely be the Lord's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering." Jephthah successfully defeated Ammon, but when he returned home the first one to greet him was his beautiful young daughter. Jepthah was indeed between a rock and a hard place. But in the end he did what he felt that he had to do. He murdered her. Why didn't God pull one of those last minute interventions like he did when Abraham was about to murder Isaac (Genesis 22:12?) The obvious answer, of course, is that God does not exist. If he did, however, the only logical answer is that in addition to being petty and cruel, God is also capricious, arbitrary and inconsistent, i. e. childish.

Here it might be noted in reference to Abraham and his peculiarities that in Genesis 18:16-33 he persuades God to grant clemency to those wicked inhabitants of Sodom and Gamorrah, whom he did not even know. He gets God to agree that if fifty righteous men can be located the cities will be spared. Then he persuades God to lower the number to forty-five, then forty, then thirty, then twenty, and finally ten. Yet he acted without a moments hesitation to carry out God's capricious edict that he murder Isaac, his only legitimate son and heir.

In I Samuel 6:19, it is recorded that in a fit of pique God slew 50,070 men simply for "looking into the ark of the Lord." What a detestable tyrant!

I Samuel 15 tells the story of the massacre of the Amalekites, who, according to Genesis 36:12, were descendants of Amalek, the grandson of Esau. It seems that God was ticked off at them for something their ancestors had allegedly done several hundred years earlier. So, he sent the prophet Samuel to command King Saul to "Go and smite the Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay men, women, infant and suckling, oxen and sheep, camel and ass." Saul then proceeded to wipe out all of the Amalekites just as God had ordered. Besides breaking the sixth commandment, didn't God commit what could only be called genocide? This is an outrageously immoral act which far exceeds the atrocities of the Nazi holocaust. After all, many Jews survived Hitler, but there are no surviving Amalekites.

I Samuel 18:27 ~ David, with God’s permission, slew two hundred Philistine men in order to obtain the number of foreskins necessary to purchase Saul’s daughter to be his wife. This one speaks for itself.

2 Samuel 6:6-7 ~ It seems that the Ark of the Covenant was being returned to Jerusalem from the home of Abinadab on an ox-drawn cart which Abinadab's sons, Ahio and Uzzah, were responsible for guiding. When the party arrived at the threshing floor of Nacon, the oxen momentarily stumbled and Uzzah instinctively reached out to steady the cart for the purpose of protecting the sacred Ark. As his hand approaches the Ark, God, in a act of senseless cruelty, struck him dead.

Now take the famous story of the adulterous relationship between King David and Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11). This illicit love story has supplied the grist for quite a few successful novels, movies, and TV shows. In them, however, the real atrocity, the one committed by God, is conveniently overlooked. God did forgive David both for committing adultery and for murder by sending Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, to certain death on the battlefield. But at the same time God made it clear that David would pay a price for his sin. The child, conceived during his tryst with Bathsheba, would die. So, God "punished" David by murdering an innocent baby. The baby, it says in 2 Sam 12:15-18, suffered for seven days before it died. Shouldn’t God be condemned for such a despicable act of callous cruelty to an innocent baby, no less?

Another ironic twist to this disgusting story is that in letting David off the hook while killing the baby, God not only committed murder, thereby breaking one of his commandments, he also broke several other of his own laws. In Lev. 20:10 we are told that adultery is a sin and those who practice it will be put to death with no exceptions. Also, in Deut. 24:16, II Kings 14:6b and Ezekiel 18:20 it plainly says that children will not be punished for the sins of their parents. According to Jeremiah 31:30 all shall die of their own sins. So, in addition to being a baby murderer God is also a liar and a hypocrite?

It seems that David offended God again by taking a census (2 Samuel 24). So what does God do to "punish" David? He sends a pestilence killing 70,000 men (v15). WOW, talk about innocent victims!

Consider the story of King Ahab and his unlucky associates as recorded in First and Second Kings. It seems that Ahab provoked the Lord by taking as one of his wives Jezebel, a Sidonian and a worshiper of Baal (1 Kings 16:31). Soon thereafter Ahab was killed in battle. However, instead of going back home Jezebel remained in Jezreel proselytizing Israelites. The Lord ( to say nothing of the local rabbis) was furious. So with the help of the prophet Elisha, God conspired to have Jehu usurp the throne from Ahab's son, Ahaziah (2 Kings 9:3). According to God's instructions, Jehu (2 Kings 9:7-8) was to slaughter the entire house of Ahab, especially Jezebel. First, Jehu murdered Jezebel as instructed. Next, God demanded that Ahab's sons, all seventy of them, be beheaded, which they were (2 Kings 10:6-7). Not satisfied with that, Jehu proceeded to slaughter everybody in the house of Ahab including leaders, friends and priests until there were no survivors. He then went on to massacre forty-two of Ahaziah's (no relation to Ahab) relatives because he perceived them to be pro-Ahab (2 Kings 10:14). Following that he put on a little show for Jehonadab by killing all of Ahab's followers in Sameria. But Jehu was not finished. By way of lies, deception and trickery he managed to assemble all of the worshipers of Baal in the temple where he proceeded to murder them all. So what did God think of this senseless orgy of killing? Well, in 2 Kings 10:30 he said to Jehu, "Because thou hast done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel."

