The other day I decided to read about the plagues that the biblical God allegedly inflicted upon Egypt as told in the Bible. I have always had some big problems with this tale so I will touch on some of the most pressing ones in this post. I will break down the plagues and their aftermath and also point out the many discrepancies with this story both within the text, and the lack of historical and archeological evidence to corroborate this story.
The exodus of Israel (the name given to the Jews by God)out of Egypt can be found in your bible in the book of Exodus chapters seven through fourteen. According to the tale Israel had been enslaved in Egypt for a period of four hundred years. God commissions Moses to go and speak to the Pharaoh and demand that he let his people go. Because Pharaoh did not comply his nation was afflicted with a series of plagues brought on by the biblical deity.
Here is where I have my first problem with this story. In Exodus 7:3,13 and 14:4 and in other places it states that God had hardened the heart of Pharaoh so that he would not comply. Whatever happened to free will, and why did God do this to Pharaoh? Well, the bible is very clear on why. He was introducing himself to his "chosen" people and wanted to demonstrate his power through signs and wonders. The most disgusting and disturbing statement in the scriptures is that God say's that for this very purpose he rose up Egypt to show his power. In short he used Egypt to make an example of them and to strike fear into the hearts of other nations.
The first thing he did was to turn the rod of Moses into a serpent but I did not want to go into that since it was not something that was harming the people of Egypt in general. So we will move on to the next one. According to the story he turned all the waters of the rivers in Egypt into blood. In fact any water they had in their homes in jugs were also turned to blood. As a result of this all the fish of these waters died and the stink and contamination made the water undrinkable. The fact that it was blood should have made it undrinkable in the first place.
The next thing was a plague of frogs that happened to come out of those same rivers in which all the fish died. When the frogs literally blanketed the land, after some pleading from Pharaoh, they all die and were set in a humungous pile. The next thing he did was to turn the dust of the land into lice. Of course more pleading and a promise to comply to Gods demands led to the removal of the plague.
After the lice he then sent a plague of flies which pretty much drove everyone crazy they were more of a nuisance I think. Next, God starts getting down and dirty and what he does is kill all of the cattle and livestock in Egypt. What fault did the cattle have? Here is where the story begins to disintegrate even more. The next thing he does is afflict men and beast with boils. But wait a minute! Didn't he previously kill all the livestock in Egypt? He must've resurrected them and the authors of the book of Exodus forgot to mention it.
He then sent plagues and pestilence and vowed to wipe Egypt off the face of the earth as a nation. Of course, after the plagues that did not happen he took away the plagues and the pestilence and everything was alright again. Next he hit Egypt with a storm of fire and hail or fiery hail and according to this story it killed every man, beast,herbs, and trees in the field. Note this is the second time he killed all the livestock of Egypt.
The plague that followed was that he sent a swarm of Locust upon Egypt. It was so bad that they ate every tree, herb, and fruit in the fields. Another fumble! Didn't the fiery hail already do this? The next plague was three days of darkness all over Egypt. Could this be a solar eclipse that only affected Egypt? What a miracle!!
The next plague came in the form of God sending the angel of death to Egypt to kill every firstborn son of every Egyptian household. And not just the sons but also those firstborn of the beast of the field as well. So for a third time he is killing beast in this tale. Finally, Pharaoh tells Moses go and worship your God and he frees the Hebrews. But wait once again God hardens his heart and he decides to go after them to get them back. He supposedly chases them down with his army which included 600 chariots.
Pharaoh manages to pin them down at the Red Sea or Sea of Reeds depending on which theologian you speak to. And God parts the waters so that the Hebrews can cross it on dry land, but when Pharaoh attempts to pursue them the water closes upon him and his entire army. According to this tale Egypt should have been wiped off the face of the Earth, but as we all know it was not.
First of all this story has so many contradictions which I have pointed out that it is obviously a fabrication. Second there is no archeological evidence or historical records that corroborate this story. There has never been found a single sign of Hebrews enslaved in Egypt for 400 years, or evidence of their 40 year sojourn in the Sinai desert, no sign of the Pharaoh's army which is hard to believe. Those chariots were made of gold yet we have not managed to find a single chariot wheel or remnants of chariots which the tale states there were 600 of them. I find this hard to believe! And finally, the bible conveniently does not mention which Pharaoh endured all of this calamity. In fact there are no Egyptian records that allude to a Pharaoh and his entire army drowning at sea.
