GOD - Chapter 11 (Racist)

In Chapter 11 of GOD, Barker puts forward the claim that the god of Judea is racist. It is not hard to see why -- This god is guilty of racism for much the same reason that Zionism is seen as a racist ideology: YHWH says that the Jews are his 'chosen', that he has reserved a fate special to them, above all others, that they are created not only in his image, but are to receive his various boons & blessings throughout history (yeah; that part did not work out so well for them. Somebody was asleep at the wheel). As the writer of the book of Deuteronomy puts it:

"The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession" (7:6)

Obviously, this is, in a sense conceivably racism for all others unto the earth. Every other race is inferior. That is pretty much as blatant as racism gets. He commands the Jews, as they sojourn around the area, to kill off this people & that people, telling them that he will help 'clear the way' for their settlement of the Holy Land. Perhaps some were expecting this upon the declaration of the state of Israel in the late 1940's. Although this conceit is probably unwarranted. Despite being held together by at least a nominally religious identity, we know Israel today is one of the most secular countries. This makes its deployment of religious motifs & imagery all the more curious, & by curious, I mean murderously cynical. This is transparent manipulation of religion for political uses, as Slavoj Žižek writes in his "Violence" book.

"Violence" explores the contradiction
 at the heart of Israeli Zionism

In Barker's point of view, the various violent expeditions of the Israelites should be viewed as "religious cleansing", with the divinity of YHWH, their god, egging them on & aiding them in their murderous quests, whether to gain land or wives. YHWH also favoured the Jewish race in other ways, for example, raining a plague down upon another people where "those that died...were 24,000" No Jews were harmed in the making of this plague. Lol.

Barker quotes the United Nation document adopted at the International Convention Of The Elimination Of All Racial Discrimination in 1966, between the founding of the state of Israel & the infamous UN General Assembly vote that classed Zionism as a form of racism. The statement from the convention states that:

"The term 'racial discrimination' shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction, or preference based on race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin that has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment, or exercise, on an equal footing or human rights, & fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural, or any other field of public life"

So, by the standards of the United Nations, the behaviour & statements of a majority of its member's god is guilty of 'racial discrimination'.

Barker writes that the Jews were the 'superior race' in the equation of the ancient Levant, & that statement, with everything it implies, is correct. YHWH not only had designs for their political triumph (a dream that would finally die by 71, but would somehow re-emerge 1850-ish years later). Stated plainly, god is racist, & the Jews were the beneficiaries of this racism, which was then turned against them for a large portion of their later history, only now to be engaging in a lot of the same behaviour that traditionally was the game of the Hebrews. Except they have missiles & guns today. It is interesting how history turns.

GOD - Chapter 10 (Homophobic)

Chapter 10 of GOD focuses on the homophobia of the Judaic deity, which doesn't happen to appear so much in the Bible, as much as its out-size influence would suggest.

"Backing up to the 18th chapter of Genesis, part one begins with an implausible account of Abraham physically meeting God face-to-face (Let's ignore the fact that God said 'you cannot see my face; for no one can see me & live.' (Exodus 3:20)" Barker continues, "God & the Angels were actually heading toward the city of Sodom, on a scouting mission to see if the place was as 'wicked' as God had heard."

This band is named 'Sodom'.
I wonder if they, you know, realize, what their name means?
Are they sodomites? Hot.
I like the one in the middle, & the one on the right

And we all know how that ended. My favourite description of Sodom was comedian Julia Sweeney's description of the city as 'sort-of like  Las Vegas', which is hilarious because I think Las Vegas really is our Sodom.

But, of course, it is this tale in which the act of 'Sodomy' get its name. Why? There is nothing particularly anal about it. The men of Sodom do want to rape the men-angels but who says it couldn't have been an oral rape? Sodom really had some hot-n-horny throngs. Perhaps they couldn't be satisfied fully in that way. But anyway, God destroying this city could be conceived of as 'homophobic', as it was filled with guys who wanted to dump their loads in his angels.

