Do you appreciate the evolving nature of marriage from biblical times when marriage served as a way to shore up tribal and economic alliances as compared to more contemporary Western notions of marriage as expressions of romance, mutuality, and fidelity? Ask: Do you have a sense of the various definitions of the Hebrew words yada, shiqquts, and toeba and the Greek words porneia and arsenokoitai, which often appear as homosexual in many modern English biblical translations?
Ask: Do you have an understanding of the history of conquest and the use of sexual violence as a weapon of war that formed the background of the Sodom and Gomorrah stories in Genesis ? Chances are these persons will not be able to answer these questions.
Contextual work is hard work and, truthfully, churches have not done a good job teaching and equipping their congregations with the knowledge and tools to read the Bible in context.
We cannot minimize the impact of the literal interpretation of these texts. Literalist interpretations contribute to homophobia and transphobia, which can lead to bullying, ostracization, and family estrangement. It is hard to get someone to change their core beliefs, but it is crucial to ask them to take responsibility for and ultimately to change behaviors that cause harm. Only once does the Bible reveal Jesus reading scripture. The occasion was significant.
He was in the synagogue in Nazareth, preparing to preach his inaugural message. This was his chance to send a clear message about what his mission and ministry would be about. What scripture would Jesus choose for this moment? Jesus chose a text about compassion. Of all the scripture available to him, Jesus chose compassion over judgment, mercy over sin, justice over piety.
This account says little to nothing about gender, the social and cultural norms and practices corresponding to what is considered masculine and feminine. Two dimensions of the text that become important in considering the biblical affirmation of intersex, transgender, non-binary, and other gender diverse people, discussed at more length here. This was what allowed the first Christians to decide to include gentiles who were not keeping the Old Testament law in the early church Acts What they did suggest was that the obvious exclusion, injustice and destructive outcomes of widely held beliefs should take Christians back to the text to consider a different perspective, one which might better reflect the heart of God.
While some Christians say that the Bible presents a variety of hard teachings as well as promising suffering for followers of Jesus Matthew , it never endorses oppression. In order for suffering to be Christ-like, it must be redemptive. Redemptive suffering does not uphold oppressive forces but always expresses resistance against them.
While the six passages that address same-sex eroticism in the ancient world are negative about the practices they mention, there is no evidence that these in any way speak to same-sex relationships of love and mutuality. To the contrary, the amount of cultural, historical and linguistic data surrounding how sexuality in the cultures of the biblical authors operated demonstrates that what was being condemned in the Bible is very different than the committed same-sex partnerships we know and see today.
If neither sex differentiation nor gender complementarity are the basis for Christian partnership, then what is? From Genesis 2, to Matthew 19, to Ephesians 5, what these passages make explicit and is echoed throughout the rest of Scripture is something mentioned earlier: marriage is sacred for Christians because it can represent the enduring love between Christ and the Church.
Anyone who has ever been in an intimate relationship of any kind can testify to the range of differences and resulting conflicts that are an inherent part of any two personalities attempting to integrate their lives. All things considered, it is important to remember that throughout church history, new information about people and the world have frequently led Christians to reconsider their beliefs. This need not be a reason to distrust Scripture, but rather should serve as an invitation to wrestle with the contexts of the biblical writers and our own lived experiences.
Read about what the Bible says about transgender people here. Also in the resurrection stories, there are contradictions as to the identity of the women who came to the tomb,[7] whether the men or angels the women saw were inside or outside the tomb,[8] whether the men or angels were standing or sitting,[9] and whether Mary Magdalene recognized the risen Jesus when he first appeared to her. Acts states that when Jesus called Paul to preach the gospel, the men who were with Paul heard a voice but saw no man.
The foregoing examples are just a few of the hundreds of contradictions contained in the Old and New Testaments. Each contradiction is an instance where at least one of the verses is wrong. Thus, hundreds of contradictions mean there are at least hundreds of incorrect statements in the Bible.
