The God of the Bible

There are about 2700 gods in the world history. Christians do not believe in 2699 of those but, atheist do not believe in all. Moreover, there are about 33,000 registered religions in the Philippines alone. Most of these religions have one common book; the Bible. So I will be discussing the God of the Bible.

How much do you know God? We have been taught about him as early as pre-school however, did we ever check further. Have you investigated if the teachings of the said Bible is true especially that the teachings are from the god himself (John 1:1).

Richard Dawkins said "The god of the Old Testament is arguably the most pleasant character in fiction; Jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak, a vindictive bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully." 

Now, isn't that a very strong accusation? How can someone view god like that? Where is he coming from? Why is he despising God?  Let's find the answers from the Bible itself

God is Love (1 John 4:8)

Based on the Bible, God is Love. To understand love, let's check the definition of Love on 1 Corinthians 13 : 4-8 "Love is  patient. Love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking it is not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, it always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."

Keep these characteristics in mind. Now let's check God's words from the Bible and see if he is really love.

For the Lord your God is a Jealous God among you, lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you. (Deuteronomy 6:15)

"the lord whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God" (Exodus 34:14)

Wait, I though Love does not envy. But why is God jealous. isn't he love? This is already a contradiction in his own words(Bible). Okay. Maybe we just misunderstood him. let's check other verses.

"I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other Gods before me." (Leviticus 26:1) 

Okay. So this time he is self-seeking? Then there's more: 

Jeremiah 2:19 "Your turning from me will shame you, You will see what an evil, bitter thing it is to abandon your God and NOT TO FEAR HIM. I, the Lord of the heavens have spoken"

Ooookay ...  So he is love and yet he wanted to be feared. So basically his rule is not really out of love but out of fear. That is called tyranny. You may check the world history and find out what happened to tyrants. Are you sou sure you would like to serve one? The Bible teaches about unconditional love and yet for God, it's love him or suffer in hell? That actually is not unconditional love at all. But, let's check some more verses.

Ezekiel 9:5-7 "Show no mercy, have no pity! Kill them all-old and young, girls and women and little children"

What? God of love and yet teaching us to kill others and even children. I thought love your enemies so what's this?

So maybe, Peter here is referring to other God. But, how many gods are there? In Psalms 82:1 it says, "God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods" 

Oops wait! Did he say a congregation? So there are many gods? Could he be referring to Mount Olympus where Zeus, Aphrodite, Dionysus, Artemis and the other gods reside. It's a congregation. But, it contradicts his own words because in Deuteronomy 4:29 it says, "The Lord he is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no one else." Okay so this gets more and more confusing. Let's check other characteristics now. 

God Oppresses Women

While all of us are fighting for women's rights and gender equality, God already decided on it. In God's eyes, women will never be equal to men. Their rights are controlled, Men's rights should come first before women. Men have more privilege than a woman. Let's check the verses about it. 

1 Timothy 2:11-15 "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve."

1 Corinthians 14:34 "Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not to speak , but to submission as the law says. If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church."

God Allows Slavery

You say God is good all the time. Read these passages and you might change your mind. God treats people or slaves as livestocks to be bought and sold :

Leviticus 25:44-46 "However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you.  You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land.  You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance.  You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way."

God even allows slaves to be maltreated in these verses.

Exodus 21:20-21 "When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished.  If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property."

Luke 12:47-48 "The servant will be severely punished, for though he knew his duty, he refused to do it.  "But people who are not aware that they are doing wrong will be punished only lightly.  Much is required from those to whom much is given, and much more is required from those to whom much more is given."

God Allows Murder

In Spite of God's commandment that says, Exodus 20:13 "though shall not kill", he still ordered several murders and genocide upon the people. These verses will show god's bloodlust.

Luke 19:27 "As for my enemies; for those who do not accept my reign over them... Bring them here and slaughter them at my feet."

But that's not it, Check this several Bible verses. They are just too many so you better read them on your own. 

Exodus 20:13
Exodus 21:15
Exodus 22:17
Leviticus 20:9-10
Leviticus 20:27

Leviticus 21:9

Deutoronomy 13:13-19

So knowing these now, are you sure you still wanted to serve God? Check the facts again. Don't forget that atheists became atheists after reading the Bible. 

"I don't want to believe, I want to know" - Carl Sagan

The Ark

One of the most controversial and highly questioned story in the Bible is the story of the great flood. This is the story which currently shapes the believe of the origin of all of the modern species. One boat containing all of the animals that we see now. The search for the physical remains of the ark has held a fascination for Christians, Jews and Muslims for hundred of years. But, despite various claims, no scientific evidence have ever been found. Let's check the details further on this amazing story of Noah's ark.