I guess the angels looked something like this

God wasn't all about that. This treatment just confirmed their wickedness, which he didn't already know (for some reason). As Barker states it,

"The writer does not explain why the omniscient Lord would have not known that fact in the first place"

And it is a fair question. I think of some very human reasons behind God not realizing -- May be putting angels at the potential rape by a gang he was reminding them who was boss. Maybe he wanted to destroy the city anyway & just wanted to feign a fair trial. Much more pertinently, there are some political possibilities here -- Another opportunity to see the low value of women & the distrust & outright fear at the potential of the sexual appetite. Before he reaches Sodom, he is asked:

"Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just?"

That appeal was made by Moses, not exactly the most just person either, but if we take God's admonition to all-seeing power, YHWH knew very well going in that Sodom was filled with this type of spunk-hungry beasts. Barker narrates how the city failed the fateful test as such:

A rather cute rendering of the 'escape' from the doomed city

"The men of Sodom, all of them, young & old, surrounded the house & yelled to Lot, 'Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them to us, so that we may know them" (Genesis 19:5)

Know them, eh? Wink, wink, Lol. Barker says that the crowds "Must have oogled" the angels "while they were heading to Lot's house...But the libidinous gang didn't want the girls." Obviously. Even the fact the girls that Lot offered were virgins didn't excite. These were some hardened pervs, like I imagine the residents of our Las Vegas would be. They want to have anal intercourse (I guess), & so we are bestowed the locution 'sodomy'. Not entirely self-evident, though that has not stopped theologians from naming-&-claiming others as 'sodomites'.

Barker points out that, from Orthodox scripture, it is not entirely evident how Gomorrah gets thrown into the mix:

I don't think there is Biblical backing for this image

"The writers don't tell us why the city of Gomorrah was punished for the inhospitality of the neighbor"

Of course the escape from Sodom that Lot & his family endured was not entirely successful because of Lot's wife. She disobeyed god & looked back when he told her not to. "Now that...his wife had become a geological feature," Barker writes "how would he have any heirs?...the daughters - The same girls who had been offered to be raped - came up with a plan...'we will lie with him'...(Genesis 19:31-32)" Again, why wasn't this bizarre (but obvious) act given the distinction of 'sodomy'? They were, after all, still close to the ruins of the city.

But back to God's homophobia. It is sort-of obvious that this is the case, but as just an 'abomination' it doesn't result in instant death penalty, like being disobedient to your parent, or adultery. Much hay has been made of homosexuality in the more-recent Christian fundamentalist tradition, but the emphasis doesn't seem to be merited. It would seem to me that God's main interest were more along the lines of maintaining patriarchal order, controlling the movement of women ,production of babies, & maintenance of the family. Homosexuality seems pretty irrelevant to any of that except for maybe the 'babies' part. Personally those passages we have seen from the Old Testament have been more against a 'dabbler' or 'bisexual' than they have at 'gay people,' (a people which there is little evidence even existed as-such before the 1800's)

GOD - Chapter 9 (Misogyny)

Pardon my absence. I have been much too busy finding a new dive to live in, as well as counting my blessings, to write any new anti-Christian screeds.

Amidst the madness, I have had a chance to read chapter 9 of GOD : God is misogynistic. I mean, duh. Barker starts off with a quote from Genesis ordering wives to be ruled by their husbands. Greeat. What about femdom marriages? No space for them in this tradition. Matriarchal societies would literally have to restructure themselves to accommodate Christianity (or Islam).

But there are some positive points. Barker writes-

"The God of the Old Testament was not 100% sexist. Here is one example of true gender equality: 

'You shall eat the flesh of your sons & you shall eat the flesh of your daughters'" (Leviticus 26:29)

Charming. 

Among the biblical blather quoted ("Slaughtering without mercy," from the book of Lamentations, etc), Barker also writes about the differential in the financial evaluations of females as merchandise in the Hebrew culture:

"Monetarily, a woman is worth less than a man in the Old Testament, which is especially obvious when the Israelites are buying & selling slaves at God's command."

