GOD - Chapter 8 (Ethnic Cleansing)

The eighth chapter in Barker's GOD is dedicated to the 'ethnic cleanser' in YHWH. Ethnic cleansing is something that we have already seen in the previous chapters, so this is not really a revelation. While this is not the most exciting, engaging, or innovative read, Barker's work is already a complete success as it has absolutely proved its thesis many times over-- that if YHWH is a fictional character, than it is the most evil of all fictional characters.

Dan Barker, author of GOD

In a quote that will make post-modern listeners squirm, YHWH commands this to 'his people' in Numbers 33:52-53:

"You shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you...for I have given you the land to possess" 

Obviously, this was an ancient intonation, intended for the pre-historic Israelites. However, one cannot help but notice a very current connection. Latter-day Hebrew Apartheidists continue to seemingly follow this notion today-- getting closer to completing the historical project that had its origins in the UK & American Jewish diaspora & Evangelical Christian communities of the 1800's. These 19th & 20th-century Zionists could be said to have been re-completing the very biblical mission of bringing the 'chosen people' to the 'holy land' & simply replacing those that lived there previously.

Separation point along the border of current Israeli development (left) & remaining Palestinian Authority land (right)

We see...

"...entire groups of people committed or commanded by the God of the Old Testament in order to purify the Promised Land & punish Israel's neighbors"

This sounds eerily modern & should frighten you. It should frighten you with the recollection that the greater picture, or at least a large motivating factor in modern Israeli politics, may derive from their culturally foundational book. The blueprint has been here all along. Even YHWH's order to not rid the land of the non-Israelites all at one time, but to wear them down over the years by attrition sounds familiar. Could this possibly be a coincidence? Or is there some greater, deeper, foundational principle in Jewish culture that can account for this? Was a latent destructiveness just waiting-in-the-wings, through the centuries of persecution, & began to seep out at the turn of the 20th-century? Who knows? All we may be able to say is that the culture we encounter in the Old Testament shares some practices with that of the modern Zionist cleansers. Perhaps it would not be inappropriate to bring up the concept of a 'cultural unconscious,' containing certain impulses, which would encourage the direction of hostile energies outside the Jewish people. 

Barker, while not engaging on the subject of modern Israel today, does draw a parallel with the expansionist USA of the 'manifest destiny' period:

"This was all because of the doctrine of Manifest Destiny preached by Christian Europeans who admired the God of the Old Testament & pretended that they had also been granted a property on which to build a holy 'city on a hill.' The conquest of the Americas was no different from the Jews staking out their own Holy Land in the Middle East, a territory that had yet to be purged of all impurity"

The Americans did it, & quite successfully. The problematic reception with which Israel's activities have been met with are only issues because Israel began its mission too late; by the 1940's ideas of universal human rights were too well-established. In the 1700's & 1800's, the Americans faced no such obstacles. 

Closer in more than just formal alliances, the United States & Israel are both historically-rooted in colonial projects

Barker recounts the story of Saul, who was deposed as king by the Lord because he did not kill *all* that belonged to one of the many people whom did not worship YHWH. He would routinely order 'his' people to utterly destroy this-or-that tribe, & the Hebrews were, coincidentally enough, eager to do so. These insipid stories of obedience & disobedience do not seem anything but retroactive justifications for Israelite expansionism. They probably were not even constructed with a but a moment's reverence, needed for political expediency. Now, these texts are studied for years-upon-years, with some devoting their lives to this task. 

David in the popular conception

Barker says that YHWH replaces Saul with David, who would do a much better job of utterly destroying other peoples in the area. Saul was deposed not because he spared YHWH's enemies. On the contrary, it was said he killed them. According to the story, Saul spared some of the animals, so that his people may take it home to sacrifice for YHWH (He wants that blood: See last chapter.) This is enough to get Saul removed. Barker mentions that it is odd Saul would be removed for this simple, I guess, 'misunderstanding,' for normally the lord would allow his people to keep prizes, such as virgin women. Women who had previously had sex were killed. Again, the Judeo-Christian puritanism kills. Literally. 

