Click image to enlarge.Since I have blocked anonymous comments on this blog, the amount of hate mail I receive has plummeted. That's not to say I don't receive some pretty vile stuff from time to time - some messages have bordered on death threats. Needless to say, those threats typically come from those claiming to be "godly Christians." Yes, I am very hard on religion much of the time, but it's generally from a perspective of what fallible, and hypocritical men (and some cases women) have done to turn the Gospel message into a platform for hate and horrific actions against other humans. Personally, I have nothing against the Gospel message itself, but like Thomas Jefferson I view that Old Testament in particular as a basis to justify almost any horrible behavior one wants: murder of women and children, wars of religion. The list goes on and on. Many of the Epistles in the New Testament are not a whole lot better - especially those written by St. Paul who obviously had his own heavy emotional and psychological baggage. Bob Felton, who is far tougher on religion than I am, has a good quote from Robert Ingersoll at Civil Commotion that looks at the toxicity that MANKIND has given to the Bible. It's not pretty, but it well sums up what the Bible has been and continues to be under the mindset of the Christianists and their historical predecessors. Where are the moderate Christian voices condemning this behavior? Here are some highlights:
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Ministers wonder how I can be wicked enough to attack the Bible.
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I will tell them: This book, the Bible, has persecuted, even unto death, the wisest and the best. This book stayed and stopped the onward movement of the human race. This book poisoned the fountains of learning and misdirected the energies of man.
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This book is the enemy of freedom, the support of slavery. This book sowed the seeds of hatred in families and nations, fed the flames of war, and impoverished the world. This book is the breastwork of kings and tyrants — the enslaver of women and children. This book has corrupted parliaments and courts. This book has made colleges and universities the teachers of error and the haters of science. This book has filled Christendom with hateful, cruel, ignorant and warring sects. This book taught men to kill their fellows for religion’s sake. This book funded the Inquisition, invented the instruments of torture, built the dungeons in which the good and loving languished, forged the chains that rusted in their flesh, erected the scaffolds whereon they died. This book piled fagots about the feet of the just.
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I attack this book because it is the enemy of human liberty — the greatest obstruction across the highway of human progress.
Ministers wonder how I can be wicked enough to attack the Bible.
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I will tell them: This book, the Bible, has persecuted, even unto death, the wisest and the best. This book stayed and stopped the onward movement of the human race. This book poisoned the fountains of learning and misdirected the energies of man.
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This book is the enemy of freedom, the support of slavery. This book sowed the seeds of hatred in families and nations, fed the flames of war, and impoverished the world. This book is the breastwork of kings and tyrants — the enslaver of women and children. This book has corrupted parliaments and courts. This book has made colleges and universities the teachers of error and the haters of science. This book has filled Christendom with hateful, cruel, ignorant and warring sects. This book taught men to kill their fellows for religion’s sake. This book funded the Inquisition, invented the instruments of torture, built the dungeons in which the good and loving languished, forged the chains that rusted in their flesh, erected the scaffolds whereon they died. This book piled fagots about the feet of the just.
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I attack this book because it is the enemy of human liberty — the greatest obstruction across the highway of human progress.
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For anyone who knows true history, it is hard to refute this analysis. And the evils of the past continue to be kept alive by the Christian fundamentalists and "conservatives" within institutions like the Catholic and Anglican Churches. Christ would no doubt be horrified to have these people call themselves his followers. WWJD?
1 comment:
You are a very intelligent person and you seem a nice and sensible one. Why anyone would wish to attack you is beyond me. It shows how very small they are and how shriveled their souls.
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