{"id":9476,"date":"2022-09-15T00:05:24","date_gmt":"2022-09-14T22:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/?page_id=9476"},"modified":"2022-10-21T16:11:14","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T14:11:14","slug":"the-god-delusion-2","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/faq\/the-god-delusion-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The God Delusion #2"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>#2 God Must be Horrible: Vindictive, Bloodthirsty Ethnic Cleanser, Misogynistic<\/h2>\n\n<p style=\"font-size: 12px;font-weight:bold;\"><a href=\"#vindictive\" class=\"scroll\" >Skip the introduction &crarr; &crarr;<\/a><\/p>\n\n<div class=\"iframe-container\"> <iframe id=\"lbry-iframe\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/odysee.com\/$\/embed\/the-god-delusion-part-2-vindictive%2C\/a30290c24ca66d8fd1c63db65431eeec62b4f6eb?r=Dsga2TMCaV6XJmznpAR28pnJHQPPW7jD\" allowfullscreen frameBorder=\"0\"><\/iframe> <\/div>\n\n<p class=\"\">I believe it was 2006 that Mr Dawkins published his book, the God Delusion. I have never paid to much attention to his writings simply because I thought the hype would die a fast and silent death. His book isn\u2019t, what you would call, a very sophisticated philosophical book. It is smoothly written, but it lacks a lot, philosophical speaking. Anyway, I was wrong about the dying stuff. Many still love his audacious mantra with which Dawkins starts the second chapter:<a class=\"scroll tooltip\" title=\"Go to the footnotes\" id=\"sdendnote1anc\" href=\"#sdendnote1sym\"><sup><b><b>i<\/b><\/b><\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin-left: 1.25cm\" class=\"textq\"><span class=\"leftq\">The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all of fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.<span class=\"rightq\"><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">I have always wondered what one could answer this foolish but immensely popular statement given by Mr. Dawkins in his equally foolish book, the God Delusion. Sceptics, Atheists, and many un-believers love these kins of rhetoric. It sounds so challenging! It sounds tough. But, in reality it gives away a total misunderstanding of the Biblical God. Minster Dawkins might know a thing or two about biology, but theologically speaking, he fails big time.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">So, let\u2019s discuss a few of these titles he so boastfully assigned to the God of the Bible. Let\u2019s see what we can say about it without going into endless debates.<\/p>\n\n<h3 id=\"vindictive\">Vindictive<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"\">We will start with the very first title: Vindictive.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\"><b>Deuteronomy 32:35<\/b><\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin-left: 1.25cm\" class=\"textq\"><span class=\"leftq\">To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; Their foot shall slide in due time: For the day of their calamity is at hand, And the things that shall come upon them make haste.<span class=\"rightq\"><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">This is quoted by the apostle Paul:<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\"><b>Romans 12:19<\/b><\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin-left: 1.25cm\" class=\"textq\"><span class=\"leftq\">Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.  <span class=\"rightq\"><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">God is the one who has the authority to carry out vengeance. These could tie into a couple of the New Testament parables. For example the master punishing the slave who couldn\u2019t forgive his fellow slave and the field owner who killed the tenants who killed his son. These are images that portray God bringing vengeance for others.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">There you go! God is vindictive\u2026 Right? But hold on a minute! Let\u2019s see what the dictionary <i>hast too saith<\/i> about it:<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\"><i><b>Vindictiveness:<\/b><\/i> showing a strong and <i>unreasonable<\/i> desire to harm or upset somebody because you think that they have harmed you.<a class=\"scroll tooltip\" title=\"Go to the footnotes\" id=\"sdendnote2anc\" href=\"#sdendnote2sym\"><sup><b>ii<\/b><\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\"><i><b>Vengeance:<\/b><\/i> the act of punishing or harming somebody in return for what they have done to you, your family or friends.<a class=\"scroll tooltip\" title=\"Go to the footnotes\" id=\"sdendnote3anc\" href=\"#sdendnote3sym\"><sup><b>iii<\/b><\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Two quite different things. And that is typically what people like to do. They use a word which comes close to the original meaning but which is not quite the same. Then they continue to debate about that word they themselves just started to use. That is what we call the straw man fallacy. God is by no means vindictive. However, there are examples in the Bible of Him taking <i>vengeance<\/i> on people who for example said that they would do, or were doing, some good stuff, but in reality they were doing quite the opposite.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Anyway, I&#8217;ve spent too much time already on this word. Let\u2019s go to the next one.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Bloodthirsty Ethnic Cleanser<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"\"><b>Deuteronomy 7:1-2<\/b><\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin-left: 1.25cm\" class=\"textq\"><span class=\"leftq\">[\u2026] the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites [\u2026]<br><br>\n\n[\u2026] when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them [&#8230;]<span class=\"rightq\"><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">I have touched on this in a different video. There I argued that the ancient people used phrases like \u2018utterly destroyed,\u2019 to explain that they had achieved absolute victory. Also, I said these commands were restricted to specific locations. These locations were military centres. These locations were not your average city populated by innocent civilians.