An incisive point made by Barker:

"Notice that throughout the Old Testament, 'evil' & 'wicked' are not moral judgments"

Rather, it is the sin of disobedience which warrants the 'evil' label. Or to just be of another tribe/religion. Then you were 'evil' by default. So most everybody was/is evil. Praise be to the Lord. 

Stalin

One more note-

Reading the story of Saul & David, I can't help but feel that there is a large similarity with another group of seemingly-heartless political leaders: Stalin & his underlings in Eastern Europe. I have always been very interested in the various manifestations of Marxism throughout history, but in particular as of late, the Soviet Union & its particular system of what Erich Fromm would call 'vulgar Marxism' has been very much on my mind. I hope to do individual pages on these different situations & develop specific writings, perhaps even about different leaders. The authoritarian principle was strong in YHWH, & it is strong in Stalin & co. Unknowingly following in YHWH's footsteps, Stalin & his successors in the Communist Party Of the Soviet Union played king-maker for a variety of Soviet satellite states, with these victims/victors:

French political cartoon- 'Soviet pyramids' (the skulls of purge victims)

Adyg-Tyulyush Kmechik-Ool - Tuvan People's Republic - Executed in a Stalinist purge

Flag of the Tuvan People's Republic, which existed as a satellite state on the edge of Soviet influence for about 20 years

Dogsomyn Bodoo - Mongolian People's Republic - Killed in purge with Soviet support

Tseren-Ochiryn Dambodorj - Mongolian People's Republic - Suspected Soviet poisoning.

Olzin Badrakh - Mongolian People's Republic - Executed in Moscow after being removed by Soviets

Peljidin Genden - Mongolian People's Republic - Installed with Stalinist support; executed in Moscow after being removed with Stalinist support

Zolbingiin Shijee - Mongolian People's Republic - Executed in Moscow after being deposed

Banzar Javyn Baasanjv - Mongolian People's Republic- Purged @ behest of Soviets & executed

Dashiin Damba - Mongolian People's Republic - Rose to power carrying out Soviet-inspired purges

Yumdaagiin Tsendbol - Mongolian People's Republic - Formerly a Soviet agent, deposed by USSR

Emblem of the Mongolian People's Republic. The Mongolian PR suffered some of the most severe Soviet interventions during the 20th century, with several leaders being shipped off to Moscow & executed

Spain during its Civil War - The Soviet Union intervened, intensely concerned with controlling the Republicans rather than leading them to success in the war. KGB agents assassinated non-Stalinist Leftist leaders, with the funds being funneled through the Comintern. Fought allies in the 'Popular Front', including allied Anarchists, Trotskyists, & others, instead of fighting supposed 'enemies' on the Right. 

Flag of the Spanish Communists. The Comintern, at Stalin's behest, focused on destroying other Leftist groups during the Civil War

Ja'far Pishevari - Azerbaijan People's Government - Azerbaijani Democratic Party created by order of Stalin, intended to assume leadership of Soviet-occupied Iran under the name Azerbaijan People's Government. Pishevari's government fell after Red Army troops withdrew. Pishevari died in a car accident that may have been orchestrated by the KGB. 

The Azerbaijan People's Government was among the shortest-lived Soviet Satellites 

Kim Il-Sung - Democratic People's Republic of Korea - Selected by Soviets to run the North Korean party. He accepted reluctantly. His descendants still chair the party to this day.

Emblem of the DPRK. Stalin made what would be perhaps his most lethal foreign policy decision with the appointment of Kim Il-Sung ('One-star Kim') to lead the North Korean party.

Józef Unszlicht - Provisional Polish Revolutionary Comittee - Led a Soviet-Sponsored government-in-waiting for Poland. That attempt failed to last, & he was purged & executed in the Soviet Union. 

Polish leader Józef Unszlicht in custody. 

Pawel Finder - Communist Party of Poland (Underground) - One of three Communist agents parachuted into Nazi-occupied Poland to re-start the Communist Movement.

