BIBLE GOD ENCOURAGES RELIGIOUS WARS
In
the Bible, violence for religious reasons is encouraged and commanded.
In
Genesis, God kills all the people on earth in the flood and spared Noah and a
few others. Obviously, he did not do
this to save lives which would be the only justification for murder. When God could kill people just because their
morals do not fit with his perception of morals he could delegate this right to
human beings. Nobody can say that God is
forced to kill to save lives. Nobody can
believe in God and denounce capital punishment even when it is extended to
thieves and people who have sex outside marriage as an absolute evil.
Deuteronomy
13 commands the murder of Israelite persons and groups who begin to adore false
Gods. No one can say that God only
commands this when it is murderous pagan religions that are followed. If God’s people could kill them then they
could spare them but force them not to practice the evil side of their
faith. Even if his people did murder
many it would not justify killing all of them.
There were plenty of pagan nations to be feared so it was nonsense to
kill some of them to prevent them taking over.
It would only encourage their neighbours to form a mighty coalition
against
Christians
say that
Christians
say that the pagans sinned so terribly that they had to be destroyed. There is no evidence even in the Law that
they did. God said their deeds were
abominations but that is not the same as saying they were wilfully evil. So, God’s silence makes it plain that pagans
are to be slaughtered merely on account of their beliefs which he does not
agree with. This is unsurprising for
capital punishment is obligatory even though the victim could have committed
the crime through some unknown mental ailment.
God
told Saul through Samuel that he wanted to punish the people of Amalek for
blocking Israel when they were coming out of Egypt by getting Israel to put
them all to death and even the children (1 Samuel 15). This was commanding war both for revenge and
obedience to the Lord. Christians will
say that revenge was not the only reason but one reason and that the main
reason was to eradicate their evil. But
God would have stated the main reason if that had been right and that is what a
responsible and careful god would do.
God is condoning war for the purpose of vengeance. Christians say that it was good of God to
command things like that because there is a life after death for the dead babies
who would have inherited the evil characteristics of their parents had they not
been killed and that the parents should have been killed for they were
irremediably evil (page 104, Christianity for the Tough-Minded). Loads of evil parents have good children and
even the Bible does not say that the Amalekites were that bad and besides God
had founded no religion for them for the Hebrews did not want them in theirs
and there was no trace of the doctrine of a holy and nice afterlife in Israel
at that period of time. God hadn’t
revealed any of it so how could the afterlife justify what the Hebrews did when
they didn’t believe in it? What right
had they to kill over Samuel who was only one man claiming to speak the word of
God? And it is judgmental to accuse the
people God told
Jesus
was certainly not a pacifist though he may not have lifted a sword against
anybody when he was on earth. He
sanctioned the Law and the Prophets, the whole Old Testament as the Jews have
it. The Law and the Prophets promise
that one day this king will come and lead the Church into bloody warfare
against evildoers and unbelievers (Joel 3; Ezekiel 38-39; Zechariah 12 and 14;
Daniel 2:44; Revelation 17:14; Revelation 2:26-27; Revelation 19:14). Jesus claimed to be this king and that he
would return as the Old Testament foretold.
When Jesus was not a pacifist it is hardly right to assume that he did
away with the Old Testament’s murderous and bloodthirsty laws. He never needed to fight when he was alive
except when he caused a violent riot in the
Read
my book, Bible Commands Christians to Murder, and see how far the New Testament
really is from pacifism. My book
demonstrates that the New Testament does not do away with the bloody laws that
were formulated by God in the Law of Moses in the Old Testament. A book that commands such acts should be
banned for those who have no way to learn sense it is a malign influence on the
person who is tempted to kill in the name of God. Many disturbed people have read the Bible for
it is so easily available and have found it to steer their urges in an
extremely violent direction and to give them the twisted religious motivation
to go out and attack and even kill people.
