(Discussion questions for a fairly well-educated study-group. There are many other issues of course: these are simply ‘starters’)…

Any responses?

In his book The God Delusion, atheist Richard Dawkins writes: “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all 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.” [1]

Atheist Charles Templeton : “The God of the Old Testament is utterly unlike the God believed in by most practicing Christians … His justice is, by modern standards, outrageous…. He is biased, querulous, vindictive, and jealous of his prerogatives.” [2]

Christopher Hitchens: When Moses orders parents to have their children stoned to death for indiscipline (citing Deuteronomy 21:18-21) it is probably a violation of at least one of the very commandments Moses brought down from God. He observes that Moses “continually makes demented pronouncements (‘He that is wounded in the stones, or hath his privy member cut off, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord’). [3]

1. Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion, Great Britain: Bantam Press, 2006, 31. 2. Charles Templeton, Farewell to God, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1999, 71. 3. Wikipedia: God is Not Great

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1. THE CHARACTER OF THE O.T. GOD: Jealous (Ex. 20:5, Dt. 5:9); Angry (Ps. 7:11), Vengeful (Ps. 54:5 vs. Lv. 19:18). The flood – Gen. 6:17; Sodom and Gomorrah – Gen. 19:24-25; ‘Utterly destroy Canaanites’ etc. – Dt. 7:1-2; Slaughters at Jericho (Josh 6:21), Amalekites (1 Sam. 15:3), Samson – Judges 14:19)

2. O.T. LAWS: Seven crimes called for capital punishment in the Old Testament law (false prophet – Deuteronomy 13:5; idolatry -Deuteronomy 17:7; disobedience to authority – Deuteronomy 17:12; stubborn and rebellious son – Deuteronomy 21:21; harlotry – Deuteronomy 22:21; adultery – Deuteronomy 22:22-24; and kidnapping – Deuteronomy 24:7). One law called for flogging (Deuteronomy 25:1-4). Male same-sex relationships Lv. 18:22, 20:13 (vs. Mixing fibres in clothing Lv. 19:19, Sex during menstruation Lv. 18:19 etc.). But lex talionis.

3. IDEAS CONTRARY TO N. T. – JOB’S COMFORTERS: Job, an upright person – his troubles must be divine retribution for his sins; ECCLESIASTES (9:5): For the living know they will die; but the dead do not know anything.

4. THE IMPRECATORY PSALMS: eg. Psalm 137: ‘Happy are those who take your little ones and dash them against a rock’

5. OLD TESTAMENT THEOLOGY: Eg. death and resurrection;

6. ‘One way to think about the Bible’s origin is to say God wrote it. Marcus Borg wrote, “[Some] sees it as a divine product . . . They say that the divine origin of the Bible is the basis of its authority.” Father Eugene Maly calls this “the so-called ‘divine dictation’ theory.” Father Maly elaborates, “According to this theory, God alone is responsible for the contents of the Bible. The human authors were merely recording machines, or robots, who wrote down what God . . . dictated to them” (Good News Bible: Catholic Study Edition, xii). Rabbi David Wolpe faced the question: “Did God write the Bible?” He answered in part, “The Bible [The Torah] as a whole makes no claim for divine authorship.”’ Another way of thinking about the Bible’s origin sees it “as the human product of two ancient communities. The Old Testament is the product of ancient Israel, and the New Testament is the product of the early Christian movement. As the product of these two communities, the Bible tells us about how they saw things-how they thought about God and told their stories” (Borg).