Latest Posts
Posted: Monday 03 September 2012 ( 12 years ago )
Jacob 1-2: Polygamy, riches, and the Lord's delight in chaste women
Nephi was getting old and was about to die, so he had to find someone to take over his plate-writing duties.
He chose his little brother Jacob.
For behold, it came to pass that fifty and five years had passed away from the time that Lehi left Jeru ...
Posted: Tuesday 21 August 2012 ( 12 years ago )
Richard Dawkins: The Playboy Interview
OK, I guess I have to buy another issue of Playboy.
(The last one that I was forced to buy was back in February 2007, when my post on God's killings was mentioned in its "Raw Data" section.)
But the September 2012 issue has something even better ...
Posted: Wednesday 15 August 2012 ( 12 years ago )
The Judith massacre: hang ye up this head upon our walls
In my last post we saw how God helped Judith cut off the head of Holofernes. It probably looked something like this.
Not a pretty picture, eh?
But God had a good reason for inspiring this act of barbarism: he did it to encourag ...
Posted: Tuesday 14 August 2012 ( 12 years ago )
Judith is blessed above all women (for cutting off a sleeping man's head)
If you were to ask Paul Ryan (or any other Catholic) who is the most blessed of all woman in the Bible, he'd say, without the slightest hesitation, Ayn Rand.
OK, just kidding. Ayn Rand isn't in the Bible (not even Paul Ryan's Bible). Every Catholi ...
Posted: Tuesday 07 August 2012 ( 12 years ago )
2 Nephi 31-33: Nephi makes an end of his prophesying and proposes a simple test
Well, we've finally made it to the end of 2 Nephi, where Nephi makes an end of his prophesying.
And now I, Nephi, make an end of my prophesying. 2 Nephi 31:1
And Nephi is quite proud of what he's written; it suffices him, since he has spoken plai ...
Posted: Tuesday 31 July 2012 ( 12 years ago )
Jeremy Paxman is right: The Bible is religious hogwash that stupid people teach to children
Jeremy Paxman has upset a few (stupid) people for calling the Bible "religious hogwash."
Here are some quotes from his interview with Richard Dawkins on BBC Newsnight.
Paxman (0:49): ...from our earliest years, we have learned to suspend disbelief ...
Posted: Thursday 26 July 2012 ( 12 years ago )
The Worst Person in the World (according to the Bible)
In my last post I nominated Jehu for the Worst Person in the Bible award. It wasn't an easy choice, of course, since there are so many bad people in the Bible.
But who is the worst person in the Bible according to the Bible?
There are really only ...
Posted: Tuesday 24 July 2012 ( 12 years ago )
The worst person in the Bible
As anyone who has read the Bible knows, there are a lot of bad people in the (not so very) Good Book. Noah, Abraham, Lot, Moses, Joshua, Jephthah, Gideon, Samson, David, Elijah, Elisha, Jesus -- there are many candidates for the worst person in the ...
Posted: Wednesday 11 July 2012 ( 12 years ago )
Woe is everyone!
My last post showed that God is woe. But he's got plenty of woe company.
Here's a list of woe people in the Bible.
Early rising, all-day drinkers
Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that continue u ...
Posted: Tuesday 10 July 2012 ( 12 years ago )
Woe is God.
Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! Micah 2:1
Thus saith the LORD; Behold, against this family do I devise an evil. Micah 2:3
...
Posted: Sunday 08 July 2012 ( 12 years ago )
2 Nephi 30: They shall be a white pure and delightsome people
In the last chapter, Nephi explained that God had written a new Bible, a Third Testament, "a marvelous work and a wonder," which we all know today as the Book of Mormon.
Here's how the Book of Mormon (the musical) explains it:
You all know the Bib ...
Posted: Friday 06 July 2012 ( 12 years ago )
The Shechem and Dinah love story/massacre
The story begins when Dinah, the daughter of Jacob, goes out to meet her Hivite neighbors.
Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. Genesis 34:1
While she was visiting, a young Hivite man ...
Posted: Thursday 05 July 2012 ( 12 years ago )
Three more ways that Muhammad is better than Jesus
In a previous post, I discussed the important question: who had the most powerful spit, Jesus or Muhammad?
But what about the other characteristics of Jesus and Mo?
Well, here are three more ways that the founders of the two largest religions can ...