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Nevertheless, I am not dogmatic on the explanations I gave, because I also recognise that God meant business. In other words, yes, I believe Israel mostly had to target military centres, but no, that doesn\u2019t mean that only military people were killed.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">But does this mean that God is a bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser? The short answer is no, but let me explain. Two pieces of evidence are worth mentioning.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Firstly, we see that there are exceptions to God\u2019s command to completely destroy. Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute, is spared from the complete destruction of Jericho. Why? Because she puts her trust in the LORD. Then, only one chapter later, Achan, an Israelite is put to death for taking some stuff from Jericho, something God had forbidden to do. Achan\u2019s entire household, and that includes the donkeys, were treated in the same way as Jericho. God\u2019s cleansing of the Promised Land was not genocidal. God\u2019s persecution wasn\u2019t against race or one group in particular, but it was against sin.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Again, Dawkins is using a straw man fallacy here. He takes the killing passages and he puts the word \u2018genocide\u2019 somewhere in between. The meaning of \u2018genocide\u2019 is:<a class=\"scroll tooltip\" title=\"Go to the footnotes\" id=\"sdendnote4anc\" href=\"#sdendnote4sym\"><sup><b>iv<\/b><\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin-left: 1.25cm\" class=\"textq\"><span class=\"leftq\">&#8230;the murder of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group, with the aim of destroying that nation or group.<span class=\"rightq\"><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Deuteronomy 9 explains that Gods wrath wasn\u2019t aimed at a specific nation or ethnic group. Israel didn\u2019t get the promised land because they were such upright, holy people.<\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin-left: 1.25cm\" class=\"textq\"><span class=\"leftq\">Not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart, dost thou go to possess their land: but for the wickedness of these nations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee [\u2026]<span class=\"rightq\"><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">I am not saying that the whole killing stuff doesn\u2019t disturb me. We <i>all<\/i> should be worried about these texts. However, we shouldn\u2019t doubt God\u2019s character, but we should realise that these episodes show us our own shortcomings towards the Creator. God punishes evil, and the Canaanites were extremely excellent in doing the wrong stuff.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Let\u2019s move on.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Misogynist<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"\">A misogynist is a person who hates or dislikes women or believes they are not as good as men.<a class=\"scroll tooltip\" title=\"Go to the footnotes\" id=\"sdendnote5anc\" href=\"#sdendnote5sym\"><sup><b>v<\/b><\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Well, Dawkins has a big vocabulary, I\u2019ll give him that. However, the way he\u2019s using these words are portraying his complete lack of understanding of God\u2019s character.  <\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Atheists usually come with all sort of examples to demonstrate their point. Eve was created after Adam; she was created to be his helper; Eve was made from Adam\u2019s rib, so obviously she is not as highly regarded; men throughout history have treated women horrible (Such as the story of Lot who received angels in his house. An angry mob demands that Lot surrender the angels to their lust. Instead, Lot proposes his own daughters in place of the angels); and did you know that some churches tell women to be quiet, to have long hair and wear dresses!<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">All these examples cannot account for God\u2019s thinking, can they?<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">I am not going to discuss these individual points because I rather look at Jesus and talk about the things He did, in public! Jesus is the image of God (Colossians 1:15), and as such He puts forth the attitude God the Father has towards women.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Looking at Jesus, what do we see? I use a list from the website of Emily Elizabeth Anderson:<a class=\"scroll tooltip\" title=\"Go to the footnotes\" id=\"sdendnote6anc\" href=\"#sdendnote6sym\"><sup><b>vi<\/b><\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"a\">\n\n<li>Jesus protected women (John 8:2-11)<\/li>\n\n<li>Empowered women (Matthew 28)<\/li>\n\n<li>Honoured women publicly (Luke 8:43-48)<\/li>\n\n<li>Released the voices of women (John 12:1-8)<\/a><\/li>\n\n<li>Confided in women (John 11:20-45)<\/li>\n\n<li>Was funded by women (Luke 8:1-3)<\/li>\n\n<li>Celebrated women by name (Luke 10:41-42)<\/li>\n\n<li>Learned from women (Mark 7:24-30; and His mother too!)<\/li>\n\n<li>Respected women (Luke 8:45-48; 13:16)<\/li>\n\n<li>He spoke of women as examples to follow (John 12:1-12)<\/li>\n\n<\/ul>\n\n<p class=\"\">Let me be clear! If a man says he follows Christ but doesn\u2019t respect women, he\u2019s a hypocrite. I can\u2019t say it milder than that. We, men, are warned and ordered to respect women.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\"><b>1 Peter 3:7<\/b><\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin-left: 1.25cm\" class=\"textq\"><span class=\"leftq\">Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.