www.freethoughtperspective.net

May/ 04/08

If interested, check out Temy Beal, a freethinker at the folowiing websites: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=86921123113&blogID=371627097

Sermon 1

Sermon II http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=86921123&blogID=37258813

Sermon III http://myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=86921123&blogID=372627534

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Annihilate The Amalekites!

A. J. MATTILL Jr.

According to Deuteronomy 25:17-19, Moses said to the Israelites: (17) “People of Israel, do you remember what the Amalekites did to you after you came out of Egypt? (18) You were tired, and they followed along behind, attacking those who could not keep up with the others. This showed that the Amalekites have no respect for God. (19) The Lord your God will help you capture the land [of Canaan], and he will give you peace. But when that day comes, you must wipe out Amalek so completely that no one will remember they ever lived” (contemporary English Version).

Some four hundred years later the prophet Samuel gave to King Saul this message from the Lord: (2) “When the Israelites were on their way out of Egypt, the nation of Amalek attacked them. I am the Lord all Powerful, and now I am going to make Amalek pay! (3) Go and attack the Amalekites! Destroy them and their possessions. Don’t have any pity. Kill their men, women, children, and even their babies. slaughter their cattle, sheep, camels, donkeys” (1 Samuel 15:2-3, Contemporary English Version). So Saul attacked the Amalekites and killed every one of them except their King Agag, whom the ferocious Samuel himself later chopped to pieces before the altar of the Lord (1 Samuel 15:7-9, 31-33). Now let us scrutinize these scriptures.

1. Crazy Chosenpeopleism.Any sensitive person who reads these passages gets the creeps and wants to upchuck. But before reacting so negatively to these “inspired scriptures” we should note that the Amalekites were so impious that they had no respect for the Israelites, God’s “chosen people,” “the apple of God’s eye” (Zechariah 2:8). God takes what is done against his favorite people as done against himself. How audacious, then, of the Amalekites to attack God’s chosen people. Why, that’s tantamount to attacking God himself. But this whole notion of God’s playing favorites is itself enough to turn one’s stomach.

2. Annihilate the Amalekites! Now we focus on the brutal command of a merciless God: “Don’t have any pity. Wipe out the Amalekites so completely they’ll be forgotten forever. Slay all of the adults and children and even the tender babes in the loving arms of their mothers. Obliterate the savage Amalekites. And don’t stop with the humans, slaughter their animals too.” No reference for life there!

3. Incomparable Injustice. But it gets worse. God commanded the brutal slaughter of the Amalekites four centuries after the Amalekites had attacked the Israelites on their way out of Egypt. Think of it! God ordered the killing of men, women, children, and their babies for acts committed by their ancestors hundreds of years before. Why should God punish descendants for the sins of their ancestors? After all, the Lord himself said that “only those who sin will be put to death” (Ezekiel 18:4)

4. A Genocidal God.The Bible makes it clear that God is a genocidal God, a god who deliberately destroys whole populations. We are seeing that he ordered the annihilation of the Amalekites. God, speaking through Moses, commanded Israel to destroy without mercy the people of seven nations, the Hitites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and the Jebusites (Deuteronomy 7: 1-5, 16; 20: 16-18).

Turning to the New Testament, we see the kings of the world gathering together for the battle of Armageddon (Revelation 16:14-16). Fire comes down from heaven and destroys all the enemies of God (Revelation 20:7-10). could any devil be more cold-blooded? Can anyone in his/her right mind love, serve, and worship such a gruesome genocidal God?

Conclusion. The Bible’s genocidal god was a fictitious idol created by an imperialistic chosen people to give divine approval to their bloody wars of conquest.

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The Boys and Bears of Bethel

A. J. MATTILL Jr.

Let us focus our attention upon a narrative of only two verses (2 Kings 2:23-24:): (23) One day the prophet Elisha left Jericho to go up to Bethel. On the way, some boys made fun of Elisha by shouting at the top of their voices, “Go up, baldy! Go up, baldy!” (24) Elisha looked behind him, glared at the boys, and cursed them in the name of the Lord. Immediately two bears ran out of the woods and tore to pieces forty-two of the boys. This short passage has generated an avalanche of criticism.

1. Cobbett’s Rule.First of all, “the inspired writer’ of these two verse violated Cobbett’s Rule at least four times. Cobbett’s Rule goes like this: “I speak [write] not only so that I can  be understood, but so that  I cannot  be misunderstood.”

Misunderstanding One. How old were the “little children” (King James Version)? Were they ”small boys” (New American Bible)? Or were they, as some commentators have suggested, “twelve to thirty years old? Or were they “youth”? or “young men of military age”?