DDR (East German) postage stamp commemorating the Polish leader Pawel Finder, who was parachuted in to Nazi-Occupied Poland to promote uprising against the Third Reich 

Władysław Gomułka - People's Republic of Poland - Deposed by Soviet Union

Bolesław Bierut - People's Republic of Poland - Appointed by USSR as head of government-in-waiting for Poland & to head newly-created Stalinist party in Polan. Died in mysterious circumstances after attending Kruschev's anti-Stalin speech. It is said that the Stalinist Bierut was 'so shocked' by the speech that he had a heart attack.

Stanisław Kania - People's Republic of Poland - Forced to resign by Soviets after he was heard being critical of the Soviet Union by recording equipment.

Władysław Gomułka, one of many Eastern Bloc leaders deposed at Moscow's behest

Georgi Dimitrov - People's Republic of Bulgaria - Allegedly poisoned by USSR

Georgi Dimitrov, selected to lead the Bulgarian party. Was allegedly poisoned by the same forces that made him

Vitali Holostenco - Romanian Communist Party - Soviet Union deposed him & was he was purged & executed.

Alexander Danieliuk-Stefanski - Romanian Communist Party - Deposed by Comintern & purged & executed by USSR

Romanian postage stamp in the Stalinist-Heroic style

Gheorghe Gheorgiu- Dej - Socialist Republic of Romania - Most likely killed by Soviet Union during Moscow visit

Gheorghe Gheorgiu-Dej, one of the loyal Comintern members hand-picked by Stalin to lead Eastern Bloc parties. His alleged murder was one of the few times the Soviets were able to play a decisive role in the politics of the Socialist Republic of Romania.

Alexander Dubček - Czechoslovakia - Deposed by Warsaw Pact Invasion 

Reform Communist Alexander Dubček, who provoked a Warsaw Pact invasion by initiating liberalizations in Czechoslovakia. Was purged & spent the rest of his career in forestry.

Hafizullah Amin - Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. USSR sent intelligence agencies to assassinate Amin in concert with their invasion of the country

Babrak Karmal - Democratic Republic of Afghanistan - Flown in by Soviets from Prague to Kabul to head the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. Soviet forces had assassinated his predecessor, & they needed a replacement to run the country. He did not live up to their expectations, & they removed him from power.

Mohammad Najibullah - Democratic Republic of Afghanistan - Selected by the Soviet Union to run the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan after they removed Babrak Karmal.

One of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan's national flags. One of the least stable of Soviet Satellites, Socialist Afghanistan was chaotic from the start, & the cost in maintaining the government is sometimes cited as a factor in the fall of the Union

GOD - Chapter 7 (Bloodthirsty)

The seventh chapter of Barker's book is 'Bloodthirsty'. "The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood", it ominously starts out with (courtesy of Isaiah, which comes to appear more & more like a 'usual suspect' of brutal scripture. Only Leviticus seems to appear more.) 

Barker starts us out reviewing the 'Korah incident' with the story continuing thence:

"On the next day, however, the whole congregation of the Israelites rebelled against Moses & against Aaron, saying, 'You have killed the people of the Lord'"

I feel that many of us reading these turgid books today would come up with a similar response. We would petition in the name of humanism that this is not right; that Moses & his theocracy, supported by YHWH is committing atrocities. & the lord would have dispensed with us. For those again 'in rebellion', he proceeds in this manner: (according to Numbers 16:42-49)

"For wrath has gone out from the Lord; the plague has begun"

According to Barker, "Those who died by the plague were 14,700, besides those who died in the affair of Korah." In explaining the attribution of 'bloodthirstiness' to this deity, Barker explains:

"'Bloodthirsty' does not mean simply a thirst for blood. It includes a desire to kill or maim by any method"

YHWH's preferred methods seem to be smiting with his 'glistening sword' (that is, glistening with blood), death by plague, and even impaling decapitated heads on pikes. One may pain at the fact that the way the Jews were historically treated  was uncomfortably similar to how the Jews appear to have treated other cultures and religions as they migrated around the 'Holy Land'. It is, in fact, remarkable, to take a broad survey of the violence both described & engendered by the Bible, & to see how de-mobilized & peaceful most of the Jewish world is today minus that of Apartheid Israel. (Jewish communities were almost never sources of political instability, though they were constantly pursued by Christian & sometimes Muslim authorities) Jewish culture has come such a long way from the days of slaughtering thousands of animals & people, obeying God's commands that unbelievers be slain, & punishing disobedient children, sexually active women, & bi-sexuals with death. Yet in this 'holy land', there is still much bloodshed. Israeli political Judaism seems like it is just a modern, non-starving, non-nomadic version of the type of practice accorded to those who are 'other'. But these relations- between that of Hebrew scripture, & modern Israeli political expansionism- is an issue best left for another essay, outside of this review. The Old Testament certainly brings up questions of latent violence in the Hebrew culture.

