GOD - Chapter 14 (Fillicidal)

In chapter 14 of GOD, Barker argues that YHWH, the god of the Old Testament, is fillicidal 'killing within families' or 'encouraging parents to kill children'. That is certainly so in Genesis 22:

Abraham shows his son Isaac where
 he will kill him

"'Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, & go to the land of Moriah, & offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains that I shall show you' (1-3) Without blinking, Abraham did exactly as God commanded"

This particular Bible story we 'all know of''. Many entertain such tales, considering it one part of 'the greatest story ever told'. Also, one of the most depraved. Probably not, but if we control for the amount of currency & circulation that this particular child-killing story has attained, perhaps.

Moving on; Barker continues to assail the writers of the Bible:

"If anyone was stupid, it was the writer of this fictional tale who assumed his readers would be uncritical"

Uncritical of the stories of YHWH demanding his faithful servants kill their children et al. Obviously, that is fillicidal (Not that I honestly have ever heard this term before.) It is stories like the Abraham-Isaac affair that have given centuries of Christian & Jewish ethicists an almost impossible burden (which they have duly twisted into their tortured ethical systems). The subject of killing one's children need not require much prolonged ethical examination, but Barker could not let such an evidentiary example of biblical depravity go without this:

"Try to imagine worshiping a master who demands that you slaughter your son or daughter to gain his approval"

Hundreds of millions do not need to imagine: They believe & sing praises to this very deity that demands behaviours like this. In Deuteronomy 21:18-21, god writes

 "If a man have a stubborn & rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother...all the men of his city shall stone him with stones...he will die" (KJV)

This American political concept of 'family values' is a lie & a canard, at least on the point of being derived from the bible. Why are pornography, homosexuals as teachers, & the liberated woman more obscene than this garble? The Bible has no legitimate claim to being the host or originator of any sort of ethic beside that of wanton parochialism & patriarchy.

Under the typical heading of 'Kill Your Children Who Leave The Faith', Barker supplies this proof text from Deuteronomy (13:6-10):

"'If thy brother, the son of the mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying 'let us go serve other gods'...thou shalt surely kill him...And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die" (KJV)