Tuesday, December 24, 2013

The Bible and Homosexuality

"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination." Leviticus 18:22 KJV
"And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Matthew 19:4-5 KJV
I'm an atheist but I used to be a devoutly religious person. So much so that I have read the Bible from cover to cover, used to have many things about it memorized and have studied the texts of many other religions as well.

So, it seems pretty straightforward to me, what about you? The Bible, the Torah and the Koran (the textbooks of the three major religions) all consider homosexuality an abomination. Anyone seeking to refute that fact is either suffering from cognitive dissonance or being intellectually dishonest. But since I don't believe in the Gods described in those texts - or any other texts for that matter - I think differently.

However, to this day people are still trying to drastically misinterpret them. I was watching a clip from The Piers Morgan Show and one of the guests actually said the following:
"There are several problems with that interpretation. One, the New Testament absolutely does offer the words in the voice of Jesus and he very explicitly does not talk about being gay and even the scripture you cited about marriage is very different then talking about being gay. ... If you're saying that [Jesus] is confirming the Old Testament, well the Old Testament is far from clear around gay marriage around gay acts. ... The book of Leviticus according to most biblical scholars is not about being gay. If you're talking about the story of Sodom and Gomorrah it's really about being inhospitable to neighbors." (emphasis added) - Marc Lamont Hill
Wrong. Mr. Hill's rambling statement was utterly without merit and his appeal to authority (Argumentum ab auctoritate) is specious at best. The word sodomy (sexual intercourse involving anal or oral copulation) is directly derived from the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and to say otherwise, to suggest that the story is about a civilization of people being wiped off the face of Earth by the hand of God because they weren't cordial enough to their visitors is fantasy and a trivialization of the vile nature of Sodom and Gomorrah.

It's a good thing that Dr. Michael Brown was on the show where "Hebrew scholarship is [his] background" and he has a Ph.D. in Semitic languages.

If you get a chance, please read Genesis 19. Especially the part where the men of the town, when finding out that two new men are in town to visit Lot (they were actually angels), tell Lot "bring them out unto us, that we may know them." Biblical scholars definitely agree that "knowing" them means having sex with them. Lot's response is particularly disgusting as well.

The point is either you accept that the Bible, the Torah, the Koran et. al. are the word of God and his prophets or you don't. But rest assured, each is explicit in their disdain for homosexuality and to say otherwise is just a lie. Furthermore, it's always nice to see Piers Morgan making an idiot of himself. That's just the icing on the cake and a wonderful Christmas present.

1 comment:

  1. UPDATE: I called Prof. Hill a liar. That was wrong and in poor judgement on my part. In my discussions with him on Twitter I think he honestly believes that the Bible is "unclear" regarding homosexuality and specifically its disdain for gay acts. However, I do think he is wrong. I think the Bible is very clear and I have yet to find any cogent evidence to the contrary.

    ReplyDelete