As Barker points out in this chapter on 'bloodthirstiness', the first command that YHWH gives after the Ten Commandments is to kill animals in ritual sacrifices, & then goes on to discuss "how to buy & sell slaves." Charming. In Ezekiel The Lord tells his people that he works in their interests, so that they may enjoy their life of-

"eat(ing) flesh & drink(ing) blood" (39:17-18) (KJV)

Many of Baker's subtitles are sensational ('Mountains soaked with blood', 'Blood on a rock', 'Blood on the wall', 'Incest blood', 'Homosexual blood') & one has to admit that, even though he may be compressing these themes, they are nonetheless present in the text. There is an awful lot of blood in the Old Testament and, as Barker points out, 'blood' is in fact one of the commonest topics of all in the 'holy books.' It is apparent that the god of the Israelites is pretty-much obsessed with blood. Ew. 

The never-ending 'love' of 'god' continues to be narrated in....what other book? Isaiah, of course:

"The lord is angry with all nations; his wrath is on all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will them over to slaughter. Their slain will be thrown out, their dead bodies will stink, the mountains will be soaked with their blood" (34:2-3)

One wonders why the engineers of Christian Orthodoxy did not just eject the Old Testament, for it, unparalleled, demonstrates the vengeful & hateful nature of God. The Old Testament certainly does not do very much to improve the attractiveness of the messianic/evangelical message of Jesus (Or does it? Perhaps this is beyond my level of understanding), & the Jewishness of the Old Testament would have been a liability in an empire in which widespread dislike of the rebellious minority was common. There was a very emphatic stream of pre-orthodox Christianity (Marcionism) in which all Jewishness was stamped-out. Early Church fathers & priests eliminated this tradition out over about a century, but it is a curious subject to ponder-- again, not in this essay. 

"...cursed is he who keeps back his sword from bloodshed" (Jeremiah 48:10) (RSV)

So the history of bloodshed in the name of YHWH & Christ does have scriptural backing. These are not books of love. These books only posses an ounce of humanity if one is willing to overlook passage after passage of brutality, hostility, Hebrew propaganda, religious intolerance, bigotry, sexism, & absolute desiccation of our animal friends. The Old Testament is an anti-humanist text, heck, an anti-life text as Baal, oxen, sheep, goats, & assorted other non-humans are also caught in the crossfire. In the book of Ezekiel (32:6) (RSV)-

"I will drench the land even to the mountains with your flowing blood; & the watercourses will be full of you" 

Again, gross. & the god sounds like a serial killer. This is disgusting literature. Not because of its content, but because many see this text as non-fiction. This is not presented like the various Horror flicks I love to watch, because for so many of the faithful, this is supposedly their manual of life. Luckily for humanity, not that many of them actually read it. 

Luckily for us, "Blood Feast" is fiction; for many, The Bible is not

YHWH states that he is behind those woes that befoul you sinners:

"Again, when a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, & commit iniquity, & I lay a stumbling-block before him, he shall die; because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, & his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand" (Ezekiel 3:16,20) (KJV) 

I like to think that Jezebel would look like a sort-of sexed-up Bette Midler

Another heart-warming piece of 'wisdom' in the 'holy book' of 'god'. Highly-doubtful if this is the product of anything that most humans would recognize as 'love'. Barker also quotes from the story of the infamous Jezebel:

"'Throw her down!' Jehu said. So they threw her down, & some of her blood spattered the wall & the horses as they trampled her underfoot...On the plot of ground at Jezeel dogs will devour Jezebel's flesh" (2 Kings 9:33-37) (NJV)

