The Skeptics Annotated Bible (6 page)

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 And God said,
Let the earth bring forth the living creature
after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

25 And
God made the beast of the earth
after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

(1.25)
“God made the beast of the earth.”
8 Were humans created before the other animals?

26 And God said,
Let us make man in our image
, after our likeness: and
let them have dominion
over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and
over all the earth
, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

(1.26a)
“Let us make man in our image.”
9 How many gods are there?

(1.26b)
“Let them have dominion … over all the earth”
God gave humans dominion over every other living thing on earth. This couldn’t be true, of course, since millions of other species existed for millions of years before humans existed. This verse is used by fundamentalist Christians to justify the mistreatment of other species and disregard for the environment.

27
So God created man in his own image
, in the image of God created he him;
male and female created he them.

(1.27)
“So God created man in his own image … male and female created he them.”
This verse implies that God is both male and female and that men and women are of equal value.
10 When was Eve created?

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them,
Be fruitful, and multiply
, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

(1.28)
“Be fruitful and multiply.”
11 Is childbearing sinful?

29 And God said, Behold,
I have given you every herb
bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth,
and every tree
, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you
it shall be for meat.

(1.29)
“I have given you every herb … and every tree … it shall be for meat.”
God gave us every plant for food. What about
Canabis sativa
? Is it okay to eat (or smoke) that plant? How about the opium poppy, coca plant, or the peyote cactus?

Since many plants have evolved poisons to protect against animals that would like to eat them, God’s advice here is more than a little reckless. Would you tell your children to go out in the garden and eat whatever plants they encounter?
12 May Adam eat from any tree?
13 Which animals may we eat?

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

31 And
God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.
And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

(1.31)
“God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.”
God purposefully designed a system that ensures the suffering and death of all his creatures, parasite and host, predator and prey.