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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
So amusing, if lazy—much of the content is simply categorized verses. That’s not to say that the book’s thesis wasn’t successful. It was. Barker’s unrelenting desire to prove a lot of people wrong about their all-loving God results in a pretty strong argument in favor of jealousy, sexism, violence, and genocidal tendencies instead. Stirs a pot that deserves stirring.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Essential reading/listening. Every person who had been indoctrinated to believe the god of Christian faith is a good god, should take a more critical look based on the stuff written in the religion's own "good book". Dan Barker gives us perspective from someone who used to actually preach the gospel. He now gives us the insider look at what makes "Lord Jealous" the perfect villain for any story. It shows you how you can change the narrative and make even a murderous character someone to be elevated to a god-like status. This can be applied to politics in any country as well. I'll leave it there, so you can arrive at your own conclusions.
Book Review by Cari Mayhew. Rating 6/10.
A striking book designed to hit Christianity in the heart.
(Please note: It is beyond the scope of this book review to go into whether or not there is a God, or if God is good.)
This book is written by Dan Barker, a former evangelical preacher. The inspiration for this book comes from a single paragraph in Richard Dawkin’s God Delusion, which goes as follows:
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomanical, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
Now that’s quite a statement! And it’s also what Barker’s book is centred around. In Part 1, Barker sets out examples of these 19 characteristics within the Christian bible.
Sadly for Christianity, not only had barker found examples of every single one of these 19 characteristics, but he usually found several examples in every case. In fact the reason I haven’t given it a higher rating is because it was so repetitive, with so many examples of remarkably similar and disturbing passages. A whole chapter is dedicated to each of the descriptors in turn, and the whereabouts of each of the passages are clearly noted in bold before being presented underneath.
In Part 2, Barker takes the argument further still:
“He [Dawkins] forgot to mention that the God of the Old Testament is also a pyromaniacal, angry, merciless, curse-hurling, vaccicdal, aborticidal, cannibalistic slavemonger.”
Again, the following chapters are full of examples of these characteristics.
The book is predominantly a laundry list of evil requests and doings of the God of the Old Testament, but Chapter 28 asks “What About Jesus?” And here Barker even manages to find evidence that Jesus endorsed invasion and bloodshed (Deuteronomy 6.15-19), and encouraged the beating of slaves (Luke 12:47-48). Barker also sites a lot of Jesus’ bad advice
Several passages may be unpleasant for even strong atheists to read. I couldn’t get over how many times “fingers dripping with blood” comes up in the Bible.
Overall, Barker has little comments around and between the examples he sights, but I would suggest that this makes for a stronger argument, handing the role of jury to the reader. Obviously this book will upset just about any Christian who attempts to read it, and for those who do read it may feel better to recall that the analysis is only of how God is presented in the Bible, and not an analysis of any effect (if any) of God in their daily lives.
Check out more of my reviews on www.bookblogbycari.com
A striking book designed to hit Christianity in the heart.
(Please note: It is beyond the scope of this book review to go into whether or not there is a God, or if God is good.)
This book is written by Dan Barker, a former evangelical preacher. The inspiration for this book comes from a single paragraph in Richard Dawkin’s God Delusion, which goes as follows:
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomanical, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
Now that’s quite a statement! And it’s also what Barker’s book is centred around. In Part 1, Barker sets out examples of these 19 characteristics within the Christian bible.
Sadly for Christianity, not only had barker found examples of every single one of these 19 characteristics, but he usually found several examples in every case. In fact the reason I haven’t given it a higher rating is because it was so repetitive, with so many examples of remarkably similar and disturbing passages. A whole chapter is dedicated to each of the descriptors in turn, and the whereabouts of each of the passages are clearly noted in bold before being presented underneath.
In Part 2, Barker takes the argument further still:
“He [Dawkins] forgot to mention that the God of the Old Testament is also a pyromaniacal, angry, merciless, curse-hurling, vaccicdal, aborticidal, cannibalistic slavemonger.”
Again, the following chapters are full of examples of these characteristics.
The book is predominantly a laundry list of evil requests and doings of the God of the Old Testament, but Chapter 28 asks “What About Jesus?” And here Barker even manages to find evidence that Jesus endorsed invasion and bloodshed (Deuteronomy 6.15-19), and encouraged the beating of slaves (Luke 12:47-48). Barker also sites a lot of Jesus’ bad advice
Several passages may be unpleasant for even strong atheists to read. I couldn’t get over how many times “fingers dripping with blood” comes up in the Bible.
Overall, Barker has little comments around and between the examples he sights, but I would suggest that this makes for a stronger argument, handing the role of jury to the reader. Obviously this book will upset just about any Christian who attempts to read it, and for those who do read it may feel better to recall that the analysis is only of how God is presented in the Bible, and not an analysis of any effect (if any) of God in their daily lives.
Check out more of my reviews on www.bookblogbycari.com
Pretty good, gets a bit boring and repetitive at times due to the fact that much of it is just lists of examples of God being awful. Barker encourages the reader to skip over much of these lists if they so desire early on, however. Good advice.
Each chapter in this book makes an assertion about God, and then backs it up with a list of quotes from the Bible. This book is useful for the quick locating of scripture to prove points, but for the most part, it is NOT an in-depth commentary.
I enjoyed this book. Barker's writing style isn't the best, but the book was still informative to me. I'm an ex-Christian atheist, and I knew there were passages and themes in the Bible that I found morally reprehensible, but UGGH, it's such a long and convoluted book, too. I really wasn't willing to read it all (but I've got the Skeptic's Annotated Bible on the way in the mail--so that'll change!). Barker's book basically did what I was too lazy to do on my own. One thing that sucks about this book (as well as with The God Delusion) is that with a title like this, I can't suggest it to the Christians in my life for an eye-opener. If it were called "A Literary Examination of God" or something of the like, I think there'd be an easier way to present this to those devout (and/or hard-headed) Christians.
I enjoyed this book. Barker's writing style isn't the best, but the book was still informative to me. I'm an ex-Christian atheist, and I knew there were passages and themes in the Bible that I found morally reprehensible, but UGGH, it's such a long and convoluted book, too. I really wasn't willing to read it all (but I've got the Skeptic's Annotated Bible on the way in the mail--so that'll change!). Barker's book basically did what I was too lazy to do on my own. One thing that sucks about this book (as well as with The God Delusion) is that with a title like this, I can't suggest it to the Christians in my life for an eye-opener. If it were called "A Literary Examination of God" or something of the like, I think there'd be an easier way to present this to those devout (and/or hard-headed) Christians.
informative
slow-paced
dark
informative
fast-paced
DNF at 16%.
This worked in theory but not in practice. This book is basically just a collection of bible verses and unfortunately, it reads just like that. The bible is beyond boring and difficult to get through so reading this felt like a slog.
I might try and finish this eventually but right now, I'm not interested.
This worked in theory but not in practice. This book is basically just a collection of bible verses and unfortunately, it reads just like that. The bible is beyond boring and difficult to get through so reading this felt like a slog.
I might try and finish this eventually but right now, I'm not interested.