Is Yahweh a Comic Book Super-villain?

My hat is off to the crew of the Ask An Atheist radio show and podcast, based out of the SeaTac region of Washington state, USA.  On last Sunday's show, they made an absolutely fantastic example of Yahweh's character as described in the Bible.  I'm crediting the Ask An Atheist crew with creating the demonstration, but if it has been used before, I'm not aware of it.

The premise was a simple game.  One host reads a quote, and the other hosts had to guess whether this quote came from Yahweh as written in the Bible, or from a comic book super-villain named Doctor Doom.  You may think it sounds easy, but it was really, really tough.  I couldn't possibly do it justice in text, so listen for yourself here.  The relevant part begins at about 18:35 of the audio.

The point is extremely obvious.  The fictional character of Yahweh is a fucking thug.  It is evil and I am proud to say that I am far superior to it in the morality department, as are probably all of the people reading this.  People who describe Yahweh as "all-loving" or "pure goodness" are deluded and/or plain ignorant.  When one cannot tell the difference between a quote from a super-villain or a quote from an "all-good" deity, something is wrong.

Yahweh Wouldn't Do That!

In my last post, an atheist reader challenged a Christian reader about morality.  The question was standard (paraphrased), "What would you do if Yahweh ordered you to kill me?"  The Christian's response was also standard (paraphrased), "Yahweh wouldn't do that!  It isn't in its character as a being of love and morality!"  Notice no answer to the question was given.

BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT, BULLSHIT!  This is the same Yahweh that ordered the sacrifice of Abraham's son, killed all but one family in a flood, sent bears out of the woods to murder children for calling a guy bald, turned a woman into a pillar of salt for turning around, orders you to kill homosexuals, witches, adulterers and disobedient children, killed all of the first-born of Egypt, sends people to eternal torture in Hell, ordered genocide, whose messengers sent virgin women to a crowd of men to be raped, etc. etc. etc.  What the hell is wrong with you people?  I think Yahweh's character is pretty clear from these examples.

The standard Christian response, and the one used by our visiting Christian friend, is (paraphrased), "Oh, but they were wicked and they deserved to die.  It wasn't murder, it was capital punishment."  FUCK!  OK Christians, so how do you KNOW that the atheist reader was not wicked?  How do you KNOW that he is not a homosexual or a sorcerer, or that he didn't call a guy bald?  How do you KNOW he doesn't deserve to die in the eyes of Yahweh?  So then, how do you KNOW that Yahweh wouldn't order you to kill him?  It clearly IS in Yahweh's character to order the murder of people it feels are unfit.  So the atheist's question is perfectly valid, and the Christian response is a cop-out (not that we should expect any better).  So answer the fucking question!

I'll go a step further.  I'll say that if you hold this kind of belief, that anything Yahweh does or orders is moral, then you forfeit your right to make any moral judgments for anything anybody does at all!  How do you KNOW that woman didn't kill her children because Yahweh ordered it, because it knew that they would grow up to be wicked?  How do you KNOW that Yahweh didn't order the murder of the Tutsis in Rwanda?  How do you KNOW that guy didn't punch the other guy because Yahweh ordered it?  How do you KNOW anything about morality or why people do what they do, if you believe that Yahweh orders people to do things that would normally be considered bad, and that anything Yahweh orders is good?

If you believe these things, then your morality is pretty fucked up, and I do not respect it.