The
truth is that we are all disturbed to some extent which underlines how
poisonous books like the Bible are and takes us closer to behaving like
psychopaths. Evangelical Christians who
believe they are guaranteed salvation would see no reason why they cannot
fulfil Bible prophecies such as by exploding a nuclear bomb in
Belief
in a divine protector has given the likes of George Bush Jun the confidence to
threaten nuclear destruction confident that God won’t let the world perish in a
conflagration that will eliminate all life.
Even if religion gives comfort and support – a claim that I deny
categorically – it is better for us all to do without it and be fairly
depressed than to be part of something that will one day wipe out all life on
earth forever. Romans 13 says that the
authorities that run even pagan nations are appointed by God and not to be
overthrown. When you think of all the
decent men that would not wage nuclear war that could have been chosen as
president of the
| Problem | Religion | Atheism |
| Fundamentalism, that is putting belief before people
|
Has beliefs and in danger of leading to fundamentalism. Jesus
sanctioned fundamentalism when he said that we must love God in first
place
|
Has no religious beliefs. Atheism is not the denial that God exists
though many atheists do deny he exists. Atheism is rather the absence
of belief in god or gods. Christians are atheists after all as far as
Zeus is concerned. They don't believe in the gods of paganism. There
is no possibility of fundamentalism in relation to atheists.
Atheism is purely a negative stance in the sense that it is the absence of belief. The bloody regimes of Communism were not based on the absence of belief but on their own kind of faith. Atheism cannot be blamed for what the Communists did. |
| Dogmatism, dogmatism is the attitude that "We are right and we are not going to change no matter what the evidence says". | Based on dogma.
|
Atheists all have different ideas and approaches to life. They make
suggestions but do not enforce these suggestions as dogma. The atheist
who is dogmatic is really approaching religion in his attitude. The
proper atheist doesn't do that.
Atheists do not see beliefs as truth. Beliefs should be taught as beliefs and not as truth. Religion seeks control of schools to teach beliefs as truth. Jesus sanctioned this bigotry when he said that he was the Truth. |
| Disrespect towards religious belief
|
The Bible insults and mocks the Gods and beliefs of other faiths. To insult a belief is to insult the God of truth that gave the belief and must be punished under blasphemy law. Religion should not be criticised. | Satire and mockery of religion may be necessary to stop it doing harm in the world. These tools make great impact. Religious beliefs are only human creations and everything human should be examined and we should have the right to say why we disagree with it. Religion itself has to contradict other religion and criticise it to exist. For example, Islam teaches that the Christian notion of God having a Son called Jesus who is also God is extreme blasphemy. The Bible and Church says of the heretic, "Let him be anathema". |
| Intolerance of religion
|
Each religion tends to intolerance of other religions but forbids
intolerance of itself.
|
Atheism looks for sincerity and helps people to achieve it. The
wise atheist does not believe that any God is going to help people
believe in the truth and that that entitles them to be dogmatic and
intolerant. Tolerance means you allow people to do what you disapprove
of and criticise. It does not mean you must not criticise what they
do. In fact if you didn't express your disapproval it wouldn't be
tolerance. Religion tries to stop people criticising it. No liar or
fraud likes to be looked at by the sceptic. Tolerance is a paradox. We
tolerate in others what we find intolerable. Any regime, even one that claims to be godless, can be totalitarian. But if a regime tells people that they are stupid so they need grace from God to see the truth and the truth is that the regime is right then that regime is totalitarian in the fullest sense of the word. Atheist systems even if they are totalitarian cannot put people down or deceive them to that extent. Human systems are only human and not so sacred that they cannot be critically examined. Religious faith and faith in God makes for worse totalitarianism than unbelief ever could. |
| Religious genocide
|
The Bible God commands the destruction of God's people who start to
follow other gods. The New Testament describes Hell as the second death
or death and Jesus vowed to send people to there for disagreeing with
him and disobeying him.
