Atheist Bible Study 1: Genesis

[GrandizerII]

The Birth of Isaac
Genesis 21:1-7

As God promised Abraham, Sarah gives birth to a son whose name is Isaac. Although he is just as important a figure to the ancient Israelites as Abraham and Jacob, Isaac is the least talked about Patriarch in Genesis. Just to come up with a very weird parallel, Isaac is like Gohan (from Dragon Ball Z): relevant in childhood but no longer as much when all grown.

Nevertheless, Happy Birthday Isaac. Time's up for you, Ishmael.

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Genesis 20
Abraham and Abimelek

A story very similar to an earlier one in Genesis (specifically, Genesis 12:10-20). Almost as if one of them is the source material for the other, or they are both copies of an older story that may or may not have been written down. As Bucky pointed out, there is also a third story later on in Genesis very similar to these two, which involves Isaac and Rebekah instead of Abraham and Sarah. And funnily enough, Abimelek is involved in that story as well.

So a question (to Bucky or anyone else who may be in the know): what's the deal with having Sarah be Abraham's actual sister (as pointed out in Genesis 20)? Is it to show that Abraham wasn't being dishonest or something? Or is it just one of those curious story bits that serve no real point beyond what it's saying?

Of course, I also (once again) question the morality of a god who would do what Yahweh supposedly did to Abimelek and his household. There seems nothing right about punishing someone for a "sin" they had no idea they were committing. And definitely not their whole household.

Note what Abimelek says to God in verses 4 and 5:


This time around, as punishment, God temporarily prevents Abimelek's household from having children (though this may not be as mild a punishment as I'm thinking). And when Abraham prayed to God for Abimelek, Abimelek and his women were able to have children again. Still, as mild a punishment as this one might have been (and this perception of mildness is purely subjective, of course), this passage still remains yet another passage that shows just how morally questionable the Bible God is to the modern civilized mind.

The key to understand this passage is again in the why Abraham gave to the reason he did this.. "11 Abraham replied, “I said to myself, ‘There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’
Do you assume Abraham was wrong or could not know the minds of these people? Let's say you were a white western reporter walking into an ISIS encampment at the hight of jihad john head removal campaign. Do you think you could accurately access whether or not they were going to imprison you and take you head on a internet broadcast?

Would you feel bad if seal team came in and busted you out even if women and children died? women and children who would cheer when you head was being sawed off by a dull knife..

So why is God the bad guy here?

He did not kill anyone just show this murdering ban of non believing a-holes He was who He said he was which was to ensure total respect and obedience when it came to Abraham peeps.

You guys don't even have a moral issue when your side rights a wrong, rather you seem to want to always side with evil men, and be wronged by God.

My understanding based on the text is Abimelech was sincere and meant no harm. You could argue he was bullshitting, but even so, God could just as easily have warned them beforehand anyway.

I'm not sure about your last sentence, by the way. Even if I was a moral hypocrite, this has no bearing on whether what God said and did (as depicted in the Bible) was morally questionable or not. Keep in mind this is how I, as an atheist, see things. I do not assume God exists, therefore God is the arbiter of morality. From my perspective, God (if he somehow exists) should be morally questioned as much as any other sentient being, and even more so. Might does (or should) not make right.