Humanists also reject the Bible because it approves of outrageous cruelty and injustice. In civilized legal systems, a fundamental principle is that the suffering of the innocent is the essence of injustice. Yet the Bible teaches that God repeatedly violated this moral precept by harming innocent people. Instances of cruel and unjust behavior by the biblical God are seen in the most basic Christian doctrines. He damned the whole human race and cursed the entire creation because of the acts of two people Genesis ; Romans ; he drowned pregnant women and innocent children and animals at the time of the Flood Genesis ; he tormented the Egyptians and their animals with hail and disease because pharaoh refused to let the Israelites leave Egypt Exodus ,25 ; and he killed Egyptian babies at the time of the Passover Exodus Besides the unfairness and heartlessness contained in many well-known Christian teachings, the Bible has other violent tales that are opposed to civilized standards of morality.
Among the most shocking Bible passages are those that portray God as ordering or approving the extermination of various people, including children and the elderly. Here are examples:. These verses expose the biblical God as having the morals of a sociopathic mass murderer.
The God of the Bible displayed his sadistic tendencies by employing a variety of other means to torment and kill people. He caused the earth to open and swallow entire families Numbers ; he used fire to devour people e. He sent wild animals such as bears II Kings , lions II Kings , and serpents Numbers to attack people; he sanctioned slavery e. The biblical God is also guilty of inflicting punishments that are grossly disproportionate to the acts committed.
In the American legal system, such disproportion violates the U. Obviously, to punish people who are completely innocent, as seen in the preceding Bible verses, constitutes punishment that is horribly disproportionate to the moral culpability of the recipients.
In the New Testament, God became far worse in regard to imposing excessively severe punishments. It would be hard to imagine anything more cruel and disproportionate than punishing people with eternal torture for mere disbelief that Jesus was the son of God. The inability to believe that proposition harms no one, and it has been disbelieved by some of the greatest benefactors of humanity.
Nonetheless, God promises to punish them and all other nonbelievers with the most horrible pain conceivable. A serious problem with the violence and injustice in the Bible is that, all too often, the teachings and example of the biblical God have incited cruel acts by his followers. Many of them reasoned that since God, who is considered just and loving, committed or approved of the most brutal acts, good Christians need not have qualms about behaving likewise.
McCabe reports that during the Middle Ages, there was more torture used in Christian Europe than in any society in history. The main cause of this cruelty was the Christian doctrine of eternal punishment. Other historical examples of violent and unjust acts supported by biblical teachings include: the Inquisition; the Crusades; the burning of witches; religious wars; pogroms against Jews; persecution of homosexuals; forceful conversions of heathens; slavery; beatings of children; brutal treatment of the mentally ill; suppression of scientists; and whippings, mutilations, and violent executions of persons convicted of crimes.
Those acts were a regular part of the Christian world for centuries. Humanists believe that those claims are both wrong and harmful. As a result of human observation and experience, a fundamental principle of science is that the laws of nature do not change, cannot be violated, and have acted uniformly over time.
According to paleontologist Stephen J. Indeed, without the assumption that the physical world operates according to unchanging natural laws, there would be no use studying the world, conducting experiments, or otherwise learning from experience.
In a world not operating under unvarying natural laws, those acts would be useless because knowledge of past events would not provide guidance about what will happen in similar situations in the future. There would always be the possibility of supernatural forces intervening to alter outcomes from what would otherwise be expected to occur based on past experience. Overwhelming evidence shows that physical events occur according to immutable natural laws. By claiming that supernatural beings intervene in the world, the Bible opposes the scientific principle of natural laws operating uniformly and unvaryingly.
As a result, the Bible discourages a scientific approach to problems. The Bible has stories about a talking snake Genesis ; a tree bearing fruit which, when eaten, gives knowledge of good and evil Genesis ; ; another tree whose fruit bestows immortality Genesis ; a voice coming from a burning bush Exodus ; a talking donkey Numbers ; rods turning into serpents Exodus ; water changing into blood Exodus ; water coming from a rock Numbers ; a dead man reviving when his corpse touched the bones of a prophet II Kings ; and other people rising from the dead e.
