The Logical Atheist

  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 You already realize that the biblical stories are fiction (with a smattering of historical references), but these conversations will fill out your understanding in eye-opening ways.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...

Passover begins tonight, that joyous time of year when Jews the world over remind themselves of how great Yahweh is. At least that's what Yahweh wants them and the adherents of the offshoot religions, Christianity and Islam, to do. In the relevant text, Yahweh repeatedly reminds readers that he is the one who led them out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. The warning is clear: do not forget what Yahweh did for you -- not only your distant ancestors but you  -- or you're a bad person and will suffer severe consequences. But is that the whole story? In this post I am taking the book of Exodus, which is excerpted in the Haggadah, which Jews read at their two seders (I've been there), at face value. Needless to say (?), there is little or nothing of historical accuracy in that book. Archeologists have failed to find evidence of any kind to support the claim that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt or that a mass exodus from Egypt to Canaan ever occurred. But let's w...

Yes, religion is absurd. I refer here specifically to the three Abrahamic religions (and their many subdivisions), which are based on the Five Books of Moses and its associated volumes. The stories make no sense, and it's hard to understand why anyone ever took or still takes them seriously. The Bible is literally a string of fables that are laughably implausible and morally outrageous. The six-day creation--yeah, right. Adam and Eve and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil--really? The flood and the resulting mass murder--come on! Lot, his poor wife, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and Lot's incestuous daughters--x-rated soap opera and gratuitous violence. Does anyone think that stuff actually happened?  How about Abraham's willingness to kill his son Isaac because a voice in his head claiming to be Yahweh's told him to do it. Please. Like Abraham wouldn't have been appalled by the very idea and wouldn't have torn up the covenant in which he promis...

What's the deal with prayer? Think about it: it seems aimed at getting Yahweh to do what he otherwise would not have done. Let's leave out the football players who pray for victory and stuff like that. We'll confine ourselves to serious things: praying that your very sick child will recover, or that you'll be able to feed your family, or that we won't go to war. Why would Yahweh need to be prayed to about such things? Doesn't the all-knowing, all-powerful, all-good Supreme Being and Creator of the Universe know the right thing to do without being begged by suffering supplicants? And besides, wouldn't Yahweh have foreseen the whole thing: the tragedy, the prayerful response, and his own response? Is this a game he plays, sort of like the cruel game he and the devil played with regard to Job? I just don't get it. By the way, whenever a pope is deathly ill and looks to be heading to his great reward, I hear Catholics urged to pray for him. Come again? If we...