Misunderstanding Two. What did the boys mean by “Go up”? Did they mean, “get out of here” (Today’s English Version)? Did they want Elisha to keep going up to Bethel? Or did they mean, “Go up to heaven,” even as the prophet Elisha ascended to heaven (2 Kings 2:11)?

Misunderstanding Three. Were the boys referring to Elisha’s actual baldness or to the tonsure (the shaving of the top of or of all the head), used as a distinguishing mark by the prophets?

Misunderstanding Four. What was the fate of the forty-two boys? Were they all killed by the bears? One writer says there was a large funeral with forty-four caskets. Or were most of them not killed but only torn to pieces, painfully wounded, clawed, and bitten?

At first thought, these four misunderstandings may seem of little importance. in fact, however, they are of the greatest importance, for they prove that 2 Kings 2:23-24 is not inspired but only the work of a poor writer who could not write clearly. An omniscient God would have enabled the author of these verses to follow Cobbett’s Rule.

2. The Ethical Problem.Was Elisha justified in cursing the boys? Did the Lord do the right thing when he sent two bears to claw the boys and perhaps kill some of them? As far back as the third century BC/BCE the translators obviously were trying to make the boys’ actions serious enough to deserve such severe punishment. On the other hand, ancient rabbis, troubled by Elisha’s cursing of the boys, claimed that Elisha was punished with sickness for his actions.

Today’s traditional believers, however, defend the actions of Elisha and God. After all the boys, who had reached the age of accountability, had grossly insulted the prophet and therefore deserved such a severe penalty, for God had to inoculate reverence for his prophets. It was a severe offense to mock a messenger of God. And only this kind of miracle could have been understood by the people of that time. Besides, the boys had dishonored not only God’s messenger but also God himself. The boys incarnated impiety, infidelity, and rudeness. God had warned his people that if they remained hostile to him he would lose the wild beasts of the field among them. The beasts would then rob the people of their children and destroy their livestock (Leviticus 26:21-22). God meant business!

On the other hand, freethinkers find that this narrative reflects a crude stage in religious development and will not stand examination from any moral point of view. Whether the boorish boys of Bethel who mocked the messenger of the Lord were six or thirty years old, they did not deserve to be torn to pieces by ferocious beasts. The punishment was cruel, unusual, and all out of proportion to the crime. “Think of the mothers who watched and waited for their children. Think of the wailing when these mangled ones were found, when they were brought back and pressed to the breasts of weeping women. What an amiable gentleman Mr. Elisha must have been.” (Robert  G. Ingersoll (1833-1899). I would add, what an amiable gentleman the Lord must have been!

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Stoning Stubborn Sons

A. J. MATTILL Jr

Here are some words which the Lord spoke through Moses to the people of Israel: (18) “Suppose that a man has a son who is stubborn and rebellious, a son who will not obey his parents, even though they punish him. (19) His parents are to take him before the leaders of the town where he lives and make him stand trial, (20) They are to say to them ‘Our son is stubborn and rebellious and refuses to obey us; he wastes his money and is a drunkard.’ (21) Then the men of the city are to stone him to death, and so you will get rid of this evil. everyone in Israel will hear what has happened and will be afraid”‘ (Deuteronomy 21: 18-21, today’s English Version).

Now let me ask traditional believers some questions. 1. Believer, what kind of God would demand the death penalty for a son who disobeys his parents, wastes money, and is a drunkard? Isn’t stoning a cruel and unusual punishment all out of proportion to the offense of this stubborn son? shouldn’t we listen to the voice of our sensitized conscience instead of to the words of an insensitive deity?

2. Believer, even if death is the appropriate punishment for such a stubborn and rebellious son, couldn’t an all-wise God find a more humane way than stoning to kill his son? How many stones must hit the son before he dies? What excruciating pain the victim suffers with each stone, until finally the last stones take him out of his misery.  How utterly barbaric! As for  more merciful methods of execution, consider hitting the victim over the head with a heavy club, stabbing him with a sharp sword, or decapitating him with a sharp hatchet.

3. Believer, wouldn’t an omniscient God be aware of, and consider, alternatives to the death penalty, such as temporary exclusion from the community (Numbers 12:15) and community service? Certainly such alternatives would be more humane and more in proportion to the crime. they would be fairer and more reasonable.

4. Believer, has it ever occurred to you that the pitiless process of executing a person by whatever means dehumanizes the executors? Are not the stone-throwers likely to suffer intense pangs of conscience until their dying day? Will the stone-throwers ever stop hearing the shrieks of their victims? Some stone-throwers might even go insane.

