(All scripture is in King James Version, as it is the most widely used, although I’d be willing to take a poll to change this if enough people desire.)

Genesis:

Genesis 1:28 “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.”

This scripture is used to justify things like birth control opposition and the insignificance of animal rights.

Genesis 3:16 “16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”

Here, God curses Eve and every woman to ever be born after her to painful childbirth. Innocent, unborn, unthought of people are being cursed here for thousands of years to come. Cursing the innocent in place of the sinner seems to be a recurring theme in the bible. In addition, this verse has been used to oppose cesarean births, and pain medicine during childbirth. It has also been used to justify men’s rights to dominate women.

Genesis 5:24 “24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” (‘was not’ means disappeared.)

Where did god take Enoch and why? It’s obvious this isn’t an euphemism for death because the bible simply says who died in previous verses. Enoch just vanishes.

Genesis 6:1-4 “1 And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, 2 That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose. 3 And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. 4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”

Who are the sons of god? Angels? Angels can have sex? And they like human women? Why are angel offspring “mighty” and “renowned”? Why do so many people jump to the conclusion the giants (Nephilim) were violent and bad when the bible says nothing of the sort (some translations even call them heroes)? If these creatures aren’t really human, can the verses afterward be applied to them?

Genesis 6:7-8 “7 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. 8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” 8:1 “And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged.”

Scary that God could decide something so severe and have it fail as well. It’s hard to believe Noah and his family were the only ones in all the earth that were decent enough to save. Wouldn’t an omnipotent God know this solution wasn’t going to work? Why not destroy just the evil from everybody instead of destroying them entirely? Why not start again without sin entirely? What was the point of all the suffering the flood brought if God knew sin still existed within Noah? Why save animals if they were also full of sin? What was the point of the flood at all if it didn’t truly cleanse the earth and God knew it would get bad again?

Genesis 8:20-21 “20 And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. 22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

Why is it that the animals God sees as clean being killed is a “sweet savour” to him? Also, God promises not to destroy every living thing again or curse the ground. In Isaiah chapter 24 he promises something entirely different. Of course, it never says he curses the ground or destroys every living thing, but “the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.” sounds pretty close. This verse is also used to dispute climate change and environmental awareness since “seedtime and harvest” and “cold and heat” will not cease.

Genesis 9:2-4 “2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered. 3 Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things. 4 But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.”

Why would God make all of the animals afraid of humans and then give humans authority over them? Why would he want animals to suffer the emotion of fear in addition to being enslaved or eaten? The bible seems to have a theme of subordinates literally fearing authority. And then, immediately after making animals afraid of humans, God offers them as food for people from this point on. Poor animals, what did they ever do? Also, many people have died refusing blood transfusions because they interpret it as eating blood, which God has said here not to do.

Genesis 11:6-7 “6 And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. 7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”

Contrary to what they teach in Sunday school, God confused the people building the tower of Babel because he was concerned that they would be able to do anything if they continued to work so well together. Why was this bad? The bible often uses the word heavens to describe the sky and not God’s dwelling. Nowhere does it say that they aspired to get into actual heaven (in fact it clearly implies that the people plan to remain on earth and that they simply don’t want to be scattered away from each other). Nowhere does it say that God punished them for having too high aspirations. God just didn’t want people to work well together because of what they might be able to accomplish in the future with teamwork. Why would such unity and teamwork be frowned upon by God? What does God have to fear from human cooperation?

Genesis 12:17 “17 And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram’s wife.”

God has decided to punish many innocent people because of the actions of someone else. In this case, Abram’s lie that Sarai is only his sister. Punishment to the innocent for the actions of others happens often in the bible.

Genesis 16:6-10 “6 But Abram said unto Sarai, Behold, thy maid is in thy hand; do to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarai dealt hardly with her, she fled from her face. 7 And the angel of the Lord found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur. 8 And he said, Hagar, Sarai’s maid, whence camest thou? and whither wilt thou go? And she said, I flee from the face of my mistress Sarai. 9 And the angel of the Lord said unto her, Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands. 10 And the angel of the Lord said unto her, I will multiply thy seed exceedingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.”

