Script for "God: Merciful? Maniac? Mass-murderer?"
This is a square, and this is a circle. How could anyone argue that this is a circle?
This is a video about trying to claim that this is a square and this is a circle.
Something no less ridiculous than claiming this is a square happens often in religion.
Here’s a sentence:
This is a square.
Here’s another sentence:
This is a square.
Can you find any way in which both sentences can be true? I don’t think so.
Now consider the following sentence:
"God is Love" (1 John 4:8)
And compare it with God speaking in Ezekiel:
"Follow him through the city and kill everyone whose forehead is not marked. Show no mercy; have no pity! Kill them all – old and young, girls and women and little children. But do not touch anyone with the mark. Begin your task right here at the Temple…Defile the Temple!…Fill its courtyards with the bodies of those you kill! Go!" (Ezekiel 9:5-7 NLT)
Now try to justify that both of these sentences are true.
How about the idea “God is all - forgiving”
OK, feels nice. Try to fit it with this:
Isaiah 13:15-18
Everyone who is caught will be stabbed;
everyone who is seized will die by the sword.
Their children will be smashed to pieces before their very eyes;
their houses will be looted
and their wives raped.
Look, I am stirring up the Medes to attack them;
they are not concerned about silver,
nor are they interested in gold.
Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons;
they have no compassion on a person’s offspring,
they will not look with pity on children.
That’s from Isiah Ch 13.
How about a simple sentence: “God loves everyone and is waiting to forgive”. Now keep in mind that God never changes. You know where I’m going with this, don’t you. Well – here it is. Square it with this:
"This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Strap on your swords! Go back and forth from one end of the camp to the other, killing even your brothers, friends, and neighbors." The Levites obeyed Moses, and about three thousand people died that day. Then Moses told the Levites, "Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, for you obeyed him even though it meant killing your own sons and brothers. Because of this, he will now give you a great blessing." (Exodus 32:26-29 NLT)
I’m not convinced by the argument that it’s all different now after Jesus. This murdering maniac we’re hearing about in the old testament is meant to be the forgiving being who sent Christ as a gift to us, right? So is he loving and merciful, or is he a war criminal that would be behind bars nowadays?
Somehow you manage to hold both ideas in your mind at the same time. I don’t know how you do it. In fact I don’t know why you do it.
In fact – try something different. Try fitting these sentences together and see if they fit.
“God desires for his enemies’ children to be killed violently”
“ Show no mercy; have no pity! Kill them all – old and young, girls and women and little children.” Eze 9
Yes, I’m sorry, that’s a match. Is it not? If you’re a Christian, you are probably doing mental backflips now to justify why they are not compatible.
Next. Let’s tone it down a bit. How about:
“God USED TO desire the murder of his enemies’ children”
It still isn’t very comfortable, is it. It’s true, according to the bible, right? It’s not the sort of character you WANT to believe in. But I don’t know how you square these:
God would NEVER want the violent death of children and babies.
And
The Bible is true and from God
I think if you are a rational person,
If you believe this
“The bible is true, and from god”
Then you have no choice but to believe, absolutely as a consequence of the first sentence, that at the very least,
“God used to desire the slaughter of his enemies and their children” because that’s what the bible says.
In numbers 31, God orders moses to take 16000 virgins as war booty, 32 of which are sacrificed.
In Jeremiah 9 he threatens his people with bad food and water and then threatens to kill them with a sword.
In 2nd Kings 17, God sends lions to kill people who don’t believe in him. Lions! Can you imagine the suffering?
I can already hear the Yeah, But… and the cries of “out of context!” and yes, I know that the old and new testaments are different spiritual contexts.
I’m pointing out, however, that as a believer you have little choice but to be mentally dishonest with yourself. You know that killing kids is morally wrong, yet you know that God did it, yet you still want to believe that God is incapable of doing anything morally wrong.
You are still going to claim, are you not, that it was this being, Yahweh, who kindly saved you through his son Jesus, and is therefore merciful, someone to be thanked and praised. I think it’s easier to square this character with the label “insane bloodthirsty death-obsessed control-freak” than with “loving caring saviour”, and I think the evidence is on my side. In fact, the best you could say of God’s alleged mercy is that he changed his mind about torturing all of mankind for eternity. Because of Jesus, He’s now going to only torture “most” of mankind for eternity.
You might like to consider, in fact, that apparently he saved you from his own sentence of eternal torturous punishment by manifesting himself as human and torturing and killing himself.
Square, circle.
Evil, warmongering, maniacal ethnic cleansing mass murderer.
Perhaps in your reponse to this, you might like to explain how in ANY context, threatening things like the violent death of children and babies, let alone men and women, how in ANY context, this is congruent with love and mercy and perfect morality.
