The first sentence of chapter two of Richard Dawkins'
The God Delusion is often quoted.
“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, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
Years later in a foreword to a book based on that sentence (by a different author)), Dawkins wrote:
Is it, perhaps, unfair of Dan and me to pick and choose illustrations of the unpleasant characteristics of God? Couldn’t an apologist come up with a similar list of virtues, backed up by an even larger list of supporting verses? Couldn’t the apologist compile a counter to my damning litany? “The God of the Old Testament is ... magnanimous, generous, encouraging, forgiving, charitable, loving, friendly, good-humoured, supportive of women, of homosexuals, of children, freedom-loving, open-minded, broad-minded, non-violent.” Go on. Try and find those nice verses. Do your best. You think you’ll succeed? Want a bet?
We have all become acculturated to the idea that criticising religion is somehow not done, it’s bad taste, you just don’t do it. The result is that even mild criticism sounds a lot stronger than it really is. My Chapter 2, first sentence, is not mild. But it is nothing less than the truth, truth about both the letter and the spirit of the bible. The evidence? Read on.
Richard Dawkins
Forward to God the Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction by Dan Barker
