The Logical Atheist

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...

Would a good and just God countenance and even authorize slavery, sex slavery, genocide, and conquest?

To show fully the immoral character of Moses, it would be necessary to quote almost every chapter in these "holy and inspired" books. Believers in revealed religion, who still believe that Moses was a pious and meek man, ought, once more, to pass in review the conduct and transactions which the Bible has attributed to him: especially those details which are contained in the books already mentioned. If there be any member of the Christian church who can believe that God and Moses ever united in the execution of those barbarous decrees and immoral sentiments stated in these books, he must be lost to all clear ideas of justice, and must have abandoned every principle of humanity by which the life of man is to be rendered comfortable and happy. The author of "The Age of Reason" [Thomas Paine], has placed these enormities in a striking point of light, and, with his wonted acuteness of discernment, has presented, in the way of Bishop Watson, difficulties which no Christia...

The causes which have produced personal celebrity are numerous, and diversified by a thousand indescribable shades in their modes of operation. It also sometimes happens that the means of popular exaltation and perpetual fame have been either of a passive or uncontrollable nature. Such is the fact in the present case. Moses and Mahomet were active villains, whose characters cannot be examined without horror and detestation. They were both eminent murderers, and their debaucheries have been signalized by acts of barbarous brutality, of which the love-struck Solomon seems to be more destitute. The military ferocities and immoral decrees of these two "celestial" impostors, have placed upon their characters an indelible stain, which the pretended sanctity of the priesthood can never wipe away! Believers in Christianity, in reading the history and conduct of Moses, ought to blush for his crimes, and spurn at his blasphemy in attributing these crimes to the God whom he pretended t...