Also, it was customary that the firstborn son of Pharaoh would normally be the heir to the throne. But as this tale states all the men of Egypt were killed and all the firstborn sons were killed as well. If this had ever occurred then it would have ended the dynasty of the Pharaohs altogether. As you have seen through this post I have proven that the bible is nothing more than fabricated history. I once heard in a documentary that all of these tales were made up to aggrandize the God of Israel and to lift them up as a nation as well. I firmly believe that there might be some truth to this theory.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Saturday, April 9, 2011
The Divine Dictatorship
I was sitting around the house today thinking of ways to compare religion to a dictatorship. So before I get started I would like to first begin by defining exactly what a dictatorship is according to the Oxford English Dictionary. Dictatorship: 1. A country run by a dictator. 2. absolute authority in any sphere. For the purposes of this blog entry we will refer to the dictator as the biblical god. And instead of having absolute rule over a country he claims and demands absolute rule of the universe.
If you were to subscribe to a belief in the bible and its teachings regarding god and his relationship with mankind you would have to agree that he is demanding. According to the bible from the moment that you are born you have already incurred your first debt. That's right, you have a debt to god for redeeming you through the vicarious death and sacrifice of his son Jesus. It does not matter that you did nothing to god before or that you had nothing to do with the so called fall of mankind.
What people fail to realize is that religion, especially Christianity was used as a political tool to maintain order by the Roman Catholic church. Once they had gained political power as well they were able to utilize the full force of the Roman government to destroy any and all opposing belief systems. The goal was to subjugate the populace as a whole to the Roman church. The very doctrines themselves taught in the scriptures espouse complete and absolute submission to its god and the elders of the church. 1 Timothy 5:17 "Elders who do their work well while they are in charge earn double reward, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching." (NJB)
The catholic church prides itself and claims that it is a direct descendant of the apostles of Christ. Because of this they, like all Christian churches claim to be the true church of Christ. The church wants to control the lives of its members through the use of doctrine. As a Christian you are taught to believe without question, to only thing a certain way, to walk with humility because having pride is a sin. Most of our natural impulses as human beings are condemned in the bible and by the fictional god.
Christianity is nothing more than a modern day superstition that unfortunately has not died out. Religion seems to be a need for a lot of people because somehow it is comforting to know that when things are not going well at least "it's in Gods hands." The bible teaches you to abase yourself and abhor your own flesh because you are only alive today because of the great and wonderful mercies of the dictator in the sky.
Here is a question that is worth asking. What of those people who have had a horrible life, are they supposed to be thankful to the lord as well for giving them that life? I once was discussing this issue with a theist friend of mine from work and he was telling me how we are all supposed to be grateful to his god for sacrificing his son and redeeming us from sin. My reply was that I personally did not offend god in the garden it was Adam and Eve. Moreover I did not ask god for redemption, if it were not for the teachings of the bible I would not have known that I had a need to be redeemed.
Through the scriptures we have all as a species inherited vicariously a sinful nature. It does not even make sense to put that on yourself when I am pretty sure if you has no knowledge of god at all your life would go on just fine. The church through the teachings of the scriptures wants to even carry on their sentence on you even after death. The threat of hell fire is ever present and the only way to avoid it according to them is to buy their product.
There is a saying that states that power corrupts and the church has demonstrated this throughout their bloody and dark history. Popes and clergy in the name of God ordering mass murder, rape, torture all for the crime of not accepting their brand of religion. Ignorant Christians of today long for a theocracy but since they have not taken the time to do their homework they are unaware that we have been there and done that. If you really want to know what a theocracy would be like just read up on the various crusades and witch hunts conducted by the church in 1095.
These so called holy men of God committed the most heinous crimes ever on their fellow man. They made the holocaust look like a picnic. The tales regarding the horrors committed during the crusades pale in comparison. They were gutting people with swords, burning people alive, and they even implemented the use of several home made torture devices and methodologies of inflicting excruciating pain. The most famous of these devices was the rack which was used to stretch out your limbs and disjoint your bones and tendons.
A divine dictatorship is what the bible describes in the Old Testament and the church carried one out here on Earth. Nothing new but as history has taught us it is indeed nothing to be desired.
If you were to subscribe to a belief in the bible and its teachings regarding god and his relationship with mankind you would have to agree that he is demanding. According to the bible from the moment that you are born you have already incurred your first debt. That's right, you have a debt to god for redeeming you through the vicarious death and sacrifice of his son Jesus. It does not matter that you did nothing to god before or that you had nothing to do with the so called fall of mankind.