Dimensions of the Ark

God spells out to Noah the dimensions of the ark: 300 cubits by 50 by 30. Using the longer "Egyptian royal cubit" of 529mm, this works out at 158.7m long by 26.45m wide by 15.87m high (520 feet 8 inches long by 86 feet 9.3 inches wide by 52 feet 0.8 inches high). This ship is to be made from Gopher wood. This ship also have 3 layers that could accommodate every pair of animal on board along with their food. Just imagine a full sized elephant, giraffe, horses, rhinos, hippos and other heavy weighted animals all in one ship made of wood. But not only that, the ark actually contains all of the species of the world as it is now. So therefore the arc contains Noah and his sons and their wives so 8 people; 17,400 birds; 12,000 reptiles; 9,000 mammals; 5,000 amphibians; and 2 Million insects. On top of it all, they brought with them food and water enough for a whole year. WOW!!! so excluding the insects which are very small, there is more than 43,000 species on board and the Ark still have enough space for food and water...for a year.. how amazing is that? That's really a miracle.

 Let's now compare this to one of the biggest ship in history; Titanic.

Titanic's dimensions is this : Length - 882 feet; Width; 92 feet; Height 104 feet; and this ship is made of steel. It's total capacity; 3547 people including the crew and enough probation for 2 weeks. Wait, what? How can the Ark which is relatively smaller than Titanic have bigger capacity? It actually carried 10 times more than the Titanic? This is virtually impossible but of course with God nothing is impossible; that's what they say.

This is the size comparison of the ark against other ships. It should look like this:





The Great Migration

Before and after the flood, the species of the land spread throughout the globe. It will be very absurd to think that all animals are in just one place while the rest of the world are barren. Most of these animals live thousand miles away from where Noah is. So when God decided to destroy the earth, thousands of animals traveled towards the Ark. That also happened after the animals disembarked the Ark. However, there's not enough evidence to prove this.

This is the map of the world. It was claimed that thousands of years ago, the world is just one continent called Pangaea. There are land bridges that connect all of this land together. This land bridges have been used by the animals to go to the ark. After the flood, this same land bridges are the means of the animals to spread onto the globe. Without it, these animals will only remain in one place. So basically due to this great migration, some animals died on the journey back to their current place now. Now take a look at this map.

Kangaroos are a unique species only found in Australia. So basically, these kangaroos will travel from middle east which is the location of the Ark towards Australia through the land bridges. Somewhere between the middle east and Australia there should be a fossil that will prove about this migration. From the ark, they will keep on hopping and they may reproduce along the way and thus fossils should be found. However, there is not a single one fossil found in between this 2 lands. Why? Where are the fossils? Why is there no evidence of the migration?



Noah's Neighbors

There is a riddle that goes this way. "There are 5 birds on a nest, one was shot. How many left?" The answer to this riddle is none as the remaining birds flew away. That is very logical. If the person beside you will get shot, you will definitely react to it either you will run tokeep yourself safe or you will try to help him. However, the story of the ark contradicts to this.

During the time when God said he will destroy the ark, Noah tried to preach the people about this and no one believed him and so God decided to destroy everyone but Noah. So he have been told to build the ark so that he and his family will be saved. But building a ship with the dimensions that God ordered is very impossible for just 4 people. Even if their wives help them it will still not be enough. Facing this dilemma, theists explain that Noah could have hired laborers to help him build the ark. This information is not written in the Bible but this is the best explanation that theist could come up with in regarding to build the Ark.

Considering this, building the ark could now be possible, However, it will raise a question, Why would Noah's laborers did not get into the ark? I understand that Noah have been ridiculed and being laughed at according to the Bible but if you notice someone building an ark in the middle of the mountain won't you wonder why? Will you not ask about it?

Whether Noah hired laborers or not, it will always raise a question on why is he building an ark? His neighbors will see the animals crowding in the ark and they will definitely be fascinated. They will definitely see animals that are not available in their area. There is a great chance that the people will believe. Don't you think they will ask? And if someone asked Noah about it, then he will tell God's plan of destruction. He will not lie about it because he is righteous and he preached about the God even before building the Ark. You may be skeptical about it but, you will always choose to preserve yourself. Consider this, if someone tells you that there is a bomb on the cafeteria, will you still go there and it knowing it could explode anytime? Definitely not.