These biblical myths support the belief, which has been held by primitive and illiterate people throughout history, that supernatural beings frequently and arbitrarily intervene in this world. Our experience is that the natural world operates according to principles of regularity — which are never violated. We also know from experience that many people are often mistaken or dishonest.
Because of believing that supernatural beings control the world, people have often misdirected their energies in attempting to solve problems. Instead of studying the world to discover scientific solutions to problems, they performed religious activities in an effort to obtain the assistance of benevolent supernatural beings or thwart the influence of malicious ones. This misdirection of energies is seen, for instance, in the history of the attempts to prevent the outbreak and spread of diseases in Europe.
The historian Andrew White relates that, during many centuries in the Middle Ages, the filthiness of European cities repeatedly caused great plagues that sent multitudes to their graves. Based on biblical teachings, Christian theologians during those centuries thought the plagues were caused by the anger of God or the malevolence of Satan. It contains numerous instances of God punishing people by means of pestilence e. Those teachings led the early church leaders to promote the idea that demonic activity is the primary cause of disease.
For example, St. With the coming of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, there was little change in the Christian attitude toward the causes of disease. As a result of believing in supernatural causes of disease, theologians taught that plagues could be averted or stopped by seeking supernatural assistance.
These included repenting from sin;[20] providing gifts to churches, monasteries, and shrines;[21] participating in religious processions;[22] attending church services which often only increased the spread of disease ;[23] and killing Jews and witches since it was thought Satan used them as his agents in causing illness. White states that despite all the prayers, rituals, and other religious activities performed throughout the centuries, the frequency and severity of plagues did not diminish until scientific hygiene made its appearance.
The superior results of using science instead of religion can be seen in many other fields. Humanists therefore accept the scientific view that this world operates under unvarying natural laws that cannot be suspended by religious rituals or other means.
And Humanists esteem highly those who study this world and provide a better understanding of it. Unlike the theologians who focus on influencing supposed supernatural powers, persons using a scientific outlook have enabled great progress to be made in reducing misery and increasing happiness.
Humanists also repudiate the Bible because of its mistaken ideas about the structure of the physical world. In the sixteenth century, Copernicus proposed this theory about the double motion of the earth.
To oppose the Copernican doctrine and show that the earth remains stationary while the sun moves around it, the Catholic Church pointed to the tenth chapter of the book of Joshua. For generations the major branches of Protestantism — Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anglican — denounced the Copernican doctrine as contrary to scripture. The Bible supports the primitive notion of a flat earth. In the sixth century, a Christian monk named Cosmas wrote a book, titled Topographia Christiana, describing the structure of the physical world.
Basing his views on the Bible, Cosmas said the earth is flat and surrounded by four seas. The prophecy at Revelation was a basis for his conclusion. Because of such Bible teachings, most of the early church fathers thought the earth is flat.
These verses reflect the belief of the ancient Hebrews that the earth rests upon pillars. The Bible promotes the idea that the sky is a solid dome covering the earth.
This concept of the sky was common in the ancient Near East and taken for granted by the Bible writers. Orthodox doctrine also contained the related idea that the firmament has windows — which are opened by angels when God wants to send rain upon the earth. Cosmas believed that when the windows are opened, some of the waters contained above the firmament which are mentioned at Genesis fall to the earth.
Bible stories led the Christian world to believe — for centuries — that God sends humankind signs in the heavens. Christians thought comets warn of divine anger and imminent punishment;[42] stars and meteors portend beneficial events such as the birth of heroes and great men;[43] eclipses signify divine distress in response to events on earth;[44] and storms and other destructive weather result from the anger of God or the malice of Satan.
The Bible has verses mentioning dragons Jeremiah , unicorns Isaiah , and cockatrices Isaiah
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