All that He asks is that we behave good to one another, and warn those heading for disaster - how in the world do you take offense to that?
Speaking as a former Christian, I don't think anyone should look to the Bible to learn about morality. Personally speaking, I don't think that the following incidents from the Bible serve as exemplary examples of upright moral behavior: forcing a rape victim to marry her rapist; smashing the heads of infants against the rocks; ordering the death of witches; God commanding his "chosen people" to kill an entire populace of foreign nations for their land in a conquest to possess a "promised land," or God being irrationally angry and killing every living creature and eradicating the entire human race by drowning (with the exception of Noah and his family) in a global flood, thus committing global genocide. According to the Bible, this supposedly "all-knowing" and "all-powerful" God repopulated the earth with the same flawed creatures he had used the previous time before he threw a cosmic tantrum and drowned every living being in a worldwide flood. It appears that he is incapable of learning from his own mistakes, even after having regret for creating humanity, the animals, every creature that creeps on the ground, and the birds in the air. Shouldn't an all-knowing, all-powerful God know better?
According to
Genesis 6:6-7, God regretted creating not only mankind but also every animal, every creature that creeps on the ground, and the birds of the air. A God who is supposedly "all-knowing and all-powerful" would surely know better than to commit the same error twice. But God did commit the same error twice, which, in my opinion, was either extremely foolish and irresponsible in terms of morality, or he did it because he is a sadistic and psychotic maniac who delights in punishing flawed humanity for acting precisely as he originally intended for humanity to behave. The Bible contains other verses that mention God's regrets in addition to creating humanity, all animals, and birds (
1 Samuel 15:11;
2 Samuel 24:16;
Jeremiah 42:10). In addition, the Bible mentions God changing his mind about bringing disasters upon his people as retribution for their sins against him (
Jeremiah 26:13,
1 Chronicles 21:15,
Joel 2:13).
Some Bible translations substitute the word "repent" or the past tense of repent for the word "relent." For the record,
Jeremiah 26:13,
1 Chronicles 21:15, and
Joel 2:13 coincide with
Isaiah 45:7 (NIV), which says, "I form the light and create darkness; I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things." The New King James Version uses the word "calamity" instead of "disaster," and the King James Version uses the word "evil" and not "disaster" or "calamity." The word used in the verse depends on the Bible version.
1 Samuel 15:3 states that God commanded the Israelites to attack and not spare the Amalekites (killing every man, woman, child, newborn, and animal and destroying everything that belonged to them). And
Psalm 137:9 states, "Happy is the one who seizes your children and smashes them against the rocks." So much for the biblical commandment of "Thou shalt not kill." In my opinion, the God of the Bible has a sadistic mentality of "Do as I say, not as I do," making him the most hypocritical (detestable and barbarous) figure known to mankind. And this article, "
Violence in the Bible: Greatest Hits," has several other instances of severe violence in the Bible.
Like I said, I don't think anyone should look to the Bible to learn about morality. That being said, I also think that people should take whatever the Bible says with a grain of salt. I'm of the opinion that there are many contradictions in the Bible as well as a few stories of Jesus that were adapted from Greek mythology and other pagan religions, as I explained in other posts, such as this
one here.
