I saw this image being passed around on Facebook.   I do not know the attribution, so if you know who originated it, please let me know so I can give proper credit.

Over and over, Christian theists attempt to assert their position by saying, “But, the Bible says …”

And the only intelligent argument to that is, “Yeah, that’s what it says, but SO FUCKING WHAT?”

Most intelligent people can read the Bible.   And most people would agree on what it says.  Arguments begin as people discuss what it means.  And still more people would disagree over whether any derived meaning has any authority or relevance.

For example two people can read the story of Abraham about to kill his son Isaac on God’s command, in Genesis 22:

Genesis 22

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

² Then God said, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love—Isaac—and go to the region of Moriah.Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on a mountain I will show you.”

³ Early the next morning Abraham got up and loaded his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. ⁴ On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. ⁵ He said to his servants, “Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you.”

⁶ Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, ⁷ Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?”

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?”

⁸ Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together.

⁹ When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. ¹⁰ Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. ¹¹ But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he replied.

¹² “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God,because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.”

¹³ Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. ¹⁴ So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”

¹⁵ The angel of the Lord called to Abraham from heaven a second time ¹⁶ and said, “I swear by myself,declares the Lord, that because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, ¹⁷ I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the cities of their enemies, ¹⁸ and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed me.”

¹⁹ Then Abraham returned to his servants, and they set off together for Beersheba. And Abraham stayed in Beersheba.

You can see how Richard Dawkins schools Howard Conder on what an absolutely evil prick this God is, listening to this brief clip:

The Bible does not come with any automatic instrinsic authority.  The only authority it has is the authority given to it by the believer.

The Bible has no more and no less authority for the Christian than the Koran has for Muslims.   The neither volume has authority over me.

Genuine authority for the Bible (or the Koran) must come from OUTSIDE the writing itself. The fact that many of the stories and “facts” in the Bible are simply wrong is evidence that it is NOT an authoritative volume.   We know for a fact that Adam and Eve never existed as real people, they are simply fiction, an allegorical myth to explain how people came to exist — a story made up long before we had the science to figure out where people came from.  Now that we know how people came to exist, we can dismiss the silly tale of Adam and Eve and the snake in the Garden of Eden and all the rest that comes after it.

Even if we didn’t know where people came from, we have to dismiss the story anyway.   Supposedly God was pissed at Adam for eating the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, after Adam had been told not to eat from it.  Before eating from it supposedly he didn’t know about “good and evil” or “right and wrong” or “obedience and disobedience”.  He was innocent in his action — simply innocent curiosity.   If anyone was at fault, it was God.  God supposedly created Adam; it’s not Adam’s fault God gave his a curious mind.

It’s all a made-up story anyway.  Throughout the Bible it is clear it was written by ill-informed  superstitious people without a clue.  There was no Flood and no Ark.  There was no Jesus and no crucifixion-and-resurrection.  And even if you take the story literally, supposedly Jesus KNEW in advance it would just be for 3 days.   He did not sacrifice his life for anyone’s sins.  At worst, he had a rough weekend.

But it all depends on whether you believe the Bible or not, whether you give credence to it, whether you give authority to it.   The Bible has no authority and no power over you.  You, and you alone, decide your path and your fate.  When you die, you will be just as dead and lifeless as the rest of the dirt in the yard.  We have no proof and no evidence of a heaven or a hell, regardless what you believe.  So why waste your time trying to live up to ridiculous nonsensical demands from the Bible?  Or preachers?