And also how you square all of this with “The Bible is the best code of morality that we have”.
This is a video about trying to claim that this is a square and this is a circle.
Something no less ridiculous than claiming this is a square happens often in religion.
Here’s a sentence:
This is a square.
Here’s another sentence:
This is a square.
Can you find any way in which both sentences can be true? I don’t think so.
Now consider the following sentence:
"God is Love" (1 John 4:8)
And compare it with God speaking in Ezekiel:
"Follow him through the city and kill everyone whose forehead is not marked. Show no mercy; have no pity! Kill them all – old and young, girls and women and little children. But do not touch anyone with the mark. Begin your task right here at the Temple…Defile the Temple!…Fill its courtyards with the bodies of those you kill! Go!" (Ezekiel 9:5-7 NLT)
Now try to justify that both of these sentences are true.
How about the idea “God is all - forgiving”
OK, feels nice. Try to fit it with this:
Isaiah 13:15-18
Everyone who is caught will be stabbed;
everyone who is seized will die by the sword.
Their children will be smashed to pieces before their very eyes;
their houses will be looted
and their wives raped.
Look, I am stirring up the Medes to attack them;
they are not concerned about silver,
nor are they interested in gold.
Their arrows will cut young men to ribbons;
they have no compassion on a person’s offspring,
they will not look with pity on children.
That’s from Isiah Ch 13.
How about a simple sentence: “God loves everyone and is waiting to forgive”. Now keep in mind that God never changes. You know where I’m going with this, don’t you. Well – here it is. Square it with this:
"This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Strap on your swords! Go back and forth from one end of the camp to the other, killing even your brothers, friends, and neighbors." The Levites obeyed Moses, and about three thousand people died that day. Then Moses told the Levites, "Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, for you obeyed him even though it meant killing your own sons and brothers. Because of this, he will now give you a great blessing." (Exodus 32:26-29 NLT)
I’m not convinced by the argument that it’s all different now after Jesus. This murdering maniac we’re hearing about in the old testament is meant to be the forgiving being who sent Christ as a gift to us, right? So is he loving and merciful, or is he a war criminal that would be behind bars nowadays?
Somehow you manage to hold both ideas in your mind at the same time. I don’t know how you do it. In fact I don’t know why you do it.
In fact – try something different. Try fitting these sentences together and see if they fit.
“God desires for his enemies’ children to be killed violently”
“ Show no mercy; have no pity! Kill them all – old and young, girls and women and little children.” Eze 9
Yes, I’m sorry, that’s a match. Is it not? If you’re a Christian, you are probably doing mental backflips now to justify why they are not compatible.
Next. Let’s tone it down a bit. How about:
“God USED TO desire the murder of his enemies’ children”
It still isn’t very comfortable, is it. It’s true, according to the bible, right? It’s not the sort of character you WANT to believe in. But I don’t know how you square these:
God would NEVER want the violent death of children and babies.
And
The Bible is true and from God
I think if you are a rational person,
If you believe this
“The bible is true, and from god”
Then you have no choice but to believe, absolutely as a consequence of the first sentence, that at the very least,
“God used to desire the slaughter of his enemies and their children” because that’s what the bible says.
In numbers 31, God orders moses to take 16000 virgins as war booty, 32 of which are sacrificed.
In Jeremiah 9 he threatens his people with bad food and water and then threatens to kill them with a sword.
In 2nd Kings 17, God sends lions to kill people who don’t believe in him. Lions! Can you imagine the suffering?
I can already hear the Yeah, But… and the cries of “out of context!” and yes, I know that the old and new testaments are different spiritual contexts.
I’m pointing out, however, that as a believer you have little choice but to be mentally dishonest with yourself. You know that killing kids is morally wrong, yet you know that God did it, yet you still want to believe that God is incapable of doing anything morally wrong.
You are still going to claim, are you not, that it was this being, Yahweh, who kindly saved you through his son Jesus, and is therefore merciful, someone to be thanked and praised. I think it’s easier to square this character with the label “insane bloodthirsty death-obsessed control-freak” than with “loving caring saviour”, and I think the evidence is on my side. In fact, the best you could say of God’s alleged mercy is that he changed his mind about torturing all of mankind for eternity. Because of Jesus, He’s now going to only torture “most” of mankind for eternity.
You might like to consider, in fact, that apparently he saved you from his own sentence of eternal torturous punishment by manifesting himself as human and torturing and killing himself.
Square, circle.
Evil, warmongering, maniacal ethnic cleansing mass murderer.
Perhaps in your reponse to this, you might like to explain how in ANY context, threatening things like the violent death of children and babies, let alone men and women, how in ANY context, this is congruent with love and mercy and perfect morality.
And also how you square all of this with “The Bible is the best code of morality that we have”.