The point of the FFRF Bible Quiz was to help people realize what outrageous and laughable content is to be found in the Bible. No one denies that there is some good content, some excellent exhortations to moral behavior. However, so much is immoral and superstitious that no one should give the Bible a blanket endorsement as the Word of a just and loving God.
In addition to the answers found in the Bible Quiz, here are a few more specimens to show how detestable and sometimes silly can be the instructions attributed to God.
Now kill all the boys [among the captive Midianites]. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man. (Numbers 31:17-18) No matter what fundamentalists may claim, the virgins were not spared to help with cooking and sewing.
Do not spare them [the Amalekites] put to death men and women, children and infants [nursing babies], cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys. (1 Samuel 15:3)
If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity. (Deuteronomy 25:11-12)
The punishment attached to the First Commandment: "Even your brother or your son or your daughter or the wife you love or your closest friend may secretly encourage you to worship other gods, gods that you and your ancestors have never worshiped. Some of them may encourage you to worship the gods of the people who live near you or the gods of those who live far away. But do not let any of them persuade you; do not even listen to them. Show them no mercy or pity, and do not protect them. Kill them! Be the first to stone them, and then let everyone else stone them too. Stone them to death! They tried to lead you away from the Lord your God, who rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves. Then all the people of Israel will hear what happened; they will be afraid, and no one will ever again do such an evil thing." (Deuteronomy 13:6-11)
Death penalty for changing your religion. Cutting off hands. Making war on women and children. Who does all this remind you of? The Taliban? Al Qaeda? No group that I would want to be associated with.
And to move from the grisly to the ludicrous: "Take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head. Slaughter it, take some of its blood and put it on the lobes of the right ears of Aaron and his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Then splash blood against the sides of the altar. And take some blood from the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments and on his sons and their garments. Then he and his sons and their garments will be consecrated." (Exodus 29:19-21) As Robert Ingersoll said, if you saw some South Sea Islanders going through a ritual like that, you could hardly keep yourself from laughing.
I can understand how many people can endorse the Bible without reading it. They've always been told that it is of divine origin. As Bill Maher says, for most Christians, it's like clicking the Agree button on a software license without reading it.
I can also understand how some people can actually read over this detestable garbage without it registering. I can understand because I did it myself before I was in the ministry. As I say now, I read with my mind on cruise control. Large parts of the Old Testament are desperately boring, and there is a tendency to read fast, skimming without most of the content sinking in.
I can't understand how, once it is brought to their attention, fundamentalists can attempt to defend the indefensible, putting themselves through the most pathetic mental contortions. I don't think that deep down they even believe what they are saying, but the idea of letting go of their Bible is too scary for them to contemplate.
Even more so, I can't understand how learned scholars can carefully translate and study this material without retching. For instance, how could the committee doing the New International Version say after translating those passages, that they "were united in their committment to the authority and infallibility of the Bible as God's word in written form"?
In addition to the answers found in the Bible Quiz, here are a few more specimens to show how detestable and sometimes silly can be the instructions attributed to God.
Now kill all the boys [among the captive Midianites]. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man. (Numbers 31:17-18) No matter what fundamentalists may claim, the virgins were not spared to help with cooking and sewing.
Do not spare them [the Amalekites] put to death men and women, children and infants [nursing babies], cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys. (1 Samuel 15:3)
If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity. (Deuteronomy 25:11-12)
The punishment attached to the First Commandment: "Even your brother or your son or your daughter or the wife you love or your closest friend may secretly encourage you to worship other gods, gods that you and your ancestors have never worshiped. Some of them may encourage you to worship the gods of the people who live near you or the gods of those who live far away. But do not let any of them persuade you; do not even listen to them. Show them no mercy or pity, and do not protect them. Kill them! Be the first to stone them, and then let everyone else stone them too. Stone them to death! They tried to lead you away from the Lord your God, who rescued you from Egypt, where you were slaves. Then all the people of Israel will hear what happened; they will be afraid, and no one will ever again do such an evil thing." (Deuteronomy 13:6-11)
Death penalty for changing your religion. Cutting off hands. Making war on women and children. Who does all this remind you of? The Taliban? Al Qaeda? No group that I would want to be associated with.
And to move from the grisly to the ludicrous: "Take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head. Slaughter it, take some of its blood and put it on the lobes of the right ears of Aaron and his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Then splash blood against the sides of the altar. And take some blood from the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments and on his sons and their garments. Then he and his sons and their garments will be consecrated." (Exodus 29:19-21) As Robert Ingersoll said, if you saw some South Sea Islanders going through a ritual like that, you could hardly keep yourself from laughing.
I can understand how many people can endorse the Bible without reading it. They've always been told that it is of divine origin. As Bill Maher says, for most Christians, it's like clicking the Agree button on a software license without reading it.
I can also understand how some people can actually read over this detestable garbage without it registering. I can understand because I did it myself before I was in the ministry. As I say now, I read with my mind on cruise control. Large parts of the Old Testament are desperately boring, and there is a tendency to read fast, skimming without most of the content sinking in.
I can't understand how, once it is brought to their attention, fundamentalists can attempt to defend the indefensible, putting themselves through the most pathetic mental contortions. I don't think that deep down they even believe what they are saying, but the idea of letting go of their Bible is too scary for them to contemplate.
Even more so, I can't understand how learned scholars can carefully translate and study this material without retching. For instance, how could the committee doing the New International Version say after translating those passages, that they "were united in their committment to the authority and infallibility of the Bible as God's word in written form"?
If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people — House