Posted: Wednesday 04 July 2012 ( 12 years ago )
What the Bible Says About Alcohol
Recently, a woman who was convicted of drunk driving was sentenced to do some jail time -- and some Bible study. So it got me thinking about what the Bible has to say about alcohol.
Here's what I found.
Noah was the first drunk (and naked), just a ...
Posted: Wednesday 27 June 2012 ( 12 years ago )
2 Nephi 28-29: A Bible! We have got a Bible, and we need no more Bible!
In the last chapter, Nephi revealed the Book of Mormon, 2400 years before Joseph Smith dug it up in his own backyard. Amazing stuff.
Now he tells us how it will be received by Christians everywhere.
But first he reminds us about how God views non- ...
Posted: Wednesday 27 June 2012 ( 12 years ago )
2 Nephi 28-29: A Bible! We have got a Bible, and we need no more Bible!
In the last chapter, Nephi revealed the Book of Mormon, 2400 years before Joseph Smith dug it up in his own backyard. Amazing stuff.
Now he tells us how it will be received by Christians everywhere.
But first he reminds us about how God views non- ...
Posted: Thursday 21 June 2012 ( 12 years ago )
The Numbers 15:32-36 Challenge to Bible Believers
Here's what the Bible says in Numbers 15:32-36:
While the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day. And they … brought him unto Moses and Aaron ... because it was not declared what s ...
Posted: Thursday 07 June 2012 ( 12 years ago )
Sending body parts in the mail: The Biblical way to send a message
OK, this is going to be another grisly post. Sorry about that.
But, hey, I am, after all, blogging about the Bible. If you don't like disgusting stories, you're not going to like the Bible. Or my posts.
So here goes.
You've probably heard b ...
Posted: Thursday 31 May 2012 ( 12 years ago )
2 Nephi 27: The Book of Mormon prophesies itself
After taking a short break from quoting Isaiah, Nephi got tired of his own tiresome words, so he went back to quoting Isaiah again.
But this time, it's not just filler.
Isaiah 29 was selected because it refers to a special book, sealed by God, tha ...
Posted: Wednesday 23 May 2012 ( 12 years ago )
So it was Jesus that sent the serpents to bite people for complaining!
One of the craziest stories in the Bible is found in Numbers 21. It all happens in just two verses:
The people spake against God, and against Moses, Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? for there is no bread, neith ...
Posted: Wednesday 16 May 2012 ( 12 years ago )
2 Nephi 26: All those who have dwindled in unbelief shall not be forgotten.
Nephi tells us, once again, all about Jesus, 600 or so years before Jesus existed.
After Jesus dies he will rise from the dead and come visit the Nephites in North America. The Nephites will learn about his birth, death, and resurrection; then ...
Posted: Sunday 13 May 2012 ( 12 years ago )
Some Bible verses for Mother's Day
It's not easy to find a good Bible verse for Mother's Day.
But here are the best I can find.
From the book of Hosea.
Plead with your mother, plead: ... let her ... put away her whoredoms ... and her adulteries from between her breasts; Lest I s ...
Posted: Friday 11 May 2012 ( 12 years ago )
What the Bible says about Homosexuality
Homosexuality is an abomination to God (like shrimp).
Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. Leviticus 18:22
Except that unlike eating shrimp, the punishment for homosexuality is death.
If a man also lie wi ...
Posted: Wednesday 09 May 2012 ( 12 years ago )
2 Nephi 25: Nephi speaks (somewhat) plainly about Jews, Jesus, and Joseph Smith
Nephi finally gives us a break from quoting Isaiah (2 Nephi 11-24) and begins to speak (somewhat) about the the 13 chapters he copied from the King James Version of the Bible (about 2200 years before that translation existed).
Now I, Nephi, do spea ...
Posted: Saturday 28 April 2012 ( 12 years ago )
A Perfect Case for Biblical Justice: Thou shalt cut off her hand, thine eye shall not pity her
When reading God's commandment in Deuteronomy 25:11-12, have you ever wondered if such a punishment is really necessary?
Here's the passage.
When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband ...
Posted: Saturday 28 April 2012 ( 12 years ago )
Posted: Monday 23 April 2012 ( 12 years ago )
The Book of Mormon: The whiter the skin, the closer to God
Tim Giago, the founder of the Native American Journalist Association, has an excellent article with this title at the Huffington Post. It inspired me to find the verses in the Book of Mormon that mention skin color.
