Perfect Fruit from a Rotten Tree
Before I get into the point that I hope to make I would appreciate if you would join me in a little thought experiment. Imagine for a second that we have a very strict father with many sons, and every day the sons work hard to get whatever task their father has laid out for them to do. The whole time they are working, the father never moves to help at all and always just sits and watches over their work on a hawk. Every time there is a small mistake on how to do the task or they break the rules, the father makes them face retribution. Eventually, this father gets annoyed at his sons always messing up and drowns half of them in the bathtub in order to purge his family and make it more holy. Of course, there is still much work to do and those sons are eventually replaced with new sons that try to be better just a bit harder because of fear of what their father might do. Amongst these new sons is a single son who always acts perfectly, and never once requires to be reprimanded by the father.
As the older sons see the perfect son grow up and never once father their father’s wrath, they begin to become jealous. Remembering how their father had killed their brothers, they decide that their perfect brother should meet this same fate. They drag him into the shed where their father keeps the tools and nail him to the wall. When they are finished they find that their father has been watching them the whole time and simply says, “This was all part of my plan. He died so that you may be forgiven.” The sons are dumbfounded and seriously believe that now their constant punishments would stop and they would be able to actually enjoy life, but as soon as the sons go back to doing anything wrong in the father’s eyes they still get punished. The only difference is that now the father makes a point to say that their transgressions have been forgiven as they are beaten.
The father from this thought experiment acts in many ways similar to the god of Abraham or yahweh. Yahweh has been unfair to humanity since the very beginning according to Genesis. He cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden for a minor transgression: disobeying him and eating a single fruit. Obviously if my son ever disobeys me and eats food that I have set aside and told him not to touch, I’m not going to throw him out of the house and do everything I can to make his life outside of the house miserable.
Even if you consider the punishment for stealing the fruit to be just, there is the fact that before Adam and Eve ate of fruit they had no concept of good and evil as the eating of the fruit was what gave them this concept. If a person has no concept of good and evil, how can another justly punish them for doing an act of evil, for that person doesn’t know that what they do is wrong. There is also the fact that yahweh knew that the devil would come to tempt them in the guise of a snake, yet yahweh made no attempt to protect the garden from tempters and let his people be forsaken and led into evil. Yahweh could have simply protected Adam and Eve from the tempters or given them foreknowledge of good and evil so that they could have made an informed decision.
After this Adam and Eve were left to populate the Earth and the stories of Noah and Abraham and Moses are played out till the Jews end up in the holy land of Israel. After King David comes to rule over the Israelites, Israel starts to fall into cycles of worshiping other gods and yahweh sends judges to bring Israelites back to the “true faith”. These judges go about their work by murdering scores of people of the various pagan faiths, generally through a liberal use of a jawbone of some pack animal. It never says that these pagan traditions do anything that is against the morality of our modern era. These pagans aren’t known for human sacrifice or cannibalism or even for declaring holy wars (See crusades and battle of Jericho).
Yahweh is just acting like a jealous teenage girl, who can’t stand that someone else was taken to the prom and decides to sabotage the girl who was taken to the prom by her crush. This is even worse when you consider the fact that yahweh made no effort to protect the pure humans Adam and Eve from being led into temptation by his fallen angel, but yahweh had no problem in vicariously murdering at least a couple thousand all because they weren’t worshiping him.
If we read through the stories of all the judges, we reach the book of 2nd Chronicles and come across King Uzziah of Judah. King Uzziah is described to be a god fearing man who served yahweh all his life and won many battles through the power of yahweh and even dedicated many temples to yahweh. When we first read about his life, we only get the image of a faithful follower or even a zealot, but one day near the end of his life suddenly his faithfulness becomes no longer appreciated.
King Uzziah comes into the temple that is designated only for the High Priest to enter. He goes to burn incense at the altar, and is caught by the High Priest Azariah who tells him that it is not his place to make offerings to yahweh. Automatically the warrior King Uzziah becomes enraged at the high priest for scolding him when all he wanted to do was to give thanks to his lord at the altar instead of his usual way: building towers on city walls to protect the chosen people of yahweh. Yahweh then afflicts King Uzziah with leprosy for breaking one of his rules, and remains so afflicted for the rest of his days.
Obviously King Uzziah was breaking the rules, as he knew that only sons of Aaron were allowed to burn the incense for the lord, but I don’t think that giving the man, who had up until then had served him faithfully, leprosy is a fair punishment. One because the act itself hurt no one unlike some of the acts that yahweh punishes such as murder, as well as an act yahweh never forbade in the ten commandments: rape. Then there is the fact that this is only an old testament law and one of the first of which Jesus does away with when he comes and establishes his own church on earth. This obviously means yahweh himself didn’t find the act too punishable or he would have never changed the laws when Jesus came.
