The Logical Atheist

In an earlier incarnation many, many years ago, I would be getting ready to celebrate Passover . This is the holiday that commemorates Yahweh's liberation of the children of Israel from enslavement in Egypt (long before the Arabs got there). Yahweh did this, according to the Good Book, by inflicting collective punishments on the Egyptian people -- ranging from turning the Nile River and other water sources into blood, to sending swarms of frogs, gnats, flies, and locusts throughout the land, to killing all first-born persons and cattle, even those of slaves (non-Israelites, presumably) -- 10 "plagues" in all. As unjust as that collective punishment seems, it was Yahweh's response to the recalcitrance of Egypt's absolute ruler, the Pharaoh. According to the story, he repeatedly changed his mind about "letting [the Israelite] people go" after promising Moses he would do so. That's why Egypt, that is, all Egyptians, kept getting hit with plagues.  Howe...

Jewish atheists apparently are allowed to believe that Yahweh existed just long enough to promise the inhabited land of Canaan to the descendants of the mythical Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The Jewish festival of Passover starts at sundown today. Is this the holiday that praises Yahweh for repeatedly "harden[ing] Pharaoh's heart" in order to change his mind about freeing the enslaved Israelites?  Or is it the holiday that praises Yahweh for inflicting collective punishment on all  Egyptians through the horrible ten plagues, culminating in the smiting of every firstborn Egyptian? ( Exodus 11:4-7  - "And Moses said: 'Thus saith HaShem [The Name; that is, Yahweh, which you're not supposed to say]: About midnight will I go out into the midst of Egypt; and all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the first-born of the maid-servant that is behind the mill; and all the first-born of cattle. And there shall be a great cry throughout all the land of Egypt, such as there hath been none like it, nor shall be like it any more.    But against any of the children of Israel shal...

  If you want to know what a leading Israeli archaeologist has to say about the stories told in the Hebrew Bible, you can make a good start by listing to a 26-part conversation with Israel Finkelstein, professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University and the head of the School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures at the University of Haifa. These half-hour conversations, conducted by Matthew J. Adams of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, are directed at interested laymen, and I highly recommend them. Finkelstein's book, The Bible Unearthed:  Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts , written with Neil Asher Silberman, is a thoroughly enjoyable read. You already realize that the biblical stories are fiction (with a smattering of historical references), but these conversations will fill out your understanding in eye-opening ways. The important matters -- such as the patriarchs, the Exodus from Egypt, the conquest o...

Numbers 31 :30 And Moses said unto them [two tribes of Israel that didn't want to cross the Jordan River and conquer Canaan]: 'If ye will do this thing: if ye will arm yourselves to go before HaShem [that is, Yahweh] to the war, 21 and every armed man of you will pass over the Jordan before HaShem, until He hath driven out His enemies from before Him, 22 and the land be subdued before HaShem, and ye return afterward; then ye shall be clear before HaShem, and before Israel, and this land shall be unto you for a possession before HaShem. 23 But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against HaShem; and know ye your sin which will find you.