Thou Shalt Not Kill Does Not Apply to God. He Killed a Lot

In the Bible, God was busy killing people. Writers on several Christian satire sites enjoy running through the killing God did and the reasons given for the killing.

Some who write satire are so diligent they have read through the Bible to add up the number God killed. The numbers seem to run around 25 million. Of course it requires making an estimate of the world population at the time of Noah and of battles when God's favorite assassins were victorious. A review with lots of discussion is in another blog.

Here are some of God's most successful killing projects. The scripture reference can be found in the second link above or on several other sites:

Event                                                                             Estimates of Successful God Kills
Noah flood                                                                                     20 million

7th Plague                                                                                      300,000

1st Born Egyptian Children                                                           500,000

For complaining about God's killing                                               14,700

Midianite massacre                                                                        200,000

Israelite Army                                                                                500,000

Gideon Story                                                                                  120,000

Sleeping soldiers                                                                            185,000

Ethiopians                                                                                       1 million

For myself who does not believe there is a god, these stories from the Bible are not upsetting. People have killed each other since there have been people but it is impossible for a god to kill because there is no god. Those who should be upset are those who believe in the Judaeo Christian God.

It is said that later in the God story a "New Covenant" came along and God promised to stop all this killing. I don't understand why this was necessary in the story--why would a God who knows all make all these killing mistakes and only later make a "New Covenant"? And, if God punished man for Eve's sin why did he not punish himself for his own killing?

It just seems so logical that if God said Thou Shalt Not Kill he would then not kill 25 million of his beloved people.

Comments

  1. little helperNovember 5, 2019 at 7:45 PM

    Things in common

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ardy BNovember 6, 2019 at 7:32 AM

    Being biblically illiterate, I must speculate. Maybe the God I’llSmiteThee of the Old Testament was just laying down the law with some tough love. Or more likely, the authors of the Old Testament had to jack up the fear index to increase the power coefficient of the clergy to maintain a lucrative cash flow from the sale of their services. Anyway all of the smiting certainly called for some good news. Nothing like sacrificing your only son to signal a change in personnel policy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jon LindgrenNovember 6, 2019 at 9:57 AM

      Ardy B "...I must speculate." It's fun to speculate about the Bible. Thousands make a living speculating about what it means.

      While God was smiting people, why did he let Paul off the hook for doing away with a sacred ritual, circumcision. Paul said he had several personal visits with Jesus after Jesus was dead. Jesus could have smote Paul and kept this sacred practice.

      Delete
    2. Ardy BNovember 6, 2019 at 12:24 PM

      I don't know Jon, every time I visit your blog I get some Bible verses read. You sure are correct about being able to find a verse for every occasion and for every side of every argument. So, "Why did [Jesus] let Paul off the hook for doing away with the sacred ritual, circumcision?" I found: Acts 9 Verse 5: “And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.”

      Delete
    3. Jon LindgrenNovember 6, 2019 at 2:30 PM

      Ardy B :)

      Delete
    4. tsmNovember 6, 2019 at 2:51 PM

      so silly. literalists communing with literalists. blind leading the blind both falling into the ditch. instead of nitpicking Scripture why don't spend your time doing something important, like say reading Shakespeare or like reading Kant in the German original.

      Delete

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