Speaking of Jesus, I just want to say how much I love Him. Jesus is nothing like His father when it comes to morality and goodness, and Jesus is easily the best standard by which one could live their life, having never sinned or broken any of the 613 laws that are in the old testament. Jesus also possessed all 7 of the heavenly virtues: chaste, humility, patience, charity, diligence, temperance, and the one He had most in abundance, kindness.
Jesus was never tempted by the same wants as the flesh, going so far as to never even take a wife; although, some claim that He might have had some kind of relation with Mary Magdalene. Even if Jesus did take her as a wife as some might claim (thought it is not ever mentioned in the bible), He still never lusted after any woman and would have married her out of love. Jesus was incredibly humble, going about His life without making an exaggeration of any of His abilities and tending to show what He could do (which was usually healing someone of some ailment) rather than simply aggrandizing His own name.
Jesus was always patient in letting things come to pass and always followed the will of yahweh. This is generally considered a good thing in the Old Testament, where David is venerated for delivering himself into the hands of Saul rather than killing him because it is yahweh’s plan. I do want to venerate this type of patience; however, I do care for the actual patience that this virtue describes, and that is being slow to anger. I must admit that I have yet to read the Bible cover to cover; however, I have read and been preached quite a lot of it, and only remember one story in which Jesus becomes angry. This time was when a large group of people had turned a temple into a common marketplace trying to spread greed into a house of worship and in essence stealing from the poor who felt compelled to buy things because it was endorsed by the priest. Even this anger is relatively nothing, considering that it is not written that He harms any of the people who are working the stalls and at most destroys their property.
Jesus was diligent in ministering to the people of Israel and went out to all the many parts to give sermons. Jesus’s work was not simply limited to proselytization but also to the healing of those afflicted by all manners of illness and disabilities. There are countless stories of Jesus speaking to those unable to walk, and then those same people being able to carry their own mattress out after He had blessed them. As well as stories of Jesus laying His hands upon the blind and they being able to see for the first time in their life.
Jesus’s diligence was almost always directly related to His great amount of charity. It is said in the Bible that Jesus Himself lived a very modest lifestyle without any true luxuries; however, He was quick to find ways to give to those who were destitute, such as when He was able to create enough food to feed the multitude with just a basket of fish and a few loaves of bread. Obviously a lot of the acts of charity that Jesus did could only be done because He had the power to preform miracles, but being the Messiah doesn’t exactly pay the bills, so it wasn’t possible for Jesus to give money to the people that He had earned. Even though Jesus possessed abilities that others did not have, His acts of charity should still be acknowledged because He used them for the gains of others and not himself as well as giving these things freely. Jesus also did not ask anything of others except to be good to one another.
Temperance is not a virtue that needs to be elaborated on very much. It is suffice to say that Jesus did not eat gigantic meals or gorge Himself until He couldn’t eat any more but rather ate only bread and wine when He was not fasting. The virtue I truly want to talk about is kindness, and how Jesus was as well known for kindness as any saint or Ghandi or the like.
I have already talked about how Jesus healed the lame and was liberal with the amount of charity He gave out, but truly the greatest act of kindness that one could ever do is to bring the dead back to life as it would ease the suffering of their loved ones immensely. Jesus does this immense act of kindness not only once but three times. Jesus does this mostly out of something that one doesn’t see in pretty much any other religious text from gods, and that is empathy. Jesus has the capacity to understand the pain of other humans and is all too understanding of the pain of loss. This is something that yahweh can never fathom as he is much to distant from humanity to ever be able to empathize; however, he could be able to sympathize even if he fails to do it constantly.
The other kindness that Jesus gives is his constant forgiveness. There is a point in the New Testament where Jesus speaks to a prostitute, and one would expect that He would condemn her for what she does is unholy and the punishment that the Old Testament gives for prostitution is stoning; however, Jesus turns his back on this law and instead talks to her like a person and although He tells her that what she does is wrong, He does say that if she only repents she will be forgiven. People in that time would have only treated a prostitute that well if they had hoped to gain something from that prostitute, but Jesus treats her well because he practices what he preaches and loves all of humanity. Jesus also goes out of his way to find those who have strayed from the path of morality in order to gain his apostles to help them atone for their sins and help them become better people and forgives them of their wrong doings.