|
Atheists should not be so insecure that they would need to resort to
mass murder to see the end of religion. Religion lies that Hitler was an atheist. Christianity tries to avoid the blame for the Holocaust of the Jews. But the truth is Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf, "In defending myself against the Jews, I am doing the Lord's work". In Vienna in 1938, Hitler declared after the Anschluss, "I believe that it was God's will that from here a boy was sent into the Reich and that he grew up to become leader of the nation". People go to war not for material benefits for themselves or any benefits but to satisfy their sense of loyalty to the leader of the country. Religion is a personality cult. Christianity is based on Jesus and Islam on Mohammed and so on. Atheists don't carry on like that so atheism should lead to less war than religion. The Church says that Joseph Stalin the monster was an atheist and blames the blood on his hands on atheism. He ran a Communist atheistic regime. But read the 1936 Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. It was the law of Stalin's USSR. It guaranteed freedom of speech, of assembly, of meetings and street processions. It guaranteed the rights of the citizen. It specified that arbitrary arrest was forbidden and that his or her home or correspondence was his business and should not be invaded by the state. Atheism taught this. Stalin and the secret police violated it at every turn. Therefore what they did was the violation of atheism. Atheism cannot be blamed. The normal person will feel tremendous compassion for the individual. And more so when that individual is the victim of random evil such as disease or poverty. These things can happen to anybody. The compassion will be made stronger if the person believes the individual will lose everything at death. Such feelings should urge the atheist to work for a better world. Religion stunts them by making out that God has a use for evil and disease. Jesus told the poor to make their poverty worse by giving away their cloak to anybody that steals their coat. Religious believers don't show much of an inclination to go and help the poor for they feel that God will make it up to the poor in an afterlife. The atheist who denies the reality of the supernatural miracle of free will will be able to look upon the most vile of actions without hating the perpetrator. This is the fullest form of atheism for it says people are programmed and not free. All other forms of atheism fall short. Pure atheism should not lead to trouble but to peace. It rejects all doctrines that can be used as an excuse for persecuting people while religion reveres such doctrines.
|
CONCLUSION
Religion
does lead to war and suffering and intolerance and the Bible proves it.
Atheism that seeks to help people in their self-development must take
its place.
BIBLE
QUOTATIONS FROM:
The
Amplified Bible
BOOKS
CONSULTED
A
Critical Review of Humanist Manifestos 1 & 2, Homer Duncan MC,
International Publications,
A
Shattered Visage The Real Face of Atheism,
A
Thief in the Night, John Cornwell, Penguin,
A
Woman Rides the Beast, Dave Hunt, Harvest House,
All
Roads Lead to
Apologetics
and Catholic Doctrine, Part 1, Most Rev M Sheehan DD, M H Gill & Son,
Apologetics
for the Pulpit, Aloysius Roche Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd,
Blind
Alley Beliefs, David Cook, Pickering & Inglis,
Catholicism
and Fundamentalism, Karl Keating, Ignatius Press,
Christianity,
David Albert Jones, OP, Family Publications,
Convert
or Die, Edmond Paris, Chick Publications,
Correction
and Discipline of Children, John R Rice, Sword of the Lord,
Crisis
of Moral Authority, Don Cupitt, SCM Press,
Documents
of the Christian Church, edited by Henry Bettenson, Oxford University Press,
Does
Does
Conscience Decide? Bishop William J
Philbin, Catholic Truth Society of
Ecumenical
Jihad, Peter Kreeft, Ignatius Press,
European
Union and Roman Catholic Influence In
Fascism
in the
Fifty
Years in the “Church” of
God
and the Gun, The Church and Irish Terrorism, Martin Dillon, Orion,
God Is
Not Great, The Case Against Religion, Christopher Hitchens, Atlantic Books,
‘God,
That’s not fair!’ Dick Dowsett, OMF Books, Overseas Missionary Fellowship,
Handbook
of Christian Apologetics, Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli, Monarch,
Human
Rights, Michael Bertram Crowe Veritas,
In God’s Name, David
Yallop, Corgi,
Is
the Roman Catholic Church a Secret Society?
