The majority of people in any of the world’s cultures have never had the freedom to avoid exposure to all the priest-compiled holy scriptures before they were allowed to determine for themselves what is truly worthy of their belief. For the most part we all grow up in a culture in which standards of belief are crammed upon us from every side even before we might eventually try to read through the texts that are offered as “holy truth.” By then a person has already been coached and cajoled and indoctrinated into what is emphatically presented as superior belief, so any consultation of “holy” texts that one eventually carries out is usually but an attempt to justify some particular thread of belief. This is glaringly epitomized by the rants and judgments of the dogmatists and fanatics of all faith systems.
Such a means of teaching some prescribed spiritual understanding is clearly the well-cultivated (and fertilized) seed-ground for practices of hatred, not true spiritual enlightenment. That tendency to justify hatred toward some differences in approaching the unknown is met early-on in the Old Testament book of Genesis, for even God is depicted as getting riled up and fuming with hatred over the trespassing upon the landscape feature of his garden by an inexperienced, blameless couple. The two newly created beings were allegedly subjected to godly intolerance for not comprehending God’s vague rules regarding two forbidden trees. We are left wondering how could two newly created life forms have any way of comprehending what God’s threat of death meant? Either the pair had never been intended to have eternal life anyway, or else God is not omniscient (all-Knowing).
Every priest-conceived holy book of any culture contains some hate fueled elements within them, but the priest-composed book of Leviticus, which was jammed unceremoniously between the story-lines of the Israelites alleged wanderings in Exodus and Numbers is probably the most shameless counseling of hate-mongering in Judaic/Christian scriptures. As a result of legitimizing hatred, the dogmatists and fanatics love to use the Bible as their weapon of intolerance against any human tendency that offends some faith system’s ego-dream of special favor.
In the main, all “laws” presented in Leviticus are crude, shamelessly prejudicial and insensitive, for they were designed solely for the purpose of establishing uncontested priestly authority over the people under the pretext of godly installation. A few of the Leviticus truths include: It is an abomination to eat pork; likewise God supposedly forbids the eating of shellfish such as lobsters (Lev.10); drinking milk is a no-no; and God is allegedly offended by any clothing made of mixed fibers; etc. And showing that the priest-authors really knew what they were talking about, verse 5 of chapter eleven forbids the eating of the coney “…because he cheweth the cud.” The coney of the verse implies a rabbit, especially an Old World species, which certainly does not regurgitate from its stomach to chew again. The authors probably really meant the hyrax, as was later corrected in Deuteronomy 14:7.
Placed as the book of Leviticus is between the books of Exodus and Numbers, the priest-authors virtually thumbed their noses at the commandment given to Moses against killing, and devoted the bulk of chapter 20 to a list of offences for which God allegedly encouraged killing! Indeed, in this holy book there are claimed to be twenty-eight God-approved methods for killing persons who happened to step upon priest rules. And in chapter 21 the priest-authors provided still more of God’s alleged prejudices by listing the physical “blemishes” that supposedly nauseated God to such a degree that it barred them from priesthood. That appalling allegation of God’s prejudices was expounded upon, declaring that God also detests the blind, the lame, or “he that hath a flat nose or any thing superfluous, or has a broken foot or a broken hand.” Continuing their rant in chapter 21:18-20, the priest-authors elaborated further: God is displeased with “…the crook back, or a dwarf or (those) that hath a blemish in his eye, or scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones (testicles) broken.” On the other hand, to gain God’s good graces it is claimed that God finds the burning of a bull on the altar to be delightful, because it creates a pleasing odor for the lord (Lev. 1:9); also approved was the burning of flocks (13), or of fowls (17). It was simply coincidence that such barbecued sacrifices also happened to provide the priests with some pretty belly pleasing food.
There is a heap of other things that allegedly irks the Lord, according to Leviticus. How about a neat haircut for males? Heaven forbid! Leviticus 19:27 states that trimming the hair around the ears and the temples is forbidden by God. The reason is not made clear. And farmers, take note: Leviticus 19:19 declares that you are committing gross sin if you plant two different crops in the same field. And lordy! a man dares not curse nor blasphemy lest he be stoned to death by the people of the village (Leviticus 21:10-16). And men take note, Leviticus 15:19-24 instructs men that a woman is unclean during her menstrual period, and men should avoid any contact with a woman during her menstrual period. Another “law” revealed by God, so the priest-authors of Leviticus avow, was that if a man’s brother dies before he has sired a child, the man is commanded to take his brother’s wife as his own; he is expected to impregnate her in his brother’s name to keep the family line going. It was only coincidence that the more followers that were thus provided happened to benefit the priests’ authority.
Moral regard for anyone purportedly not chosen by the Lord for special favors permitted the naive devout plenty of room for aloofness and indifference in their treatment of outsiders. That is why slavery could be tolerated, even though it was not widely practiced among the Hebrews. Thus Leviticus, chapter 25:44-45, came to be held up as example of God’s approval of slavery by Christians in the southern parts of the United States in the mid-1800s. The “holy” passage allows possession of slaves, both male and female, as long as they are purchased from neighboring nations! By that standard, the citizens of the United States today should be free to purchase captured citizens from Canada or Mexico or elsewhere to use however they wish. Heaven be praised!
Today the book of Leviticus, chapter 18, verse 22, is still being used by egoistic bigots as the heavenly allowance for practicing hatred against person who are created with same sex attraction. (An ugly example of this spiritual perversion is the homophobic hate-monger “reverend” in the state of Kansas.) Never taken into consideration in such bigots’ use of cherry picked Bible verses for practicing hatred for gays is that scientific studies—let us call them revealed realities—expose the Leviticus proposition that attraction to members of the same sex is unnatural has absolutely no psychological, medical or psychiatric support. And it is certain that such lifesaving medical procedures as blood transfusions, skin grafting, organ transplants, vaccinations, resuscitation, the Heimlich maneuver, etc. would be regarded by those priest-authors of Leviticus as abominations.
Perhaps, just perhaps it is not particularly wise to cling so trustingly to bronze-age priest assertions in this age of space technology.
Time Frames and Taboo Data Blog 