For a long time I’ve been wanting to do a series of Q&A (in the spirit of this blog’s name), answering questions from Christian believers who are curious about how an Atheist might view Christianity. Of course, I don’t speak for all Atheists, nor for Atheism as a whole. Just me. This is the first entry in my Q&Atheist series.

Q: What do you like and/or dislike about the message of the Bible?

Question from: Pastor David Holt, Living Hope Church, Athens Georgia

A: Since there are so many stories and ideas contained within the old and the new testaments of the Bible, there is a lot that we could cover here.

Let me start by saying that I do find a lot of good things in the Bible. As literature, there are some beautiful passages and worthwhile metaphors, as well as some stories that seem to have an earnest and loving message that, if taken to heart, can help guide people to live a kind and moral life. Conversely, I also see a multitude of stories that have either a morally ambiguous message or even a downright awful one. I think this is where the greatest shortcoming of the Bible exists, and definitely one of my largest issues with the Bible (and Christianity as a whole). Oddly enough, my biggest issue has less to do with the actual writings of the Bible itself, and more to do with the way that Christians revere it.

The Bible is regarded by much of Christianity as the inerrant word of God. Some would say the “inspired word of God,” but that doesn’t necessarily resolve the issue. Many biblical tales have more than one possible interpretation, leaving followers to choose the meaning and lesson that they prefer. These meanings can have vastly different effects on their personal views and actions. Regardless of what verse I’m talking about, it leaves Christianity with the claim that the perfect message from God can be taken to mean different things with no way to ensure which claim is accurate in terms of “what God meant.” This is a problem.

Then we get into the issue of some of the less than good stories. Here’s one example where God commands his people to commit genocide. Look at 1 Samuel 15:2-3 (NIV)

² This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘I will punish the Amalekites for what they did to Israel when they waylaid them as they came up from Egypt. ³ Now go, attack the Amalekites and totally destroy all that belongs to them. Do not spare them; put to death men and women, children and infants, cattle and sheep, camels and donkeys.

Is this a morally good message? I don’t think so. I don’t think anything commanding the slaughter of children and infants to be a positive aspect of a leader. Oddly enough, I’ve heard many Christians try to justify this passage and what God commanded in it, and unfortunately, I’ve never heard a truly convincing argument for it. I’ve heard things like, “God knew this was the best way” or, “The Amalekites were a bad, sinful people and their children would have grown up to become just like their parents.”  I know it’s hard to come up with a scenario where “Put to death… children and infants” (i.e. “go kill those babies”) is a moral statement consistent with a benevolent deity, much less an action that should inform our behavior. But, I would think that a supreme deity could come up with a better solution than this. I mean, he is supposed to be all-powerful. All things should be possible, including a better solution (i.e. perhaps one that doesn’t condone infanticide)… and yet, according to the Bible, this is what he chose.

Worrisome passages like this can be found scattered throughout the Bible. And, even if someone can find a way to justify some of the troubling verses it still leaves us with a book meant to spread the message of God where the message itself is definitively unclear. If we are to take the Bible as a message from God meant to be applicable throughout human existence, then a textual writing is simply not an effective way to communicate that knowledge. Languages die out, transcription/translation errors occur, and the end result is a message whose meaning will vastly change as time goes on.

I have no problem with the Bible when viewed as a collection of books describing the culture and beliefs of the writers of the time it was written. Like I said, some of it is quite good. However, when imbued with the qualities that Christianity of today does, I find it insufficient in satisfying the claims that it is the timeless message of a supreme and morally perfect being. The good parts are wonderful. The ambiguous parts are problematic. The bad parts are awful. And, the fact that all three of those areas are up to some level of personal interpretation is a recipe for disaster.