God has one of his angels command an abused slave to return to her master and submit to her. Later in the bible, God allows this slave to be cast out of Abram’s family by Sarai (Genesis 21:10-12). Why would God send Hagar back to her angry master when he planned to eventually let her go anyway? Why is a slave’s obedience important enough for God to send an angel to ensure and reward? Why would God want an abused slave to return to her master at all?

Genesis 18:17-18 “17 And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; 18 Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?”

Is God indecisive? Is purposefully hiding things from someone a form of deceit? Why would he consider hiding his actions from his loved people? What potentially important things might he have neglected to tell us in the bible?

Genesis 18:32 “32 And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.”

God says he will not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if there are 10 righteous people in them, but as we know, they were destroyed. Are we to believe there were not 10 innocent people within two whole entire cities? Were there not 10 children? 10 babies? Does sin make people unrighteous/not innocent? And if so, why was Lot saved when all men sin? And Noah before him?

Genesis 20:3-6 “3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife.1 4 But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? 5 Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this.2 6 And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her.”

God scares Abimelech by calling him a dead man for something God knows Abimelech didn’t do. God knows Abimelech didn’t do it, because he caused him not to. Why would God not just tell Abimelech of his honest mistake instead of threatening him?

Genesis 24:35 “35 And the Lord hath blessed my master greatly; and he is become great: and he hath given him flocks, and herds, and silver, and gold, and menservants, and maidservants, and camels, and asses.”

Here, Abraham’s servant tells Laban that God has blessed Abraham with many things including “menservants” and “maidservants”. In other words, slaves. God has given Abraham slaves as reward for his faithfulness.

Genesis 30:18 “18 And Leah said, God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband: and she called his name Issachar.”

Many people claim that scripture has not once ever condoned anything other than monogamy. It can be argued that God’s allowance of polygamy among his favored worshipers is condonement itself. But here is concrete scriptural evidence. Here, Leah is saying that God has blessed her with a child of her own because she gave her handmaid Zilpah to Jacob to have children with. This is reinforced by Leah having another baby in the very next verse instead of being punished for making a wrongful claim toward God. Not that polygamy or polyamory are necessarily bad, but the scary part here is how easily some scripture is ignored to fit agendas.

Genesis 41:53-57 “53 And the seven years of plenteousness, that was in the land of Egypt, were ended. 54 And the seven years of dearth began to come, according as Joseph had said: and the dearth was in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. 55 And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread: and Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph; what he saith to you, do. 56 And the famine was over all the face of the earth: And Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians; and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt. 57 And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn; because that the famine was so sore in all lands.”

God cause a famine to strike “all over the face of the earth”. Why did the famine need to be over the whole earth? Hadn’t God told Noah he would never again curse the ground on account of man in Genesis 8:21? Isn’t the wellbeing of Egypt, Joseph, and his family “on account of man”, even if it is a part of God’s plan? What counts as a curse to God?

Genesis 45:6-7 “6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. 7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.”

Here, Joseph reveals to his brothers that God has blessed Joseph with fortune good enough that Joseph could save his family from the famine. Yet, why should God have allowed the famine at all if he did not desire hard times to fall on his followers? And a 7 year famine, no less! How many innocent people must have died in such a famine to facilitate God’s plans?

Genesis 50:18-20 “18 And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants. 19 And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? 20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.”

Here, Joseph is saying that God used the evil that his brothers had done to him to make good things come about. Joseph was able to save many from the famine by interpreting the Pharaoh’s dream and preparing. What other evils does God use to bring about good? Would God utilize a large amount of evil to bring about a small amount of good? Why would God use Joseph to save many people from the famine instead of preventing the famine? Did God actually cause the famine in order to fulfill his promises to Abraham and his descendants? What destructive lengths will God go to in order to meet his agenda? See Proverbs 16:4, 1 Sam 2:25, 2 Sam 17:14, 1 Kgs 12:15, and 2 Chr 25:20. Are Joseph’s brothers blameless for their evil actions because God intended for them to take place? Is someone accountable for their choices if God intends to use them to fit his plans?