Jewish-born doctor responds to my post
about Yahweh's psychopathic behaviour
in the Old Testament

Blazing Reader,

Last Sunday, I sent out a post titled "Was the God of the Old Testament a psychopathic tyrant?"

The next day, I received this email from a Jewish-born doctor:

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Pardon my French, John, but holy f**k... You have now... as they say... jumped the shark!

I am sitting here shaking my head east to west.

Not in anger but in amazement.

You... went there!

I have believed intuitively what you are saying here for years but have suppressed the urge to point it out.

I was born Jewish so I know a little about the Old Testament .. But... I always figured... This cannot be true.

Noah had to build an ark just to save two of everything from this psychopath... Let that sink in.

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I'm glad he didn't find it offensive. It certainly wasn't an attack on Judaism. Indeed, there are many Jewish thinkers whom I admire, like Dennis Prager, who say that the "fear of God" is what some people need to keep them from stealing, murdering and committing adultery. So if the Old Testament God, slaughtering thousands of people, motivates you to be a better person — that's great.

I guess I prefer carrots over psychopaths with sticks.

The good doctor also asked: "Please let me know how [your post] is received by your disciples. I wonder if you will have any left after this one..."

So far, the response has been largely positive. The "harshest" message I've received was from one subscriber reminding me that "God gets better in the New Testament, so don't stop reading."

Well, the bar was set pretty low in the Old Testament — Jesus didn't need to do much to surmount it. But there are even moments where the "lamb" of God has a few harsh reactions. The scene in the Bible where Jesus refuses to help a Canaanite woman simply on the basis that she's not an Israelite has never felt right to me.

Fine. If he wants to specialize in only healing Jewish people, I won't fault him.

But it's the part where Jesus tells that woman that helping a Canaanite would be like "taking the children's bread and tossing it to the dogs."

The first time I read that, I thought, did Jesus just call her a bitch?

How can this not be interpreted as utter racism?

Jesus only agrees to help her when she accepts the insult, saying: "Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table."

It's certainly an improvement over the Old Testament God promising Moses (in almost every chapter of Exodus) that he'll destroy all the Canaanites upon the caravan's arrival in Canaan. But it's not a great improvement.

So either:

1) The Bible is wrong: Jesus didn't really call her and all her relatives dogs.

2) Jesus was actually a big dog lover and meant it as a compliment.

3) Jesus, like any human, had his faults — in this case, he was a bit of a bigot.

4) The divinity of calling an entire race of people "dogs" is too profoundly spiritual for me to comprehend.

In the end, I think it comes down to every person extracting what they find true, useful and meaningful from the Bible (or any other source) and constructing their own "cosmology."

That's very much the theme behind the book I'm reading now, Setting God Free by Seán Ólaorie. Dr. Ólaorie is an ex-communicated Catholic priest who holds a PhD in Transpersonal Psychology and conducts research on the intersection of scientific inquiry and mystical spirituality. He also has an Irish accent that is a delight to the ear. His book is also a delight to read, despite the disturbing inquiries it makes. You can buy a copy of Setting God Free here: https://blazingpinecone.com/shop/setting-god-free

—John C.A. Manley

PS And if you missed last Sunday's post where I asked "Was the God of the Old Testament a psychopathic tyrant?" you can still read it here: https://blazingpinecone.com/news/2024/02/04/

John C. A. Manley is the author of Much Ado About Corona: A Dystopian Love Story, the forthcoming All The Humans Are Sleeping and other works of speculative fiction. Get free samples of his stories by becoming a Blazing Pine Cone email subscriber at: https://blazingpinecone.com/subscribe/