They find themselves in a position I don't envy. They have to defend the indefensible. And by doing so, they reveal themselves.

Normally, what is said is something like, "Well God's ways are his own, and we cannot understand them." Because, you know...God.

The excuse that humans cannot understand God's will is the weakest excuse of all, in my mind. And it is the one used to justify genocide and even Noah's flood, which killed every human and land animal on the planet, save one family and the animals that got on the ark.

Why did God do that, you ask? Because the people did things it didn't like, so death to them all. It was God's judgment, so it was just, because...well...god, see?

Nonsense. Of course, there was no such flood, but that's beside the point. People believed there was, and still worshiped that deity.

Utter illogical malarkey and balderdash is what it is.

I could never worship a deity that wiped out all land-based life on Earth, except for one family and some pairs of animals. Nope. But, my conclusion is that no such deity ever existed, and the whole thing is a total fiction, made up by bronze age goatherds. Why we're still reading it today is a complete mystery. Why anyone believes any of it can only be chalked up to blind, willing ignorance.

in both halves of the Bible to conclude that God, if real, is a psychopathic terrorist.

I think the one that really brings me up short is telling a man to murder his son, to show how much he loves God. Really? Notice that God didn't instruct a woman to murder he child, because the woman would have told God to fuck off. Yeah, I know, this is a bit of male bashing, but still.

no such entity ever existed except in the imaginations of some ancient story-tellers. So, I dismiss it as fantasy.

I see no need for any sort of supernatural entity at all. Apparently, though, some people do feel the need to create such an entity. Perhaps in a time when nobody understood anything about the natural world, really, such an entity served a function. I don't know.

The Old Testament, particularly, is just a bunch of stories told around a nomadic tribe's campfires. Why would anyone take such stories for more than that. Every primitive culture has stories like that. We just happen to have seized on that particular one.

Nonsense. Fables. Allegorical claptrap. Today, we know vastly more about the real world and how it works. So, such fables are no longer useful or needed. Toss it all, except as a historical collection of old stories.

Of course, that's just my opinion, as I state below in my signature line.

Man, I would fight tooth and nail to the death to protect my son.

The god of the Bible is a sick fuck.

The reason why it's supposed to be such a powerful example of blind faith and allegiance to a monstrous deity is because Abraham is being told to sacrifice his son, who is far more valuable than a daughter of course.

Par for the course when it comes to biblical values I'm afraid. We have come up with much better ways to value each other, I think.