Christianity Does Not Teach Good Morality Part 2

Last time, I went over why the very foundation of modern Christianity, by focusing on the fact that Jesus' supposed death and resurrection "atone" for all misdeeds so long as you accept that atonement by repenting before you die, is not good morality.  This time, I wish to focus on the part of the bible I have more experience in:  the Old Testament.  I can already hear the objections of "but Jesus wiped all that away".  I can answer with certainty that, for our purposes, no he didn't.

The OT is Relevant

There are several pieces of information from the Bible, both OT and NT, that says that the OT is still relevant to today's world.  Psalms 119:89 "Forever, O Lord, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens."  Numbers 23:19 (partial) "God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind." 2 Timothy 3:16 "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness[.]"  These three, and many more, speak to your god, and therefore his word (AKA the Holy Bible) as unchanging and everlasting.  Not to mention Jesus' own words on the matter.

It is sad that an atheist - and one that was a Jew of the Reformed branch - has to remind you of Jesus' love for the Law (capitalized because in this case it is a proper noun referring to the laws handed down by Adonai in the OT and the Talmud - the oral commentaries and explanations of those laws).  Matthew 5 is rather clear:  "I[, Jesus,] did not come to destroy [the law]..." (partial of 17).  "...I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled." (18, emphasis added) "Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven..." (19).  "...I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven." (20)  Jesus is damn clear:  obey the laws of the OT.

What These Laws Are

I am sure most of you are familiar with the Ten Commandments; however, there are a whole other slew of laws that make up THE Law.  The most well known of these is a set of dietary restrictions called the "kashrut" laws.  When a jewish person says that they are "keeping kosher", they mean that they are following the kashrut dietary restrictions - no pork, no shellfish, no cheeseburgers, etc.  I am not concerned about that, however - that was just an example.  There are far more laws than that - 613 is the number if I recall my sunday school lessons properly, but that was ages ago.  Here is a list of some of the laws that I AM concerned about here - while I am concered about other laws, I will restrict myself to talking about these here in this section.  The format will be Law (location) punishment:

•  No gay sex (Lev. 18:22, 20:18) death
•  Blasphemy (Lev. 24:14) death
•  No other religions allowed (Deut. 17:2-7) death
• Marry your rapist (Deut. 22:28-29) self-evident
• Get raped in the city (Deut. 22:23-24) death

There are more than that, but these are the 6 - well, technically 5 - that I will focus on here.

Teh Ghey is Icky

Now, I have to ask you, what is the rationale for such a law?  I can only think of one: Raising the number of people in the group.  It's understandable: in those days, your group HAD to grow to compete, and there was no real penalty for overgrowth, aside from become a more attractive target for competing groups.  Nowadays, that isn't the case.  Of course, we're not talking about the reasons for the law here, we're talking about why it's immoral.

Today, we have this thing called the "expectation of privacy".  We consider it immoral to stick our noses into other people's business - including who they fuck.  In general, what other people do in their own home is of no consequence to us, so long as they're not doing something dangerous like building bombs.  Again, I already hear the objections of "but teh buttsechs has a higher rate of disease spreading!"  That's what fucking condoms are for, which the majority of you don't like in the first place, and therefore you try to keep kids from learning about them, and therefore they aren't used, and add to that the stigmatizing you you all do to both gay people and condom use all adds up to higher rates (well, what rates ARE higher...some rates are higher in straight relationships), so really it's YOUR fault, not anything intrinsic in gay sex.  And I also hear the claims of "anal tearing".  Have none of you ever heard of BDSM?  Is that a sin, too?  Is anyone who consents to harm in the act of sex worthy of death?

The ban on gay sex violates our right to privacy and condemns someone to death for what amounts to a "victimless crime", if it can even be considered a crime.  And the bible says to kill them for it.  When they did NOTHING to anyone that they didn't want done, so add "interference with contracts" to the list of asshatery.  This law has you peeking in on everyone and killing those who stick/take a dick up the ass. What, exactly, is moral about THAT, other than it somehow "glorifies god"?

How DARE You Insult my Imaginary Friend!

Next up is blasphemy, and right the fuck away you should see the problem.  It impedes our right to speak our mind.  It requires us to only praise this supposed deity and never comment on its mistakes.  We can't complain, we can't denounce - hell, we can't even express doubt that it exists.  If you replace "god" with "Hitler", you should immediately see why this is a problem.  And once again, the punishment is death.  If you don't think that Jesus is the bestest thing ever, you die.  

Of course, you don't need ME to tell you this is a bad idea:  you already agree with me.  I'm quite certain you disagree with Boko Haram and ISIS's stances on blasphemy.  Well, don't get angry with THEM, because YOUR book teaches the EXACT SAME THING.  Of course, we can also get absurd and say that anybody who insults the great Mickey Mouse should die, and we'd get the same result, but for some reason, say it about YOUR god, and suddenly its holy scripture.  Except it really IS holy scripture, as I already pointed out.

My God is Your God, or Else

Now on to the "no other religions" bit.  Once again, you should see the problem right away.  We are once again punishing people for what they think.  By killing them.  It's the equivalent of killing someone because they like the Heat more than the Bulls.  You are endorsing killing someone because they don't belong to your fan club.  How is THIS moral?  The Qur'an is far more moral in this respect:  2:256 (Al-Baqara 256) states "There shall be no coercion in matters of faith.  Distinct has now become the right way from error:  hence, he who rejects the powers of evil and believes in God has indeed taken hold of a support most unfailing, which shall never give way:  for God is all-hearing, all-knowing." (translation by Muhammad Asad).  Granted, hellfire is still promised for unbelievers - as it is in the Bible - but the threat of direct, immediate harm is removed (all references I have seen to the harming of infidels seem to be either in self defense or in what can be summed up as the medieval equivalent of  contract disputes).  And yet here we have the Bible saying what we have heard from Islamic radicals in recent years:  convert or die.  Is it suddenly moral because it is YOUR god?  If it is, all I can say is "Golden Rule.  Suck it, bitch."

Punishing the Victim

And finally, we come to the two rape laws:  one for non-bethroted women, and one for women in the city.  For the non-bethrothed woman, we are punishing her for being raped.  We are forcing her to submit to the person who violated her.  Forcing her to relive her trauma daily, and nightly.  Meanwhile we are rewarding her assailant by giving him what amounts to a sex slave in those days (remember, women's lib wasn't a thing back then).  Would you punish the victim of a robbery by making him work for the thief for the rest of their life?  Hell no.

As for the woman raped in the city, we kill her.  Because she "didn't scream loud enough".  Not only does this trivialize rape, making it ALWAYS a violent crime, but it ALSO assumes that the perpetrator wasn't smart enough to, I don't know, shove some cloth in her mouth.  It effectively makes all women in the city free game for predators, because all they need is a rag to shove in their victim's mouth, and the victim will be put to death if they ever talk.  This doesn't deter crime, it PROMOTES it.  AND punishes the victim for not fighting back.  It's "slut-shaming" taken up to eleven.

Not Good at All

These are not ALL that I object to, but they do get the point across.  I could have gone into the slavery laws, but those are so overdone that it'd get boring fast.  I could have also talked about how the majority of laws, from badmouthing your parents to picking up a stick on Shabbat, was punishable by death, but again that's overdone.  These are not moral laws by any stretch of the imagination, unless of course you stretch it to, as I said in part one, "God is ALL that matters.  My fellow humans can suck it."  This is NOT what good moralities, or good societies, are based on.