Yahweh cannot claim to be possess these virtues, at least in as much abundance as Jesus can. In fact I would go so far as to say that yahweh is possessed by the seven deadly sins and fails in many aspects to abide by that same standard that he puts humanity to. To begin with, we have the issue of the virtue chaste/sin lust. Obviously yahweh has no physical form and thus it is impossible for him to reproduce like a human can, but I do not believe it to be a stretch to say he is lustful since he did impregnate a virgin young girl, whom had been chaste with her husband and wasn’t even of marrying age by modern American standards, all while they were out of wedlock.
Yahweh was obviously not humble as he was quite content in making people build temples and entire societies in reverence of himself. Yahweh never once accepted what I would consider the imperfection of his actions where he was harsh on humanity, and insisted that he was all of the omni-s: omnipresent, omniscient, omnimoral. In fact, Yahweh had so much pride in himself that he grew envious of anyone that humanity dared worship instead of himself. Yahweh had no problem in killing infidels or having his own followers kill infidels. One might say that yahweh was simply punishing many of these people for being invaders, but he never did anything to stop Israel and Judah from being at war during the times that they were separate nations even though the nature of the conflict was very similar to that of the Palestinian invaders with the only difference being that both Judah and Israel were Jewish countries.
Yahweh throughout the Old Testament is known for being a vengeful god and one that was quick to anger. Yahweh would become angry with his children if they ever disobeyed his laws and was always reliable in delivering punishment to these disobedient children. Jesus on the other hand was always the embodiment of mercy and forgiveness. Even after He was whipped by Pilot and his men, had a crown of thorns placed upon his head, forced to drag his own cross through the streets, and finally crucified, he still forgave those who had done him wrong. As was nailed to the cross he looked to heaven and said “Forgive them father for they know not what they have done.” How many could have all this done to them and still not only preach forgiveness but also give it freely? Definitely not yahweh.
Yahweh could not even be bothered to inform Adam and Eve of the punishment that would await them should they eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It is impossible for me to tell if this was a matter of simple indifference and laziness or if it was an act of malevolence in which yahweh hoped that they would go against his will in order for him to somehow justify punishing Adam and Eve. Either way it is at least sinful and at most massively immoral. Yahweh wasn’t very diligent in helping out his chosen people to read the holy land as he made sure that they wandered around in a desert for about 40 years surviving on only manna before they were allowed to arrive.
The matter of temperance is very similar to lust in that yahweh does not have a physical form and cannot eat the way that humans can; however, a similar sin to gluttony is that of greed. After all if you have the compulsion to have tons of expensive objects than you are likely to have a similar compulsion to fill your with food as both cater to an urge to have more than simply enough to satisfy one’s needs, and yahweh definitely has a compulsion to have expensive objects as he was certain to make sure that the gates were made of gold and the streets made of marble.
Obviously yahweh has the capability to make everything and anything, even being able to create things that defy what we consider logical and break the laws of our universe. Instead of using this power to give freely to those in need, yahweh decides to use this power to create a luxurious place for all his followers to come to as well as throughout the Old Testament giving kingdoms and rewards only to those who serve him throughout their lives. Yahweh does not ever in the Bible give freely out of the kindness of his heart, simply because someone needs it. Yahweh only gives to those people who have stoked his ego and already gave something up in the veneration of him.
All of this I have said against yahweh may make it seem as though I am trying to create doubt in yahweh within yourself, but I believe quite faithfully in the existence of yahweh and in the Messiah, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. I simply do not believe yahweh to be a immoral and just god. I do not even believe yahweh to be immoral for not answering the prayers of everyone in the world and failing to make it a paradise. After all how often do we come home from our jobs to our expensive houses and cars and generally unnecessary things and decide not to donate to so many amazing start ups and NGO’s that are helping the world to become a better place? How often do we forsake doing any kind of community work because it is an inconvenience to us, even when it could do as much as provide food and shelter for the homeless in our own community. If we really put all of our effort into it then we could make the world a paradise, simply by deciding to forsake short term comfort. I believe yahweh to be immoral because he committed acts of distance malevolence against all of humanity and has more bad than even the Devil himself. For even if Lucifer was the one who lead Adam and Eve into temptation, it was yahweh who created all suffering that humanity faced.
Yahweh may have created the heavens and the earth, but man created the whole of society and created every good thing thing that has ever happened after initial creation. Man was the one who created the Ark while yahweh created the floods. It was the son of man who was pure and yahweh who had sin. If you want some great powerful and moral figure to believe in, then simply believe in yourself and the rest of humanity, and if for some reason you cannot believe in yourself, then believe in those who believe in you.