Do you have to believe in God to be a moral person? According to a new study by Pew’s Global Attitudes Project, 53 percent of Americans say yes. The ironic fact of the Bible, however, is that it is full of individuals who believe in God, who act immorally and violently, and whose God appears to bless their actions. Many Christians today are critical of the violence they see in other religions — especially Islam — but there’s an inescapable cognitive dissonance if you are appalled by the violence done in the name of one religion but not by the violence done in the name of your own.
It is hard to miss the passage where Moses slaughters 3,000 Israelites for worshipping a golden calf (Exodus 32) — a death toll comparable to September 11. Or the passage telling of Moses’ anger upon discovering that his army had spared enemy women and children (Numbers 31), later commanding them to kill the males and older women, but keep the virgin girls for themselves.
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