“The Bible is a book of hate speech. It is bigoted, racist, intolerant and reactionary. It brings about division, hatred and exclusion. In our modern progressive society, we simply cannot allow this hate speech to be freely available. In the interests of a loving, harmonious and peaceful society, it must be banned now.”
No one actually said that — I just wrote it now. But a lot of people are thinking exactly this way, including many of our bigwigs, opinion makers, and elites. They really do hate the Bible – because they really do hate the God of the Bible – and if some of them had their way, they certainly would have it banned.
— Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch, It Is Time To Ban the Bible!, July 9, 2019
“No one actually said this, I just made it up because I wanted to get you Christians all riled up thinking the bogeyman liberals are out to get you.”
Isn’t it usually fundamentalist religious people who are into book banning?
Why ban the bible, when actually reading it is one of the best ways to promote atheism?
Free speech necessarily involves hatred being touted as love. The Bible is used to preach a love that is based first on recognizing your own filth as a human being, then giving up and asking a fantasy to rule your helplessness.
Without Christians all over the country showing us the bizarre carnival contortions of this ‘love’, how it is used to hate folks with other skin colors than lily white and to be disgusted with those who are not exactly heterosexual, to lambaste styles of dress and speech and pretty well everything under the dear sun, then might we more easily lose track of sensible, science-based knowledge and learning? The Bible serves Liberals in this way, as a dangerous-curve-ahead road sign and thereby does good in the world. Why would Liberals want to ban such a prime basis for atheism?
I certainly would resist any attempt to ban books just as I resist preventing rabid preachers like Steve Anderson from preaching. They spew their hatred and the sick are attracted to them: Together in their church, they are one of the best tools available to me to show the danger of extremism among us, to assist in the demise of the virus, evangelical belief.
Here’s a challenge atheists. Go back and edit your posts. All you have to do is change the word “Bible” to “Koran” or “Torah”. Go ahead and aim your ignorance, bigotry and hatred toward Jews and Muslims. Let’s see it.
Peter, we’re not into book bans. I think you have us confused with the barking-mad evangelicals who terrorize school librarians and cause air pollution with their bonfires of books and records.
Let’s pretend you operate a blog that focuses on NFL football. Every day you posts articles on football. One day, I visit your site and leave the following comment on your post about Bengals quarterback Joe Burrows:
“Here’s a challenge Peter. Go back and edit your posts. All you have to do is change the word “NFL” to “NBA” or “NASCAR”. Go ahead and aim your ignorance, bigotry and hatred toward basketball 🏀 and auto racing. Let’s see it.”
You would likely reply, “Bruce, this blog is about NFL football. My father played in the NFL and I played in the NFL for 25 years. The NFL is what I know, so that’s what I write about. If you would like to read articles about the NBA or NASCAR, I encourage you to start your own blog.”
Get my point, Peter?
Sure. But your allegory is misguided. It’s ok to write a blog about how much you hate NFL football. Writing a blog about how much you specifically hate Christianity and the Bible makes you a bigot. I suspect you’re an atheist who dislikes all religion, but calling out Judaism and Islam the way you do Christianity puts you at risk of being labeled an anti-semite and islamophobe. So you play it safe and pick on Christians because post modern secular liberaliism allows you to do so without being labeled a bigot. Which you are.
A better approach would be to simply promote the virtues of atheism as a world view grounded in reason and science; arguments you can make against all religions without singling out Christians. You can do better Bruce.
Peter,
Actually, it is an analogy, which you spectacularly failed to comprehend.
I challenge you to find one post on this site where I say I hate Christianity or the Bible. I am confident no such post exists. You confuse pointed speech and critique with hate. Doing so allows you to ignore my writing and label me a bigot.
I write about what I know. If I had been indoctrinated in Islam or Judaism and deconverted, I likely would have written about them.
I am not doing to go back and forth with you on this issue. I will give you one more comment — make it count — and then you are done.
Allahu Akbar.
Bruce
“Writing a blog about how much you specifically hate Christianity and the Bible makes you a bigot.”
I have not seen Bruce doing that. He criticizes some Christians for the way that they behave. He also expresses respect for other Christians.
If the Bible hadn’t been available for me to read for myself, I might still believe in the same fantasies to which folks like Mr. Muehlenberg devote their lives.
Ban the Bible? No way. Reading the Bible is the quickest route to atheism. Why would we ban our best tool? Besides most Christians don’t read it any way.
“The Bible is a book of hate speech. It is bigoted, racist, intolerant and reactionary. It brings about division, hatred and exclusion. In our modern progressive society, we simply cannot allow this hate speech to be freely available. In the interests of a loving, harmonious and peaceful society, it must be banned now.”
Except to call for banning the Bible, Robert Ingersoll actually *did* say something very similar once: http://www.bobfelton.com/?p=9647.
The Bible is a book of hate speech. It is bigoted, racist, intolerant and reactionary. It brings about division, hatred and exclusion.
This and more is absolutely true, yet no liberal worthy of the name would call for the Bible to be banned. We believe in freedom of speech. Historically it’s been the religionists and conservatives who banned (and burned) books.
Bruce, I should not have called you a bigot. Although some of the posts on here are decidedly hostile to Christianity, I have not seen this attitude from you. So while I was accusing you of being a bigot, I myself was being prejudiced. For that I apologize. If this is my last post let me leave you with this. There are over a billion Christians in the world and your blog is publicly available on the web. All I ask is that when writing something about Christians, take a moment to reflect upon whether or not you could say the same thing about other religions. If it’s not ok to title something “Jews Say The Darndest Things”, then it’s not ok to title something “Christians Say The Darndest Things”. There’s no Christian equivalent of an ADL or Christian term equivalent to Anti-Semitism; but there will be as our society becomes more secular and hostile to Christianity. Thank you for reading this and I will check back on your blog regularly.