Hmm. In YHWH's eyes, "A woman is more unclean after giving birth to a daughter than to a son."

In Barker's eyes, these tales - Eve coming from the rib of Adam, women less-worthy as slaves, the women of Israel whoring about & getting burned or stoned, the 'Chosen People' conducting wars to gain wives etc- are simply "religious justification for the denigration of women." Barker also states earlier in that sentence that "The writers of the Bible...are all men." Even if we could determine with any degree of certitude who the writers of the Bible were, would we find all men? Probably, but not necessarily.

Women, & especially mothers, are integral to the upkeep of not only patriarchy, but just gender norms in general. Because of the mother's integral role in the child's life (speaking now just of Euro-culture, of which I am familiar), they have a unique role in transmitting to sons ideas of male superiority, privilege, entitlement, & to their daughters the place of women, 'the wages of love', what is tolerable in male partners, & perhaps most importantly, what is a 'good girl' & what is a 'bad girl.' Mothers are what a patriarchy is made of. It is not often spoken of but women themselves must be implicated in the patriarchal position in Western culture. If all women advocated for an equitable position, or even a crude matriarchal position, we would see a much different world. It is mothers' precious ideas of the 'prince', 'a woman's place', the sexual double standard, & 'what men are useful for' that deserves to be looked at. 

Moving on - "God wants humans to remain ignorant." It is incidental to this subject-at-large (misogyny) that this fact is to be re-stated. But it is integral to the Abrahamic spirit & message. From its very origin story, the Christian/Jewish tradition cites as evil 'knowledge': Its tree & the self-awareness that Adam & Eve gain. Is it not utterly stupefying that it is the tree of 'knowledge' that God warns his people from. Beyond this, it is not so much knowledge proper that YHWH is against, but specifically knowledge of the self that is to be avoided. How interesting this is, for self-knowledge was the essence of other ideologies we as humanity have developed. Gnosticism, Buddhism, Psychoanalysis - they are devoted to this very pursuit, that which YHWH positioned himself against so long ago (allegedly)

Barker says the legend of Eve, "Is the source of women's inequality in the Middle East, the Western World, & every country infected with Biblical belief." Interesting that the author would acknowledge these legends as the justification for pre-existing misogyny traditions & then cite them as the origin. Perhaps it is both. Perhaps it does originate within the particular culture of the Hebrews, & was magnified by the massive circulation of their foundational book. In this way, we can view Biblical patriarchalism as a concurrently-reinforcing essence-message that magnified as the misogynist tradition spread. But the above is more thought than Barker, or other New Atheist authors tend to give to their anti-biblical tracts. On the whole, these arguments are often shallow & opportunistic. Out of all chapters, the critique of the Bible as misogynist is the most curious. While it could well be honest (& from Barker it probably is) the New Atheist tradition is one known for its male-dominant attitudes & sometimes outright misogyny itself.

Barker also brings up Paul ('or someone pretending to be Paul', he pertinently points out), & his infamous injunction against women occupying any position that would subordinate a man. It was this Bible quote that served so useful to Church Fathers in the 200's - 400's, that they repeated ad naseum in their polemics as these men worked to exterminate non-orthodox thought. 

Iraneus

One more note about the Biblical misogyny: Barker points out the "The biological reversal" that is inherent even in the origin story -

"Woman comes out of man instead of the other way around." 

Interesting. This attempted terra-forming of reality to conform to ideology, rather than something which can be perceived to outsiders brings me back to the warped world of life under State Socialism: Pravda, filled with articles meant to obfuscate, pictures crudely scratching away at the faces of those purged & gulaged, mental illnesses that only existed in the Eastern Bloc, false production statistics, five-year plan quotas that could never be fulfilled, heck, everything about North Korea. It is interesting again I come to Communism, which DM Murdock says gained much of its disregard of humanity from its characters' proximity to Biblical traditions, both Christian & Jew. 

The infamous Pravda