A note on the famous passage in Leviticus 20:13, commonly cited as the anti-homosexuality provision in the Bible; here is the KJV translation of the passage:

I, for one, do not believe the two are necessarily the same 

"If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them" 

'As he lieth with a woman.' But wouldn't many homosexuals not lieth with woman at all? So therefore he may 'lieth' with men, but not in the way that the passage states, because he doesn't 'lieth' with any women. In this sense, the passage seems more anti-bisexuality or anti-sexual experimentation than it does to be strictly anti-homosexual. The passage seems more concerned with keeping heterosexual people inside the fold, so to speak-- to prevent them from having non-heterosexual experiences that may de-stabilize their families, scandalize their communities, or cost their family status etc...20:13 seems, to me, to be more about protecting the separateness of the homosexual & heterosexual spheres. It seems to me that YHWH, should he 'hath' wanted to outright prohibit homosexual activity, could have done so in a more direct way. But again, I digress for the third time. In a book that will eventually tackle Christianity, 3 is a good stopping-point anyways. 

lol

May your blood be upon him! 

GOD - Chapter 6 (Vindictive)

God is vindictive, according to this chapter in barker's book. By now, we have been exposed, chapter-&-verse, to the various depravities that YHWH imposes upon both his enemies & his faithful. This chapter seeks to furnish that horrible impression with yet more evidence that the god of the Old Testament has a desire for revenge. On everyone. 

Customarily, we start off a with a quote, from the Hebrew scripture of Isaiah (47:3):

"I will take vengeance, & I will spare no man"

Well that about sums it up. In the body of the text Barker starts with this explanation of Christian doctrines:

"The Church was charging money for the privilege of going through one of these special people to petition God. It got really bad when they began selling indulgences, which were like 'get out of jail' tickets to buy your way out of hell. The Roman Catholic Church, to this day, maintains the elevated status of "ordained" human beings who inhabit a loftier status of humanity, closer to God

Martin Luther & other Reformation thinkers challenged the classist hierarchy, they rebelled against the supreme authority of the Church & insisted that each human being has direct access to God. Baptists are one of the groups that adhere to the doctrine of The Priesthood of All Believers

#reformationratpack

So it is curious that Protestants do not join me in denouncing the vindictive God of the Old Testament for brutally crushing a similar Reformation attempt while the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness. The smashing (literally) of that rebellion was worse than any torture of the Inquisition"

I disagree with that last statement, as I am someone particularly sensitive to the horrors of the Inquisition, but all-in-all a good point. & a good question to ponder-- why did the Protestants not inveigh against YHWH for the story of Korah, where YHWH's victims have the gall to challenge the intermediaries. Well, because if Martin Luther, Calvin, or Zwingli were to have challenged YHWH's judgments in the Old Testament, what would stop their followers from questioning the Old Testament period? Or the entire Bible? It would be a 'slippery slope', one that would alienate Christian followers & would re-route the Reformation as an exit from Christianity rather than an invigorating revival of it. 

Reformationist propaganda 

The comparison I think of here is the prospect of the late-20th century 'Reform Communists'. They were helming decaying states with no legitimacy, their allies were withdrawing support, they were broke, & knew they had serious problems that needed to be addressed with change. The problem being the very change they needed to perform quickly spiraled into an unstoppable force that de-stabilized the system itself. Calvin & the Protestant reformers did not want to debase Christianity. On the very contrary, they believed it was the Roman Church & the Christian establishment that were debasing Christianity. Despite Martin Luther's fight against the narrow priesthood that reserved the exclusive right to speak to god, it was this very exclusive right that is present in the bible. Aaron & Moses claim it for themselves, & people are killed by the god for trying usurp this. The Roman system may be elitist & obviously prone to corruption & predation, but it is 'biblical', at least from an Old-Testament perspective. As Barker puts it, "...don't blame the Roman Catholic Church. The pope was actually acting biblically, in a more godly manner, more like Moses than the Protestants."

