A Nobel laureate’s take on the Bible – and it’s spot-on

José Saramago, who won the 1998 Nobel Price for Literature, is a proclaimed atheist who is known and controversial for his books, which usually present “subversive perspective on historic events, emphasizing the human factor”. I understand this to mean he therefore reduces the importance of God or other supernatural forces, which would, of course, explain why he’s controversial to begin with. You just can’t write that humans control their own lives and fates, you know. That’s blasphemy!

Anyway; Saramago has now released a new book, Cain, an “ironic retelling” of the Biblical story of Cain and Able. But, it’s not his book itself that’s creating waves of anger amongst the Bible-thumpers, but rather what he said about their holy text:

At the launch event in the northern Portuguese town of Penafiel on Sunday, Saramago said he did not think the book would offend Catholics “because they do not read the Bible”.

“The Bible is a manual of bad morals (which) has a powerful influence on our culture and even our way of life. Without the Bible, we would be different, and probably better people,” he was quoted as saying by the news agency Lusa.

Saramago attacked “a cruel, jealous and unbearable God (who) exists only in our heads” and said he did not think his book would cause problems for the Catholic Church “because Catholics do not read the Bible.

Bravo! Could hardly have put it better myself. Though, even if Catholics did read the Bible, they’d just pick out the bits they choose to follow and ignore the rest, like certain other Christians.

Of course, his words are now being declared a “publicity stunt” by Catholic Church leaders; one rabbi also repeated a certain oh-god-we’re-so-sick-of-hearing-it argument-slash-excuse, claiming that “Saramago does not know the Bible” and only has “superficial understanding of it”. Sorry to disappoint anyone out there who lends credence to this non-argument, but: I don’t have to meet a Nazi to know the Nazis were (and, in the case of neo-Nazis, are) a force of evil. I don’t have to be stuck in terrorism-torn Afghanistan to know the Taliban are religious butchers. I don’t have to eat a whole bowlful of spaghetti to know it’s delicious.

Along those lines, then: I don’t have to read every bit of the Bible to know that A) the God depicted within it is a bloodthirsty, arrogant, egomaniacal and bigoted asshole, and that B) the Bible specifically claims otherwise, thus rendering it an illogical, incoherent collection of garbage written by goat-herders in the Middle-East thousands of years ago. Just reading a few select passages is evidence enough, thank you very much.

(via God is for Suckers!)
Technorati tags: Christianity · Christians · atheists · Bible · José Saramago