Apologeet.nl
The God Delusion #3#3 Homophobic, Racist, Infanticidal, Genocidal, Filicidal
I believe it was 2006 that Mr Dawkins published his book, the God Delusion. I have never paid to much attention to his writings simply because I thought the hype would die a fast and silent death. His book isn’t, what you would call, a very sophisticated philosophical book. It is smoothly written, but it lacks a lot, philosophical speaking. Anyway, I was wrong about the dying stuff. Many still love his audacious mantra with which Dawkins starts the second chapter:i
The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all of fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.
I have always wondered what one could answer this foolish but immensely popular statement given by Mr. Dawkins in his equally foolish book, the God Delusion. Sceptics, Atheists, and many un-believers love these kins of rhetoric. It sounds so challenging! It sounds tough. But, in reality it gives away a total misunderstanding of the Biblical God. Minster Dawkins might know a thing or two about biology, but theologically speaking, he fails big time.
So, let’s discuss a few of these titles he so boastfully assigned to the God of the Bible. Let’s see what we can say about it without going into endless debates.
Homophobic
I was talking to a friendly man once. I already noticed that he behaved a little bit feminine. You know, a little more swirling around with his hands. One hand in his thigh, the other up. I don’t mind, I come across many people and all behave slightly different. When I asked him whether he was married, he told me he had a partner. As naive as I was, I assumed that he lived together with a lady. So, I asked him why she didn’t come along to the reception. He corrected me and told me that she is a he. O okay, sorry! I didn’t mean to be offensive. No offence taken. It was a nice chat.
He asked me what I did for a job and I told him that I am a missionary and preach the Gospel. He was very interested in the way we lived in the village and how we dealt for all the struggles. After a while we decided both to get to know some other guests as well. We shook hands and departed from each other. Again, a pleasant chat, what a nice guy!
So, why do I tell you this anecdote? Simply because I was amased by the fact that the conversation didn’t end at the point I said that I am a Christian. How often I have experienced the opposite while talking to homophiles. As soon as I tell them that I am a Christian, they right away start to defend themselves by saying that they don’t want to hear about hell and brimstone concerning homosexuals. Uhh, I wasn’t planning to do that?! Especially not when they don’t even believe in God. Why would I confront them right away with their homosexual feeling? I rather tell people first about how awesome God’s salvation plan for the world is. Explaining how perfect He is and why we, humans, messed up the relationship. Most people don’t need to be told that they do wrong things. Most understand that, compared to Jesus Christ, they fall short big time.
Anyway, if I may turn the accusation around, I would like to say that many are simply Christianóphobic. In other words, they are afraid of Christians. And maybe with good reason. Many of us are not very careful when it comes down to how we use our tongues. We tend to be very quick in judgement and slow in compassion. I am not saying that we should cover sin under a thick layer of sweet words. But it might just credit us if we would be less generous with our words and more willing to listen first. But that might be a good topic for another time.
Back to the title Dawkins gave to God: Homophobic
God says in the Bible that sexual activity should be reserved for the marriage between one man and one woman. The Bible gives many examples of sexual activity outside of that rule and makes it clear that God strongly disapproves.
But is God homophobic? Does God fear and hate people with homosexual feelings? No, He does not. How else would He have the heart to send His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us? It doesn’t make sense to save people you fear and hate, right? So, what’s going on here? Let’s read:
1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
Did you see that the Lord didn’t discriminate between these behaviours. He doesn’t deem the one as less acceptable than others; he doesn’t differentiate between one lifestyle and another. Also, Paul makes it clear that there is no behaviour which can separate someone from God; I mean, sin is sin, and it can be forgiven. The text makes it clear that nobody can make it right with the Creator by his or her own behaviour but only by the mercy of God alone!
Obviously, if God isn’t singling out homosexual behaviour, we Christians, shouldn’t do either. Yes, homosexual behaviour is a sin in the eyes of God. The problem with homosexual attraction is that it is an attraction to something God has forbidden, and any desire for something sinful, ultimately has its roots in sin. However, a struggle with temptation is not a sin. It becomes sinful when we give in to the temptation, and all sin is offensive to God. Warning not to sin does not make one phobic. However, singling out one sin and make that one sin into the chief of all sin, does. In that sense I believe the church knows many phobic people, but this cannot be mirrored on God’s personality.