But back to god's vengeance --

Barker explains to us that the cryptically-named Hebrew book of Numbers is so-called because it contains those infamously-boring ancient census passages. YHWH expected the 'chosen' to rely upon only 2 people to communicate with their deity for them, & if they challenged this system, they were punished with finality by god-- he simply killed them by ordering the ground open up & swallow them. The 'rebel' Korah says what we would recognize as a very reasonable & principled statement:

"You have gone too far! All the congregation are holy, every one of them, & the Lord is among them. So why then do you exalt above the assembly of the Lord?" (Numbers 16:3)

& so the Lord smites Korah. Is not the 'writing on the wall' for any attempted truth-teller in Christianity? The conduct accorded Martin Luther was no different than what any close observant of Christianity would have expected. As Barker points out, Korah was not "an unbelieving pagan." Any person, even a Jew, who had used their sense & questioned YHWH's hierarchies, even those undeserved & arbitrary, are punished. He promised to punish all. &, in the Old Testament, he does. Barker points out that the word 'vengeance' appears numerous times in books like the Psalms & Deuteronomy. He also implies that the promise to 'reveal the nakedness' of unbelieving Babylon is a euphemism for raping. I do not know if this is true, & do not have the expertise to know whether this is the case or not, but anything is believable with this character. 

In Classic authoritarian fashion, Korah is portrayed as having 'disrespected' Aaron & Moses by challenging their unquestioned power

"...I will take vengeance on my adversaries, & will requite those who hate me. I will make my arrows drunk with blood, & my sword shall devour flesh" (Deuteronomy 32:41-42) (RSV)

Judaism, & its much more-successful spinoff Christianity have ensured that in the intervening centuries since these backward & anti-humanist texts were written that YHWH's "glittering sword" has not gone without the blood of others for long. 

GOD - Chapter 5 (Control Freak)

Chapter 5 is designed to prove that YHWH, whose personality oozes from the pages at this point, is a 'control freak'. On this it largely succeeds, like the other chapters. "There are very few moral principles in the Old Testament," Barker begins. This is true unless one considers obedience to be a moral (I consider it a-moral.) YHWH leaves precious "little guidance toward leading mature ethical lives." 

Barker states, rather childishly, (but as befitting the character of these kinds of books) that "God is a helicopter parent." Sounds about right. He "meddles with his children's eating habits, washing rituals, travel routes, clothing choices, hair styles, artwork, underwear, sex lives, & toilet habits."

Our author explains the 'Holy of Holies', the rather ridiculously-named "inner chamber" of the tabernacle. The god specifies what he would like for candlesticks, curtains, tables etc... in his 'holy of holies', as if interior decorations were of the utmost importance. There are 10 verses in Exodus that expound upon the makeup of the proper Candlestick For The Lord, & then there are 13 verses, also in Exodus, dedicated to the Curtains Of The Lord. 

The 'Holy of Holies'

The extravagance of the Old Testament god must not have been unknown to those behind the criminal opulence of the Roman Church; perhaps we cannot blame their own tastes & proximity to Imperial luxury alone. Also highlighted are passages from Deuteronomy on how God will punish those who do not obey him, & from Leviticus on how bodily fluids make one 'unclean till evening.' 

Inside The Vatican, the opulent compound of the Roman Catholic Church

YHWH says that he is in-charge & the cause of all:

That they may know from the rising of the sun, & from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, & there is none else. I form the light, & create darkness: I make peace, & create evil: I the Lord do all these things" (Isaiah 45:6-7) (KJV)

In these passages, it is a Gnostic perspective of the evils of YHWH, not a conventional idea of YHWH's love & forgiveness that would be the 'obvious' interpretation. The New Testament must have been carrying an awful lot of  praise & exhortations of forgiveness, because these books are offering about nothing. Despite those 'holier-than-thou' people who represent the so-called 'godly way of living' , YHWH contradicts that anyone can live in God's ways:

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord"

Also of the Lord's doing is poverty & wealth & he is responsible for all birth & death. (Job 12:10) & finally 'People are nothing':

"All the people of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven & the people of the earth" (Daniel 4:35) (NJV)

'Nothing happens by chance' in YHWH's world, nor does he allow for chance in any of the accommodations he expects his followers to create for him. Colours, fabrics, materials, placements & lengths are all meticulously detailed by YHWH, for he cares about the specific type of wood that tables in his 'holy of holies' are to be created with. Why? Well, he is simply a control freak.