Here's what I found. Let me know ...
Posted: Saturday 21 April 2012 ( 12 years ago )
A Green Bible Verse for Earth Day
Repost for Earth Day
Here is a verse that is marked green in the world's most dishonest book -- The Green Bible.
Therefore thus says the Lord God: My anger and my wrath shall be poured out on this place, on human beings and animals, on the trees o ...
Posted: Friday 06 April 2012 ( 12 years ago )
Bad Friday: Greater evil hath no man than this, that he is willing to kill his own son (for any fucking reason).
The three "great" Abrahamic faiths trace their origin to Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son to God. Jews and Christians believe the story told in Genesis 22, in which God tells Abraham to kill his son, Isaac, for him.
God ... said, Take n ...
Posted: Monday 02 April 2012 ( 12 years ago )
Sam Harris on Free Will
If you haven't had time to read the book (it's only 60 pages or so), then you probably won't have time to watch this lecture either.
But you should do one or the other. Your choice.
...
Posted: Thursday 29 March 2012 ( 12 years ago )
Richard Dawkins and Michael Aus discuss the Clergy Project
The morning after the Reason Rally, Michael Aus was on the Chris Hayes Show, where he first came out as a non-believing Christian minister. Here is another interview, this time with Richard Dawkins.
Here's an excerpt.
Dawkins: What first led to th ...
Posted: Tuesday 27 March 2012 ( 12 years ago )
John Hagee explains how and why the world will end in 2012
John Hagee explains it all in less that 20 minutes. (See video below.)
The sermon begins with the rhetorical question:
Could 2012 be the end of the world as we know it?
The rest of the sermon provides Hagee's answer.
But before getting in to that ...
Posted: Tuesday 20 March 2012 ( 12 years ago )
2 Nephi 11-24: Padding Isaiah
I know, I've neglected the Book of Mormon lately. Sorry about that.
But now that it looks like Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee, I'm inspired to return to my efforts to slog through Mitt's favorite book. (Here's a list of my previous Blo ...
Posted: Monday 19 March 2012 ( 12 years ago )
Luke 17:34 and Pray to be Gay Day
I don't know how I missed this before, but I did.
Luke 17:34, that is.
I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. And since Jesus clearly said that only a small minority woul ...
Posted: Saturday 17 March 2012 ( 12 years ago )
What was Muhammad like? Little-known details from the Ash-Shifa
Here is a list of interesting facts about the Prophet Muhammad (PB&J be upon him) from Ash-Shifa: "The best biography of the Prophet Muhammad in 800 years." Ash-Shifa is highly regarded throughout the Muslim world, where it is said, "If Ash-Shi ...
Posted: Tuesday 06 March 2012 ( 12 years ago )
Behold, it came to pass exceedingly: The biblely bits of the Book of Mormon
I've previously posted on "it came to pass" in the Book of Mormon and I've highlighted the occurrences of that phrase, along with "exceedingly" in the SABoM. But there's another that should be added to the list. And that is "Behold."
These three ph ...
Posted: Wednesday 14 December 2011 ( 12 years ago )
God hath done these things: The Apocrypha to the Rescue!
I've struggled a bit lately with the Book of Esther.
It is filled with preemptive war and genocidal ethnic cleansing, that the author clearly supported and glorified. But since the book makes no mention of God, directly or indirectly, it's difficu ...
Posted: Friday 11 November 2011 ( 12 years ago )
The Esther Killings: Do they belong on God's list?
Esther is one of the two books in the Bible in which God is not even mentioned (the other is the Song of Solomon).
Maybe that's why some Bible believers, such as Martin Luther, believed that it should be excluded from the Bible. In Luther's case, ...
Posted: Friday 28 October 2011 ( 12 years ago )
Saving the Seed of Cain from the Flood of Noah
In my last post I described how Mormon Scripture explains the origin of black people. (They are the seed of Cain.)
Which is all very interesting. But if you are foolish enough to accept that racist explanation, you still have a problem. How did the ...
Posted: Tuesday 13 September 2011 ( 13 years ago )
2 Nephi 7-9: Tomorrow is a Latter Day
Jacob takes a break from his preaching (again) by throwing in a few more chapters from Isaiah so that 2400 years later the true (LDS) church will know the covenants that God has covenanted with the Jews.
And now, my beloved brethren, I have read t ...
RSS Feed