God, however, is unpredictably fickle. After assuring Jehu that by murdering the entire royal family of Israel he had done the right thing, God turned on him for, of all things, murdering the entire royal family of Israel, the very thing he had been ordered to do. In Hosea 1:4 God vows to avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu. What an outrageous flip-flop!

Second Kings 2:23-25 records another senseless act of slaughter - this time against children. It seems that as Elisha, one of Israel’s most venerated prophets, was on his way to Bethel a group of children began to mock him. "Go up thou bald head...Go up thou bald head," they shouted. This infuriated Elisha. So, he turned and cursed them in the name of the Lord whereupon two bears came out of the nearby forest and tore apart forty-two of the children. Satisfied that his dignity had been sufficiently restored, Elisha continued on his way.

Second Kings 6:28-29 records a clear case of cannibalism. During the siege of Samaria the king kills and eats his own son and demands that others do likewise.

Job 2:3-5 ~ Regarding Job's tribulations, God seems to be saying. "The devil made me do it."

Job 15:14 ~ This passage shows contempt for women.

Psalm 2:1-7 is the passage cited by fundamentalist, right wing Christian activists as justifying their zeal to replace the U. S. Constitution with biblical law thereby turning the USA into a repressive theocracy.

Psalm 7:9 ~ Infanticide is highly recommended. In swearing to get their revenge against Babylon, the defeated Isralites are told, "Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones."

Proverbs 13:24 ~ "He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him." This advice turns wisdom on it's head. Parents who are self-disciplined enough to restrain an impulse to strike a child are unloving while those who are physically abusive are kind.

Proverbs 23:13-14 ~ "Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell." Here, as in 13:24 above, God's word not only condones but encourages child abuse.

Isaiah 13:16 ~ In his proclamation against the Babylonians God commands the Israelites to "dash their infants to pieces before their eyes and then rape their wives."  That doesn't sound very loving to me.

Isaiah 54:7 ~ God said, "I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord do all these things". Note that here God admits to creating evil.

Ezekiel 9:5-6 ~ "And the LORD said unto him, (the angel) Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that are done in the midst of it. And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go after him through the city, and smite; let not your eye spare, neither have pity. Slay utterly old and young, both maids, and little children, and women, but come not near any man upon whom is the mark;..." What was the wicked sin that was so terrible that even little children were killed? It’s given in Ezikiel 9:9, "Then said he unto me, The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perverseness; for they say, ‘the lord hath forsaken the earth, and the lord  seeth not.’" For that this despicable sadist ordered the murdering of innocent little children.

The story of Daniel in the lion's den (Daniel 6:10-24) is repeated regularly in all Christian churches, especially in the Sunday schools. In this story King Darius was informed by certain of his followers that Daniel had been caught worshiping a god other than that of the Babylonians. Because this was a capital offense, Daniel was cast into a den of lions. But God protected him. When King Darius saw what had happened he was so impressed that he decided it was time for a little reverse justice. He ordered that those who had informed on Daniel be thrown into the lion's den along with their wives and children. What had the wives and children done to deserve this awful fate? Shouldn't God have intervened since it was all his fault?

Malachi 1:2-3 ~ "I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, In what way hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? Saith the Lord; yet I loved Jacob. And I hated Esau,..." Here this supposedly loving God openly expresses hatred. Isn’t he is supposed to be above such raw, self-destructive human emotions.

Now let us consider the New Testament, the founding document of Christianity. While not as sever and atrocious as are many of the Old Testament passage, the New Testament has it's share of repugnant passages also. For example, Jesus never repudiates the moral degradation so rampantly practiced by the Old Testament Hebrews. As a stickler for the Law, he, in fact, endorses them wholeheartedly. In the hallowed Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:17-19) Jesus says, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. He goes on to warn his listeners that, “Whosoever breaks one of God’s laws will be the least in the kingdom of heaven.” In Luke 16:17 he says, “But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail.” In John 10:35 he says, “Scripture cannot be broken.” Also, we must remember that according to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, Jesus (i.e., God) actually wrote these dastardly laws.

Throughout the gospels Jesus ignores countless opportunities to condemn slavery. For example, in Matthew 8 he heals the Roman centurion's slave while lavishing praise on the centurion for his exemplary faithfulness. Why didn't Jesus seize this opportunity to condemn slavery and forbid it? In fact, the most astounding pro-slavery statement in the Bible is made by Jesus himself in Matthew 10:24-25. Here he not only reminds slaves that they are never above their master, he actually recommends that they strive to be like him.