GOD - Chapter 4 (Unforgiving)

Barker presents his next point in chapter 4 -- that the Abrahamic deity YHWH is unforgiving. By this point, you don't even really have to read the chapter to know that YHWH is absolutely any/all of the negative qualities that Barker says he is. It is sort-of obvious that YHWH literally could possible be the worst of all characters -- real or fiction (but really what is fictional? Certainly there have been enough actions performed in the name of this God that it has rendered it real in at least some sense.) 

The chapter starts off with a quote from Joshua:

"He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins"

So much for all of that hoopla about 'forgiveness'. Or perhaps that is where Jesus comes in in the New Testament (although I suspect that the reputation of the New Testament for forgiveness is not exactly warranted...although, it is only a suspicion at this point.) YHWH, Barker says, lectures his subjects like a stern parent would a child. 

He also presents a strangely resonant Genesis quote:

"By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust, & to dust you shall return"

That is the only part of this insane bible that I have so far found to have contained any amount of sense (or at least what we would identify as sense in this era.) 

Me reading this fuckin' shit

YHWH says he will not even forgive those who are 'humbled & brought low' by his punishments. (Isaiah 2:6-9) (NIV)The Lord will "laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your cometh" (Proverbs 1:24-30) (KJV) What a douche! I feel nothing but vindicated all these years of rejecting/standing against this perverse deity. Under the heading 'Kill Without Pity', Barker presents this quote from the book of Ezekiel:

"Go ye after him through the city, and smite; let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: Slay utterly old & young, both maids, & little children, & women"

Jesus! YHWH is literally training his followers in the 'art' of genocide. When we take away the metaphysical aspect of this, it is even more sinister: This book, & its horrific content have been used (& continue to be used) as justification for horrific misdeed, in which humans inflict such pain & suffering upon each other. And it is biblically ordained, no less. Acharya S was not out-of-depth when she indicated her belief that Nazism & Bolshevism owe their violent & brutal methods to the Jewish & Christian backgrounds of their interlocutors. Could it be proven otherwise? I don't think it is out-of-the-question.

Barker also presents a quote from Jeremiah along the same lines, under the heading 'Don't Fast Or Worship -- God Will Still Kill You'. Also, YHWH's injunction against the bastards (similar to those deformed; they cannot enter the temple) is written with a word that also could mean 'inter-ethnic'. So YHWH opposes the pollution of the 'pure' Jewish gene pool Greeeeeeat. Well this just keeps getting better. 

GOD - Chapter 3 (Unjust)

In the third chapter of GOD, Barker is out to demonstrate that the god of the Hebrew Bible YHWH (he refers to the deity as 'The Lord Jealous'), is unjust. It is more of the same -- atrocities committed by the deity, revealed by his own admonition in the 'the good book'. And actually as I continue to move through the volume, it becomes apparent that the format of the book -- some commentary, followed by organized Bible quotes-- is actually quite effective in transmitting the main ideas of the book, of which is it is intended to convince us of. However, there is some 'pizzazz' missing from this, & it has somewhat become a joyless experience of muddling through GOD. After the first few chapters, & the novelty of this approach has kind of worn off. I already know I do not care about GOD's central premise -- that YHWH is the most 'unpleasant' character in all of fiction, so perhaps that is why I find myself disengaged now. 

This image entitled "Ten Commandments On The Moon"

Barker makes mention early on in the chapter of the question of the physical stone tablets that the Ten Commandments are supposed to have been etched upon & handed to Moses. Where are those tablets? We have no verifiable accounts of anyone not a part of the YHWH cult having seen these tablets. Barker asks why YHWH did not write his commandments on a more seeable venue like the moon. It is a good question. And also an interesting scenario to think about. 