Our message to the world should be: Come to Jesus, not as hetero-sexual, homo-sexual, bi-sexual, or any other sexual inclined, but just as a sinner. At Christ’s table you have a place equal to every other sinner. And equal to the other sinners you can be saved.
Racist
A racist is someone who thinks that a one human race is better than others, and that it is gifted with an intrinsic superiority. A racist believes that this superiority justifies the racial discrimination.
Some say that God showed Himself a racist when he cursed the descendants of Ham, Noah’s son.
Genesis 9:25
A servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
The offspring of Ham were thought to be Africans. And, so they reasoned, God condemned the Africans to slavery.
The other example many atheists use is that God has favoured the children of Israel (the Jewish people) as the chosen race.
Both of these accusations against God are rather dumb and show a clear misinterpretation and misunderstanding of God’s word, the Bible.
You see it was not God who cursed Ham. It was Noah, and he didn’t curse his son Ham, but rather Ham’s son Canaan. When we look at Ham’s children we know that at least two of them, Cush and Mizraim, settled in Africa (Genesis 10:6-20). However, the children of Canaan settled in the area east of the Mediterranean Sea, in a region of present day Israel (Genesis 10: 15-19). The whole slavery industry had it wrong! If they really believed that God condemned Canaan into slavery, they should have enslaved the people in and around the area of Israel. In any case, it is dumb to say that God is a racist based upon a complete misunderstanding of Genesis.
How about the Jews? It is true that God had a special plan Abraham and his descendants. This was, however, not because He only wanted to see the Israelites flourish. God was preparing the way for His Son. Jesus Christ, would be born out of the descendants of Abraham (Matthew 1: 1-17). Jesus became the saviour of the world, both Jew and Gentile. God didn’t just choose the Israelites because they were fantastic. No, it was to show the world His might and goodness. Israel wasn’t favoured when it came to bad behaviour. The Lord judged Israel the same as He did with other nations. We are all equal and in the end we all must give an account to God.
Romans 2:10-11
[…] but glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: for there is no respect of persons with God.
The Amplified Version says:
[…] no arbitrary favouritism; with Him one person is not more important than another.
Infanticidal and Filicidal
I’ll discuss these two words together because they both talk about the killing of children. First, let’s define these words here, shall we?
Infanticide is defined as the act of killing infants or a newborn baby.ii And filicide means killing of one’s own child.iii
God ordering the annihilation of the Canaanites was an execution of judgement against a nation of infanticides and filicides! This is all about a people who needed to be erased because of what they did to their children. Burning their children as a sacrifice, free sex, child prostitution, and things like these were so bad that their culture did not deserve to be preserved.
A weird thing is that many, who say that God is an infanticidal person, themselves embrace the practise of abortion. Someone on sociale media asked a hypothetical question: “What if I were pregnant with a kid with down syndrome?” It was Dawkins who proposed to abort her child in that situation and try again!iv May I be so free to say that it is Dawkins himself who is infanticidal? God hates it when people want to hurt an unborn baby! However, Dawkins thinks that he is smart enough to give advice about who may live and who should die.
Exodus 21:22-25
If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
So, how does God think about the advice of Dawkins as given in this tweet? What if someone followed his proposal and went through the horrific practise of abortion so that her fruit depart from her? God isn’t mild on people who want to murder children. What is more, killings your own baby is clearly a sin in the eyes of the Creator!
Next time someone throws this accusation in front of your feet, ask that person first how he or she thinks about the practice of child sacrifice and paedophilia. I bet they will tell you they hate it. So does God.
Leviticus 18:21
And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.
Today, child sacrifice is practised throughout the world. Just recently there was a big uproar here on Madagascar because a young albino child was kidnapped to be sold for her parts. Some witch doctors on Madagascar use these parts of albinos, especially of children, in an effort to bring good fortune and wealth to those willing to pay for it.
Most of the people who say that God is infanticidal will disapprove of these practices. But now let’s ask them another question. What about the idea of pro-choice in relation to abortion. Don’t use the word ‘pro-abortion.’ They don’t like that qualification. I can almost guarantee that most will be in favour of the pro-choice movement. May I be so free to say that this attitude is, to say it mildly, hypocritical?
