Thanks to Steve Wells’ “Dwindling in Unbelief” blog, I now have a new favorite Bible story, replacing my former favorite, 2:Kings 2:23. If you recall, the story in 2 Kings was about God sending bears to maul to pieces 42 children for making fun of Elisha’s bald head. This is one of the stories that started my de-conversion from Christianity. There’s a good debate about it on Steve’s blog in which I participate here: http://dwindlinginunbelief.blogspot.com/2007/10/go-up-thou-bald-head.html
I was named David by my parents after the Biblical David, so I am interested in stories about him. This particular story is told in 2 Samuel chapter 12, which I will paraphrase as follows: In the preceding chapter, David sees Bathsheba taking a bath and wants her so badly that he arranges messengers to kidnap her, commit adultery with David, then sent home. She gets pregnant, of course. Upon hearing about it, David arranges to have her husband killed by sending him to the front of whatever battle was going on at the time. Bathsheba mourns the loss of her husband, then becomes David’s wife and bears his son.
God is so angered by David’s deeds that he makes his infant son ill. David fasts and pleads with God to save his son to no avail. The baby suffers in sickness for an entire week, then dies.
There are many bizarre immoral twists in this story, but they would all detract from this main message: The biblical god murdered an innocent child to punish someone else.
Unless you are a brainwashed Christian, there is no way to twist this story around in your brain to make it anything other than what it is. The biblical god is an evil immoral murderer.
PS Lest you take this story out of context, go read this story in its entirety, if you can stomach it. There’s so much more to absorb than simple baby killing. There’s voyeurism, adultery, outdoor rape, polygamy, massacring, incestuous rape, sawing people up, and a jewel encrusted gold crown for Dave that weighs over a hundred pounds!
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5 comments:
Hello, I found your blog through posts on Steve Well's blog. Thanks for the great comments!
Thank you Orbitz! I appreciate you stopping by!
I have a friend who is entertaining some doubts in their faith. I don't have any experience with this as I was never a believer but would like to help ask the right questions and find the best evidence. They seem to be interested in the historicity of the bible, for if it is not authentic then that blows the whole thing away. Do you have any suggestions?
I am flattered that you ask, but my rejection of the bible is based more on its immorality than its historical inaccuracy. By “historicity”, are you meaning cultural history or scientific history? From a scientific history accuracy point of view, www.talkorigins.com is a great place to start.
Also, here’s a link to a personal statement of losing faith that includes some links at the end: http://texasbupp.blogspot.com/
Thanks for the information. I believe they are interested in the reliability of the bible, specifically the gospels. I'm not a historian nor archeologist and don't really know how to weigh evidence in those fields. If any suggestions come to mind please feel free to email me at my name at gmail. Thanks again.
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