5. Believer, if you had a stubborn son would you take him to the local authorities to be stoned to death? Would you even take him to a prison to be executed more humanely by lethal injection? wouldn’t rather seek an alternative punishment such as a fine, imprisonment, rehabilitation, restitution, and community service?

6. Some Final Questions. Believer, now that you’ve had time to consider God’s law in Deuteronomy 21:18-21, do you still believe in the insensitive God who inspired such a law? Or would you prefer to conclude that the law was made by barbaric humans who put it into the mouth of a good God? If the latter is your conclusion, how many more verses in the bible, will you regard as man-made and uninspired? What will prevent you from concluding some day that the entire Bible is a purely human book? will you not then be an unbeliever without a Bible and without a God?

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The Most Difficult Question

A. J. MATTILL Jr.

The source of evil is Christianity’s most difficult question. Here we look at several answers to this baffling question.

1. God is the Source of Evil. The Lord said to Moses, “Who makes people able to speak or makes them deaf or unable to speak? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? don’t you know that I am the one who does these things? (Exodus 4:11, Contemporary English Version). Who makes people blind, deaf, and mute? God does!

The Lord said to the people of Israel, “I am the one who kills and makes alive. I punish you with suffering and I heal you.” (Deuteronomy 32;39). Who makes people suffer and even kills them. God Does!

The  prophet says, “Good and evil alike take place at his command” (Lamentations 3;38, today’s English Version). Who is responsible for evil? God is!

isn’t it the Lord who brings disaster on a city? (Amos 3;6, Contemporary English Version). Who causes a city’s catastrophe? God does!

What a God! He takes away sight, hearing, and power of speech. He kills people. He afflicts people with suffering and sorrow. He commands evil and it happens. He brings disasters on city’s. What a monster!

Now consider the Apostle Paul’s god, whom Paul likens to a potter who has the right to shape the clay as he pleases. Thus God can create vessels (human beings) of wrath for destruction in hell and vessels of mercy for glory (Romans (9: 19-23). Paul’s potter God makes “the Monster” we’ve found in the New Testament look like the epitome pf kindness.

God then, is the Source of Evil. Or is he? Traditional Christians flatly declare that God is not, and could not be, the Author of evil. Deuteronomy 32:4 assures us that God’s ”works are perfect and all his ways are just.” Perhaps Satan is the Source of Evil.

2. Satan is the source of Evil. In the New Testament, Satan is a major player: “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:40, “the ruler of demons” (Matthew 12:24, Satan causes bodily diseases (Luke 13:16). Satan has always been a murderer and a liar (John 8;44). Satan is the author of sin (1 John 3:8), sickness (Acts 10:38), and death (Hebrews 2:14). Satan is the the one who leads people astray (2 Thessalonians 2:9-10). Disease and death are ultimately the responsibility of Satan, for by his introduction of sin into the world, he brought about such woes and hence he is the murderer of the human family (John 8:44). What, then, is the source of Satan?

3. God is the source of Satan. As Colossians 1:16 says, “For through Christ God created everything in and on earth, the seen and the unseen things, including spiritual powers, lords, rulers, and authorities.” God evidently created Satan good, but Satan freely choose to sin and became evil  (2 Peter 2:4). Therefore god is innocent. Satan is to blame for becoming evil, because he choose to sin. Or so believers tell us. Not so fast. God is omniscient. Therefore God knew when he created Satan that Satan had no choice, for God had predestined him to fall. Thus God is responsible for an evil Satan. Hence God is the creator of Satan as the source of evil.

4. Two Natural Sources of Evil. So far we have found two possible sources of evil, God and Satan, both of whom are living, personal, supernatural beings. But as many of us consider the violence of the universe and the pain of animals and humans, we find that we can no longer believe in personal, supernatural beings such as God and Satan, angels and demons. We find the bat-blind energy of Mother Nature is the source of natural evils, such as arsons, murders, poverty, robberies, sexual crimes, and wars.

Conclusion. Our brief exposition of the possible source of evil no doubt has led some of us to conclude that we are trying to explain the inexplicable. I would say that Solution Four is the least inadequate solution.

Dr. A. J. Mattill Jr., is the author of The Seven Mighty Blows to Traditional Belief, and many other booklets, books, essays & commentary on subjects which effectively dispute traditional biblical concepts that have been the basis of Christian beliefs. He is a longtime time contributing editor (as is Dr. William Harwood) of the American Rationalist magazine. For a complete catalog of his works, write to: Flatwoods Free Press – FP, POB 750 Lum Fife Road, Gordo, AL 35466  A copy of Blows is $15.00 ppd.

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