He describes the Arc of the Covenant & what that supposedly looked like. In the book of Samuel, Barker shows, it is stated that God himself is seated within the Arc, but almost everybody was not permitted to see it, nor was it open to the public to be examined. According to Joshua 3:4, nobody was permitted to approach any closer than half-a-mile away! (Barker says, this is because the Ark clearly *did not* contain any tablets, & that YHWH was not visibly present; although, I come to wonder why it was not just as possible that one of the Hebrews, most likely a cleric, could have just *fabricated* the tablets and placed them in there) 

Barker states that the story furnished in 2 Samuel 6:6-7/1 Chronicles 13:9-10 was "clearly invented to instill fear." Then he goes to explain a rather uninteresting story (also in Samuel) of how the Israelites lost their arc, then regained it & YHWH killed 50,700 people because someone 'looked at the arc'.   

Bethshemesh - Where god killed thousands

At this point, there is very little doubt that YHWH is a rather unscrupulous character; that he is cruel & capricious is beyond doubt. Why anyone would invite this deity into their life beside those who have the unfortunate 'blessing' to be his subject 'chosen' people is a mystery. It is rather odd to think that it is from this sectional deity that the world-wide evangelical appeals of Christianity originated. (or did they?) 

Barker's specific opinions are obvious & discernible in his writing. After putting forward that, for example, the tablets of the commandments did not exist, or that the historical record does not indicate that any city in the vicinity of Bethshemesh could have possibly contained the amount of people that YHWH is supposed to have killed, he does not, like DM Murdock may have done, go forward and present historical evidence that may contradict the Yahwists claims. Instead, Barker just moves on & states New Atheist ideological points instead of actual new information. This is again indicative of the Dawkins & co. tendency to rely upon ideological maxims/assumptions instead of actually verifiable information (i.e. their claim that the tablets 'never existed' are just as unverifiable as the Yahwist claim that they did). 

DM Murdock

But, as far as the point that Barker is making, again the answer would be in the affirmative-- YHWH is absolutely not a just actor- to his supporters nor his enemies. There is a lot of coverage in this chapter about YHWH requiring the punishment of proxies in lieu of those who actually violated his 'sacred' commandments. Often, many people died in the text as a result of a 'holy' or 'chosen' figure like the mythical King David. And, of course, all of these people are of the 'chosen', who despite their status, go on committing misdeeds in the eyes of YHWH, killing or causing the death of thousands, or simply doing abominable things like raping (holy) or committing genocide (again, divinely ordained.) A rather vivid example of violent, biblical textuality is this passage from the book of the prophet Hosea. In 13:16 of that book, it is stated that because the people of Samaria disobeyed some command, YHWH left their "pregnant women ripped open." (NIV) In Isiah 13:11-16, YHWH, unfortunately not referring to himself, sets out to "put an end to the arrogance of the haughty," & so "infants will be dashed to pieces" as well as "wives violated."  I believe this horrific collection of books we call the bible is a real look into at the psychological world of the ancient Hebrew civilization, something I don't think we would be able to recognize as 'civilized' at all.  YHWH does not care whether it is children, man, or women; guilty or innocent, that he orders or carries out the death sentence of. They all are flung to the fire as he levies his anger-filled judgments. 

After being subjected to stories in which YHWH kills this person or that person or this village or that entire people, all of the stories & disconnected quotes start to blend in to one another. While it is entirely convincing that these books were written several decades apart in different languages etc..., they share a remarkable consistency with regards to the content of the savagery displayed by the 'god'. Nothing more really needs to be said about this, except these further iniquities which YHWH himself commits upon his people & others:

*The rape of David's wives as punishment for his sins

*The banishment of bastards into temples up to the 10th generation from the bastard conception

*The well-known murder of first-born Egyptian children 

*The lord says he will cut "both the righteous & the wicked"

*YHWH comes out against progressive taxation

*Killing Lot's wife for 'looking back'

*Ordering the death of rebellious children

*The death penalty for various animals

*The 'holy' Israelites attack other tribes to enslave women so they have 'wives'

*If any person, 'righteous or unrighteous' should commits something YHWH does not like, they will be condemned regardless. "None of the righteous things that person has done will be remembered." So that pretty much leaves everyone to be condemned

*All who are not Yahwists (i.e. Jews) are to "be put to death." (2 Chronicles 15:13, NIV) The Christian indignation at Islam for its supposed 'kill the unbelievers' mentality is astounding, for it is their very 'good book' which demanded exactly that thousands of years earlier.

Feel god's love!