There is a relation between child sacrifice and the practice of modern-day abortion. Uncountable numbers of babies have been ‘sacrificed’ at the hands of the priests of the worldly ideas of freedom and individualism. The abortionists get their salaries by killing infants for the sake of convenience, to hide immoral behaviour, or because of pride. Millions of babies die at the hands of these butchers because most of their parents want to continue their lives as if nothing ever happened. God hates “hands that shed innocent blood” (Proverbs 6:17). Make no mistake, God will deal accordingly.
Let’s just quickly get back to the claim that God is filicidal. I guess this idea comes forth out of the fact that God send His only-begotten Son to die, so that whosoever beliefs in Him will not perish but have ever lasting life. You see, says the mudslinging atheist, God killed His own child, God committed filicide!
Again, we are dealing with a total misapprehension of God’s word but also a lack of understanding about His being. God is one in being but three in person. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are one and have no conflict in ideas or decisions. When Jesus came to this earth to be born as a human, He did that in complete agreement with the wish of the Father and the Holy Spirit. God’s plan for salvation was Jesus’ plan. And Jesus’ plan was the plan of the Spirit. Although the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit have their own task in the work of God, they are always in agreement with each other. When God sent His Son, the Son went because He is in prefect harmony with the other two persons in the one God.
So, it wasn’t like God the Father had to kick the Son out of heaven, forcing Him to become human. Jesus wasn’t kicking and screaming when He had to go. God the Father was not the murderer of His own Son. The triune God did, however, allow the Son to be tortured and killed by the very same hands He came to save.
Obviously I know of all the other texts in the Bible where we see commandments of killing daughters and sons:
Judges 11:11-39; Genesis 22:2; Deuteronomy 13:6-10, 21:18-21, 28:53-57, Leviticus 21:9, 26:27-29; Jeremiah 19:9; Exodus 22:29-30; Ezekiel 5:9-10; Zechariah 13:2-3; Lamentations 4:10.
And this is typically what happens. You’ll be bombarded with these texts. You are hardly finished explaining the first and the second texts has been presented already. I am not going to waste my time in this video explaining them all. I assure you, if one wants to call God filicidal because of these texts, he or she has no idea about the interpretation, the context, and goal of these texts. The only thing these people do, is demonstrating their lack of knowledge and interest.
Genocidal
I skipped this word because I’ve already discussed it in part two of this series. It basically comes to the same point where Dawkins says that God is a ‘bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser.’ Dawkins is just saying the same but in different words.
Summarise
This was third part of this quote. We’ll tackle the next bit next time. I hope, and it is my prayer, that people who are troubled by these dumb atheistic ad hominem fallacies, will open their hearts and minds to the word of God.
For the Christians who watch this video, I would like to challenge you not to shy away from these attacks. Maybe your colleague, your sports mate, or maybe a family member has heard these kinds of attacks about God’s character, and is wondering how much of it is true. It is good to find out that there are actually good answers.
In any case! Do let me know your ideas in the comments of the video or article below. Remember! I am mostly active on my Odysee channel. You’ll find a link to that channel in the description of this video.
I very much appreciate your prayers and support! Please take a look in the description of this video to find out how you can help me. Also, I’ll place a link there to both the Dutch and English transcripts of this video. And finally, you’ll find the links to the other videos I’ve made about this topic… All, in the same description.
God bless you, thank you for watching, and let’s see how we approach the rest of Dawkin’s quote in the next video!
Endnotes:
i Dawkins, R., The God Delusion, Bantam Press, London, 2006, p.31.
ii Oxford University Press, Infanticide, <https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/infanticide> [internet] 2022, accessed 30-09-2022.
iii Merriam-Webster, Filicide, <https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/filicide> [internet] 2022, accessed 30-09-2022.
iv Dawkins, R., [@RichardDawkins]. (20 August 2014). Abort it and try again. It would be immoral to bring it into the world if you have the choice [Tweet]. Twitter. Available: <https://twitter.com/RichardDawkins/status/502106262088466432> accessed 30-09-2022.
