The Embarrassment of Christ and the Poverty of Arrogance
Part 3: Religion Demands Hypocrisy, and Corrupts Critical Thought
Hypocrisy is an ugly thing, and does harm to those who practice it as well as those around them. I was struck by the similarity in tone between a personal experience of my own and one Christopher Hitchens relates. Hitchens tells us,
I have only once, in twenty-five years of often heated arguments in Washington, D.C., been threatened with actual violence. This was when I was at dinner with some staffers and supporters of the Clinton White House. One of those present … questioned me about my most recent trip to the Middle East. He wanted my opinion as to why the Muslims were so 'all-fired, god-damn fundamentalist.' I ran through my repertoire of explanations, adding that it was often forgotten that Islam was a relatively young faith, and still in the heat of its self-confidence. … I added that, for example, while there was little or no evidence for the life of Jesus, the figure of the Prophet Muhammad was by contrast a person ascertainable in history. The man changed color faster than anyone I have ever seen. After shrieking that Jesus Christ had meant more to more people than I could ever imagine, and that I was disgusting beyond words for speaking so casually, he drew back his foot and aimed a kick which only his decency--conceivably his Christianity--prevented him from landing on my shin. He then ordered his wife to join him in leaving. (127)
I had a similar, if less violent, conversation with my parents. We were having an after dinner talk, and my father mentioned how Islam calls itself "the religion of peace" when their religion commands them to kill the infidel, and their god justifies genocide. I replied that, though true of Islam, the same holds true of the Christian God, and Christ himself.
The Christian God commands the genocide of the Canaanites, I began to say.
On pointing this out, the 'changing of color' in my parents was remarkable. Disgust and anger were shown me for having quoted their own Bible. I was indignantly told the Christian God is different, because the "Canaanites are long dead, so His command to kill them all doesn't have any effect today." I paused to have a few sympathetic thoughts for the "forgotten and obliterated" Canaanites. I imagined an alternative future, slightly darker than our own, where an aging Eichmann says to his children "Hitler's Final Solution is not so bad, after all, for it is a thing of the past. No Jew lives today, so it hardly matters."
Hypocrisy is ugly.
I shut my mouth, and shortly took my leave. I wondered if perhaps my parents were justified. Maybe I was misinformed. I opened the Bible and checked the relevant verses. Turns out I was too generous with the Christian god.
The Christian god commands the genocide of not only the Canaanites, but also the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites (Exo 34:11). And that's just one verse. This is immediately after the Lord mercifully commands his own people to slaughter 3,000 of their own (Exo 32) for the crime of practicing a different religion.
I may note here that religious intolerance and persecution has been the cause of some of the worst tragedies to befall mankind. The gory god of Christianity consummated his hallowed Ten Commandments with a brutal slaughter of those of another faith.
In addition, this insatiable God personally slaughters every man, woman, and child of several large cities for failing to bow to His will. He enacts a grotesque execution against one of his own followers for the crime of watching her Lord destroy her home. Lest we forget, the Bible also reveals that this mass-murderer committed the ultimate crime against humanity in the Flood, indiscriminately slaughtering every last human with one exception. We are lead to believe children were crushed in flood-tempests, and unborn babes smothered beneath an endless storm. All life was annihilated, except for two of each species which the merciful God saw fit to save. The innocent and unborn children were not worth saving, but hey, at least two mosquitoes were granted divine grace!
This is to say nothing of the verses describing how slaves are to be kept (Exo 21), treated, beat, and what a good follower of the Lord is to do with the captured women of the people whom He has commanded to be ethnically cleansed (Num 31:17-18).
It has been objected that this was the Old Testament, and that the New Testament is better. There is a problem with this argument. In the first place, it is absurd to expect a person to believe the God of the Old Testament to be a substantially different God than that of the New Testament. God is eternal, right? If Christianity saw the Old Testament as a useless and ugly throwback to a more primitive era, they would not have based their entire theology on it, namely the concept of original sin and the need for forgiveness.
Secondly, it is simply not true that the Old Testament is worse than the New. By far, the most chilling and hideously inhuman verses come from Christ's mouth. The god of the Old Testament was a brutal torturer of his followers in life, but in all the books of the Old Testament never is it even implied that the tortures might continue after death. Death is a refuge from the petty tyranny of God, but He closes that loophole with Christ.
It is not until we encounter Christ's own words that even the concept of a hell is introduced to the tradition of this death cult. Christ condemns the disobedient to an eternity of torture (Mat 25:46), and commands his followers to view unbelievers as fools who can do no good, and are indelibly corrupt (Psalm 14:1 and Mark 9:43). The Old Testament God tortured those who live--the New Testament God is not satisfied with this half measure. He must immolate in perpetuity even those who have died.
The words of the Bible and those who promote its teachings are an embarrassment to civil society. It is hoped that as more literary analysis is done upon the teachings of this bronze-age, tradition, and that as more and more people read the actual words they praise as God-given, the power of the religious will continue to wither and fade.
In the market of free ideas, where philosophical shoppers can read and compare all the available texts, the Bible is a proven loser.
Works Cited
Hitchens, Christopher. god is not Great. Hachette Book Group USA, New York, NY, 2007.
Lincoln, Abraham: http://www.classic-literature.co.uk/american-authors/19th-century/abraham-lincoln/the-writings-of-abraham-lincoln-04/.
Merton, Thomas. Mysticism and Zen Masters. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, NY, 1967.
Otto, Rudolf. The Idea of the Holy. Oxford University Press, New York, NY, 1959.
The Bible, King James version.
Turgenev, Ivan. "Prayer" from Poems in Prose. http://www.online-literature.com/turgenev/2707/.