John V Simcox, Warren Sandell and Raymond Winch Watts & Co
Is There Salvation Outside The
Catholic Church? Fr J Bainvel SJ, TAN,
Jesuit
Plots, From Elizabethan to Modern Times, Albert Close, Protestant Truth
Society,
Jesus
the Only Saviour, Tony and Patricia Higton, Monarch
New
Catholic Encyclopedia, The Catholic University of America and the McGraw-Hill
Book Company, Inc., Washington, District of Columbia, 1967
Radio
Replies, Vol 1, Frs Rumble and Carty, Radio Replies Press,
Radio
Replies, Vol 2, Frs Rumble and Carty, Radio Replies Press,
Radio
Replies, Vol 3, Frs Rumble and Carty, Radio Replies Press,
Religion of Peace? Why Christianity is and Islam Isn't, Robert Spencer, Regnery Publishing Inc, Washington, 2007 - a curious book in that it simply doesn't mention how Christian Scriptures incited believers, eg Calvinists, to attack and destroy other believers who were thought to be heretics and doesn't mention the infallible decrees of the Roman Catholic Church commanding the violent destruction of heretics but wants to give the impression that unlike the Koran, the Christian Scriptures and the Christian religion do not make calls for religious violence
Religious
Freedom, A Fundamental Right, Michael Swhwartz, Liguori Publications,
Roman
Catholicism, Loraine Boettner, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company,
Secular
Humanism – The Most Dangerous Religion in
Sex
Education in Our Public Schools, Jack Hyles, Sword of the Lord,
Sex,
Dissidence and Damnation, Jeffrey Richards, Routledge,
Spy
in the Vatican 1941-45, Branko Bokun, Tom Stacey Books,
Summa
Theologica of St Thomas Aquinas, Part II, Second Number, Thomas Baker,
The
Case for Faith, Lee Strobel, Zondervan,
The
Christian and War, Robert Moyer, Sword of the Lord,
The
Church of Rome, Wilson Ewin,
The
Encyclopaedia of Heresies and Heretics, Leonard George, Robson Books,
The
End Of Faith, Religion, Terror And The Future Of Reason, Sam Harris, Free
Press,
The
Inquisition of the Middle Ages, Henry Charles Lea, Citadel,
The
Last Temptation of Christ, Its Deception and What you Should Do About it, Erwin
T Lutzer, Moody Press, Chicago, 1988
The
Pestilence of AIDS, Hugh Pyle, Sword of the Lord,
The
Rise of the Spanish Inquisition, Jean Plaidy, Star,
The
Sacred Executioner Human Sacrifice and the Legacy of Guilt Hyam Maccoby Thames
and
The
Secret History of the Jesuits,
The
Truth About the Homosexuals, Dr Hugh F Pyle, Sword of the Lord,
The
Truth that Leads to Eternal Life, Watchtower,
The
Unequal Yoke, John R Rice, Sword of the Lord,
The
The
Their
Kingdom Come, Robert Hutchison, Corgi,
Unholy
Sacrifices of the New Age, Paul de Parrie and Mary Pride, Crossway Books,
Vatican
Vicars
of Christ, Peter de Rosa, Corgi Books,
Walking
with Unbelievers, Michael Paul Gallagher SJ, Veritas Dublin 1985
War
and Politics The Christian’s Duty, Peter Watkins, Christadelphian Bible
Mission,
What
About Those Who Have Never Heard? Radio
Bible Class,
Whatever
Happened to Heaven? Dave Hunt, Harvest
House, Publishers,
THE WWW
www.infidels.org/library/historical/joseph_mccabe/big_blue_books/book_10.html
Fascist Romanism Defies
Civilisation by Joseph McCabe
www.hom.net/~angels/democracy.html
Democracy is not a good form
of Government by Citizens for the Ten Commandments
www.mindspring.com/~bab5/BIB/lessons.htm
Is Christianity a Cult?