What people fail to realize is that religion, especially Christianity was used as a political tool to maintain order by the Roman Catholic church. Once they had gained political power as well they were able to utilize the full force of the Roman government to destroy any and all opposing belief systems. The goal was to subjugate the populace as a whole to the Roman church. The very doctrines themselves taught in the scriptures espouse complete and absolute submission to its god and the elders of the church. 1 Timothy 5:17 "Elders who do their work well while they are in charge earn double reward, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching." (NJB)
The catholic church prides itself and claims that it is a direct descendant of the apostles of Christ. Because of this they, like all Christian churches claim to be the true church of Christ. The church wants to control the lives of its members through the use of doctrine. As a Christian you are taught to believe without question, to only thing a certain way, to walk with humility because having pride is a sin. Most of our natural impulses as human beings are condemned in the bible and by the fictional god.
Christianity is nothing more than a modern day superstition that unfortunately has not died out. Religion seems to be a need for a lot of people because somehow it is comforting to know that when things are not going well at least "it's in Gods hands." The bible teaches you to abase yourself and abhor your own flesh because you are only alive today because of the great and wonderful mercies of the dictator in the sky.
Here is a question that is worth asking. What of those people who have had a horrible life, are they supposed to be thankful to the lord as well for giving them that life? I once was discussing this issue with a theist friend of mine from work and he was telling me how we are all supposed to be grateful to his god for sacrificing his son and redeeming us from sin. My reply was that I personally did not offend god in the garden it was Adam and Eve. Moreover I did not ask god for redemption, if it were not for the teachings of the bible I would not have known that I had a need to be redeemed.
Through the scriptures we have all as a species inherited vicariously a sinful nature. It does not even make sense to put that on yourself when I am pretty sure if you has no knowledge of god at all your life would go on just fine. The church through the teachings of the scriptures wants to even carry on their sentence on you even after death. The threat of hell fire is ever present and the only way to avoid it according to them is to buy their product.
There is a saying that states that power corrupts and the church has demonstrated this throughout their bloody and dark history. Popes and clergy in the name of God ordering mass murder, rape, torture all for the crime of not accepting their brand of religion. Ignorant Christians of today long for a theocracy but since they have not taken the time to do their homework they are unaware that we have been there and done that. If you really want to know what a theocracy would be like just read up on the various crusades and witch hunts conducted by the church in 1095.
These so called holy men of God committed the most heinous crimes ever on their fellow man. They made the holocaust look like a picnic. The tales regarding the horrors committed during the crusades pale in comparison. They were gutting people with swords, burning people alive, and they even implemented the use of several home made torture devices and methodologies of inflicting excruciating pain. The most famous of these devices was the rack which was used to stretch out your limbs and disjoint your bones and tendons.
A divine dictatorship is what the bible describes in the Old Testament and the church carried one out here on Earth. Nothing new but as history has taught us it is indeed nothing to be desired.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Theology changes with the times
One thing I have noticed since being a Christian 17 years ago is that theologians are constantly reinterpreting the scriptures to keep up with the times and go with the discoveries of science. I came from a very fundamental church where we believed that the bible was inerrant (without errors)and that everything contained within its covers was absolutely true.
As a believer who has read the bible in its entirety four times I found that the more I read it the more insane the stories seemed. As an atheist I have found that I am not the only one who has rejected his former beliefs as a result of having read the bible. It's no wonder the Roman Catholic church at its inception translated the works into Latin and did not allow anyone but clergy to read and study its contents. Not to mention that at the time the majority of the populace was illiterate and could not read Latin. The church had suppressed these works for quite some time and went to great lengths to keep these works from the lay person.
Today everyone has the privilege to own a bible and to read it but surprisingly few people do. Most believers I have encountered have never read the bible in its entirety, on the contrary I have found that many atheist have in fact read the bible.
Today's theologians now teach that the first 11 chapters of Genesis are not literal nor historical tales but are rather allegorical. It begins with the creation myth and ends with the tale of the tower of Babel where believers once thought that the worlds languages originated from. But what I find most interesting is that if the bible did not mean for Adam and Eve to be actual historical figures why create a genealogy for Adam if he did not exist in the first place? Why go through the seven days of creation in chapters one and two if this never happened?
Why did Cain kill Abel and where did Cain find a wife if according to the myth his family was the first family. Even though Cain was cursed by God to wander the Earth as a vagabond (Genesis 4:11,12) he did quite well for himself by settling in the land of Nod. In Genesis 4:17 it tells us that Cain went on and had a son and built a city named after him called Enoch, not bad for a vagabond cursed by the Lord.