In the 14th chapter of Luke there appears the Parable of the Great Dinner. In it someone, probably a wealthy nobleman, gave a dinner to which he invited many guests. But when it came time for the dinner many of those whom the nobleman had invited did not show up, and there were lots of empty chairs at his table. This irritated the nobleman no end so he ordered one of his slaves to, “Go ye into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, so that my house will be filled” (vs 23.) Citing this verse as his justification Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (AKA St. Augustine) drew up what is known as Cognite intrare, “Compel them to enter,” that was used by the church as an excuse to carry out forced conversions as well as to commit other brutal, inhumane acts of torture, vandalism and murder against non-Christians.

Luke 19:11-27 ~ Here we read how while visiting at the house of  Zacchaeus, the rich tax collector, Jesus recites the parable of the ten pounds. The point of this parable is to invest your money wisely so as to make a profit. In verse 27, however, the greedy, wicked nobleman says, "But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me." Instead of condemning such a display of wanton cruelty and intolerance as he should have Jesus simply ignores it and goes on with his money-saving lecture. So, the proper question is: "How could Jesus in good conscience ignore such an awful thing?" Shouldn't this, not profit, have been the focal point of this parable? Here Jesus also passes up another wonderful opportunity to register his condemnation of human slavery.

Here are some more relevant New Testaments quotes:

Matthew 15:4 ~ Here we have a repeat of Exodus 21:17 which says, "He that curseth father or mother let him die the death". See also Mark 7:10.

Matthew 19:12 ~ Jesus says, "For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother's womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it." This amounts to a most irresponsible statement because Jesus is saying that it's okay for men to go castrate themselves for the glory of God. It is interesting to note that Origen, the famous second century church father, did exactly that.

John 15:6 ~ "If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned." This short verse was seized upon by the Spanish Inquisition as a justification for burning alive all those considered to be heretics.

Acts 5:1-12 ~ Here we are told how a married couple and followers of Jesus, Ananias and Sapphira, were murdered by God because they neglected to give Peter the entire sum of money they received for the sale of their property.

Hebrews 9:22 ~ And almost all things are by the law purged with (Christ's) blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission of sins. Therefore, atonement can be achieved only through blood sacrifice.

Jesus, whom many Christians claim to be synonymous with God, not only demanded that certain people be killed, he actually volunteered to do the killing - of children, no less.  In chapter 2 of The Book of Revelation, Jesus, this man of infinite love, expresses an almost psychopathic hatred of Jezebel, whom he never knew personally. In verse 23 he says, "I will kill her children."

Another indication of Jesus’ true character can be found in Matthew 15:21-28. Here a Canaanite (non-Jewish) woman beseeched him to save her daughter who was "cruelly demon-possessed." Despite his pious endorsement of the "Golden Rule" (Mt. 7:12, Luke 6:31), Jesus at first callously ignored her. When his disciples intervened on her behalf, he contemptuously referred to her as a "dog" and reminded them that he was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Only after much pleading and groveling by the distraught mother, did Jesus reluctantly relent.

In some instances Jesus made highly irresponsible, even reckless, suggestions to his followers. In Matthew 19:12 he gives tacit approval to castration. In the hallowed Sermon on the Mount, said to be a prescription for Christian living, he openly advocates self mutilation by recommending that "if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and if thy right hand offend thee, cut off" (Matthew 5:29-30). This hideous recommendation of self mutilation is repeated in Matthew 18:8-9 but here Jesus includes cutting off one's offending feet. I can't help but wonder how many sick, deluded Bible believers have taken these ill-considered passages seriously? In Mark 16:18 Jesus assures his disciples, "They shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them". Many believers, naively taking this statement seriously, have as a result suffered grave consequences, even death in some instances.  

In Revelation 19:17-21 the birds are invited by an angel to partake of the "great supper of God." The featured item on the menu is human flesh. However, the high point of the feast was to see the beast and the false prophet thrown alive into a lake of fire.

The above citations are by no means a complete catalogue of Bible atrocities. However, they should be sufficient to cause any Bible-believing Christian to have some sobering second thoughts regarding his or her commitment to that book of horrors and to the god who allegedly inspired it. To acknowledge the Bible as the source of human morality is to condone genocide, rape, incest, hatred, deceit, bigamy, lying, homophobia, pedophilia, slavery, and the degradation of women because that is what that book is all about.

I close with a quote from Tom Paine's The Age of Reason: "Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon rather than the word of a god. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind. I sincerely detest it as I detest all things cruel."

For additional information on the Bible see Scrutinizing the Scripture, The Sermon of the Mount and Are The Gospels True? on this web site.