<span class=\"rightq\"><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\"><b>Ephesians 5:25<\/b><\/p>\n\n<p style=\"margin-left: 1.25cm\" class=\"textq\"><span class=\"leftq\">Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;<span class=\"rightq\"><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">To summarise, Jesus often addressed women directly while in public. This was unusual for a man to do. The disciples were surprised to see Jesus talking with the Samaritan woman at the well of Sychar. The Lord spoke freely with the woman taken in adultery. We see Jesus talking publicly with the widow of Nain, the woman with the bleeding disorder, and a woman who called to him from a crowd. Likewise, Jesus talked to a woman who was twisted and bent over and could not straighten up at all for eighteen years. Even in the most horrible time of His life, He spoke to a group of women while He was on His way to be crucified.<\/p>\n\n<h3>To Sum it all up<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"\">This was second part of this quote. We\u2019ll tackle the next bit next time. I have no intention to debate with the atheists who love this book, I just don\u2019t. Some like to see this as a sign of weakness on my part. And you know what? That is fine, keep on thinking that, I don\u2019t mind. However, I hope, and it is my prayer, that people who are stuck in these foolish atheistic mantras will open their hearts and minds to the word of God.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">For the Christians who watch this video, I would like to challenge you to explore these topics even more. Maybe your colleague, your sports mate, or maybe a family member has heard these kinds of quotes about God\u2019s character, and is wondering how much of it is true. Maybe, you yourself are a little overwhelmed by these words? It is good to see what the possible answers can be. To learn how wonderful God actually is!<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">Anyway! Do let me know your thoughts in the comments of the video or article below. Remember! I am mostly active on my Odysee channel. You\u2019ll find a link to that channel in the description of this video.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">I very much appreciate your prayers and support! Please take a look in the description of this video to find out how you can help me. Also, I\u2019ll place a link there to both the Dutch and English transcripts of this video. And finally, you\u2019ll find the links to the other videos I\u2019ve made about this topic\u2026 All, in the same description. Isn\u2019t that convenient?<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">God bless you, thank you for watching, and let\u2019s see how we approach the rest of Dawkins quote in the next video!<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\">\n<br><br>\n<\/p>\n\n<h3>Footnotes:<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"\"><a class=\"scroll tooltip\" title=\"Back to the text\" style=\"font-size:15px;font-weight:bold;\" id=\"sdendnote1sym\" href=\"#sdendnote1anc\">i<\/a>   Dawkins, R., <i>The God Delusion<\/i>, Bantam Press, London, 2006, p.31.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\"><a class=\"scroll tooltip\" title=\"Back to the text\" style=\"font-size:15px;font-weight:bold;\" id=\"sdendnote2sym\" href=\"#sdendnote2anc\">ii<\/a>   Oxford University Press, <i>Vindictive<\/i>, &lt;https:\/\/www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com\/definition\/english\/vindictive&gt; [internet] 2022, accessed 06-09-2022.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\"><a class=\"scroll tooltip\" title=\"Back to the text\" style=\"font-size:15px;font-weight:bold;\" id=\"sdendnote3sym\" href=\"#sdendnote3anc\">iii<\/a>   Oxford University Press, V<i>engeance<\/i>, &lt;https:\/\/www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com\/definition\/english\/vengeance&gt; [internet] 2022, accessed 06-09-2022.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\"><a class=\"scroll tooltip\" title=\"Back to the text\" style=\"font-size:15px;font-weight:bold;\" id=\"sdendnote4sym\" href=\"#sdendnote4anc\">iv<\/a>   Oxford University Press, <i>Genocide<\/i>, &lt;https:\/\/www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com\/definition\/english\/genocide&gt; [internet] 2022, accessed 08-09-2022.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\"><a class=\"scroll tooltip\" title=\"Back to the text\" style=\"font-size:15px;font-weight:bold;\" id=\"sdendnote5sym\" href=\"#sdendnote5anc\">v<\/a>   Oxford University Press,<i> Misogynist<\/i>, &lt;https:\/\/www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com\/definition\/english\/misogynist&gt; [internet] 2022, accessed 08-09-2022.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\"><a class=\"scroll tooltip\" title=\"Back to the text\" style=\"font-size:15px;font-weight:bold;\" id=\"sdendnote6sym\" href=\"#sdendnote6anc\">vi<\/a>   Anderson, E. E., <i>Is God Misogynistic?<\/i>, &lt;https:\/\/thrivingforwardblog.com\/is-god-misogynistic\/&gt; [internet] 2020, accessed 09-09-2022.<\/p>\n\n<h3>Recommended articles<\/h3>\n\n<p class=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/faq\/religion-cause-war\/\" >Religion Cause Wars <\/a><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/faq\/genocide-in-de-bijbel\/\" >Genocide in the Bible<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/faq\/012_religion_and_war\/\" >Religion, War &#038; Violence<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/faq\/what-about-the-canaanite-genocide\/\" >What about the Canaanite Genocide?<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>#2 God Must be Horrible: Vindictive, Bloodthirsty Ethnic Cleanser, Misogynistic Skip the introduction &crarr; &crarr; I believe it was 2006 that Mr Dawkins published his book, the God Delusion. I have never paid to much attention to his writings simply because I thought the hype would die a fast and silent death. His book isn\u2019t, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9478,"parent":1086,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[225,308],"tags":[314,275,318,242,240],"folder":[305,98],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9476"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/9476\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1086"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9476"},{"taxonomy":"folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.apologeet.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/folder?post=9476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}