The psuedo-scientific aspects found in Genesis once having been proven false by real science later changed their stories several times to accommodate the latest discoveries. Many Christian groups now accept the theory of evolution with God as its author of course. Some of the liberal churches have even begun to accept gays in their midst and I heard of one church whose pastor is actually a lesbian!
Today the church has moved on from the old traditional hymns to other genres of music, I have heard Christian rock, rap, salsa, merengue, texmex, and even pop just to name a few. A lot of the churches are shedding some of the ritualistic aspects in order to remain relevant in today's society. The only way in my opinion that the church can remain relevant is by accommodating people from all walks of life. Today's church is definitely modernized and they seem to have loosened up the reigns of formality and ritual to keep their coffers full and their pews occupied by gullible and superstitious.
Today's church will pretty much promise you heaven in exchange for your devotion to their lies and the contents of your wallet. Today's preachers and evangelists are generally telling the masses what they want to hear. Their are prosperity gospels that prey on the greed of man, faith healing for a prayer and a few bucks, and the surety of heaven regardless of the life you have led if you would only acknowledge that you believe.
There is no honesty in religion, just the building of one lie on top of the other to keep the masses happy and the churches tax free "donations" flowing in like rivers of living water. If you are so inclined do some searching you will see how radical the changes in Christianity have been since the advent of scientific discoveries. It's definitely an eye opener and worth the journey to discover how bogus these myths are and how they continue to change with the tides of our modern age.
As a believer who has read the bible in its entirety four times I found that the more I read it the more insane the stories seemed. As an atheist I have found that I am not the only one who has rejected his former beliefs as a result of having read the bible. It's no wonder the Roman Catholic church at its inception translated the works into Latin and did not allow anyone but clergy to read and study its contents. Not to mention that at the time the majority of the populace was illiterate and could not read Latin. The church had suppressed these works for quite some time and went to great lengths to keep these works from the lay person.
Today everyone has the privilege to own a bible and to read it but surprisingly few people do. Most believers I have encountered have never read the bible in its entirety, on the contrary I have found that many atheist have in fact read the bible.
Today's theologians now teach that the first 11 chapters of Genesis are not literal nor historical tales but are rather allegorical. It begins with the creation myth and ends with the tale of the tower of Babel where believers once thought that the worlds languages originated from. But what I find most interesting is that if the bible did not mean for Adam and Eve to be actual historical figures why create a genealogy for Adam if he did not exist in the first place? Why go through the seven days of creation in chapters one and two if this never happened?
Why did Cain kill Abel and where did Cain find a wife if according to the myth his family was the first family. Even though Cain was cursed by God to wander the Earth as a vagabond (Genesis 4:11,12) he did quite well for himself by settling in the land of Nod. In Genesis 4:17 it tells us that Cain went on and had a son and built a city named after him called Enoch, not bad for a vagabond cursed by the Lord.
The psuedo-scientific aspects found in Genesis once having been proven false by real science later changed their stories several times to accommodate the latest discoveries. Many Christian groups now accept the theory of evolution with God as its author of course. Some of the liberal churches have even begun to accept gays in their midst and I heard of one church whose pastor is actually a lesbian!
Today the church has moved on from the old traditional hymns to other genres of music, I have heard Christian rock, rap, salsa, merengue, texmex, and even pop just to name a few. A lot of the churches are shedding some of the ritualistic aspects in order to remain relevant in today's society. The only way in my opinion that the church can remain relevant is by accommodating people from all walks of life. Today's church is definitely modernized and they seem to have loosened up the reigns of formality and ritual to keep their coffers full and their pews occupied by gullible and superstitious.
Today's church will pretty much promise you heaven in exchange for your devotion to their lies and the contents of your wallet. Today's preachers and evangelists are generally telling the masses what they want to hear. Their are prosperity gospels that prey on the greed of man, faith healing for a prayer and a few bucks, and the surety of heaven regardless of the life you have led if you would only acknowledge that you believe.
There is no honesty in religion, just the building of one lie on top of the other to keep the masses happy and the churches tax free "donations" flowing in like rivers of living water. If you are so inclined do some searching you will see how radical the changes in Christianity have been since the advent of scientific discoveries. It's definitely an eye opener and worth the journey to discover how bogus these myths are and how they continue to change with the tides of our modern age.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)