If holy war is a serious problem in the Middle East and in the world today, the French atheist Michel Onfray knows where the whole thing started: with the Jews. Onfray's Atheist Manifesto, a bestseller in Europe, has a section called "The Jewish Invention of Holy War." Onfray traces a direct line "from the bloody sword of the Israelites killing off the Canaanites to the use of airlines as flying bombs in New York."
One might think the radical Muslims perpetrated 9/11 and other contemporary atrocities. But Onfray holds monotheism responsible for the Islamic mindset, and since Judaism came before Christianity and Islam, he insists that the roots of religious intolerance and conflict are in Moses and Abraham. First, the Jews declared themseves God's chosen people, implying that their enemies were the enemies of God. According to Onfray, "Yahweh blessed war and those who waged it. He sanctified combat, supervised it...sanctioned crimes, murders, assassination." Onfray goes on, "Yahweh steps in to justify the Jews in their extermination of certain peoples explicitly named in the Torah: the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites and Jebusites." In an inflammatory way, Onfray even holds the ancient Israelites responsible for what he calls "the first genocide": the wholesale destruction of Jericho. If Bin Laden ever wanted a model, Onfray suggests, he could easily find it here.
I'm not suggesting Onfray is anti-Semitic: he is equally hostile to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In this, Onfray resembles America's atheist troika of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens. But in the process Onfray--like his British and American counterparts--fails to make necessary distinctions. The Old Testament depicts a harsh world, but it is no harsher than that of ancient Greece and Rome, with their Melian expeditions, savage wars of conquest, large-scale slavery, gladiatorial contests, and persecution of the Christians. So why hold monotheism responsible for practices that were hardly distinctive to it?
Moreover, the punitive tribal ethic of the Old Testament is specifically repudiated in the New Testament which replaces it with an ethic of universal brotherhood. Onfray flails away at Jesus, but he can find nothing in Christ's teachings that condones violence or terror. Yes, there were historical abuses committed in the name of Christianity, but even here Onfray goes overboard, attempting for example to blame Christianity for the two atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Finally Onfray does not even mention that there are important differences in the way the three monontheisms have evolved. These differences help to explain why much of the terrorism is the world is being perpetrated by Muslims and not by Jews or Christians. Where is the Jewish Bin Laden, the Christian Ahmadinejad? They exist only in the atheist imagination.
Reader Comments ( Page 4 of 7)
46. Ever notice when you discuss facts about Zionist Israel that are historically accurate the first thing that happens is you're branded a "Nazi". The Zionists are identical to the Nazis:
1. They believe in "Lebensraum": Palestine, Gaza, Golan, wherever "King David" slept (reputedly);
2. They are racist elitists: they are the Chosen People who have a devine right to a pure (Jewish) state, i.e. Zionist Israel;
3. They exterminate other races considered necessary to guarantee the purity of their race: genocide against Palestinians (Christian and Muslim); as a zionist rabbi leader in Jerusalem announced just a few months ago:"All Arabs are to be exterminated!";
4. They have their "Drag Nach Osten": their march eastward: south Lebanon, southern Syria, southern Iraq, (see the Zionist slogan carved over the Knesset: "From the Nile to the Euphrates") and a seaport, Basra, Iraq into the Arab Gulf;
5. Etc,etc,etc.
Further, I suppose the anti-Zionist Jewish rabbis and Jews in Israel and the United States are also rabid Nazis!!!
Thomas Green at 12:24AM on Jul 24th 2007
47. So many people believe that to be "not religious"
is to be an athiest. Intelligence requires that \
one believe in a 'Higher Power' ... believing in
all the crap that 'religious' people would force
down your throat is something else. I feel that
the basic questions regarding the origin of every-
thing remaine unanswered . It's a question of
finate man trying to understand the infinite.
I've been reading a book entitled "Understanding
Non-Christian religions ... and find that how I
'feel' is mostly in line with the teachings of
Buda . Christianity is far too bloody and there
are too many contradictions in the Bible to take
it seriously as the "inspired word of God" .
Everything that was ever written was censored
before being published by the political power
in charge at the time. The man who translated
the Bible from latin into English was burned at
the stake by the Catholic church which has just
paid out two BILLION dollars in 'hush money' for
centuries of molesting the children put in their
charge ... out of court ! Buda suggested that we
believe in our God given intelligence and not
accept anything that does violence to our minds .
I'm for that . I don't feel obliged to arrive
at any conclusions that do violence to my God
given intelligence . Nor should you.
We should learn to live with the questions and
forget about nailing everthing to the barn door.
Magisty is just that magisty. If you seek
direction ... look within . Meaning...it lies in
giving ...Beauty ( just look around ) it abounds
in all that's living .
Don Mooney at 12:50AM on Jul 24th 2007
48. The christian Ben laden is George Bush and the Jews Ahmedinijad are the people that support the killing of Palestinian.
Makaveli Konneh at 12:57AM on Jul 24th 2007
49. i am not one to favor religion but this argument fascinates me, jews are the evil backing of banking and finance which is corrupting and extorting the world as we speak and look at the corruption of society they have brought upon the world through their control of hollywood which has jaded the masses and made much of our youth into the shameless mass they are... no other grouping of people believes in material wealth as prominently as jews do, sorry but true
SpeeD at 1:35AM on Jul 24th 2007
50. Don Mooney i'm with you on that
SpeeD at 1:38AM on Jul 24th 2007
51. . i am not one to favor religion but this argument fascinates me, jews are the evil backing of banking and finance which is corrupting and extorting the world as we speak and look at the corruption of society they have brought upon the world through their control of hollywood which has jaded the masses and made much of our youth into the shameless mass they are... no other grouping of people believes in material wealth as prominently as jews do, sorry but true
SpeeD at 10:53AM on Jul 24th 2007
52. Holy war and Hate are are creations of mankind and
Evil doer but not creations of GOD. GOD may created Evil to show mankind to what is the defference between good and bad,love and hate. it's known a fact and not a fiction that power does corrupt the mankind specialy the mankind of a poor minded person and or grown up in a hostile and greedy enviroment. A true nation leader must be elected by the people who know everything of him among them and not by another power source whose interests are vested in him to use political strategy and power to rule. there should be a real united nation away from influnece of any super power to hear all the voices of every single nation including smallest ideologist group on earth.that would be a real democracy for the world and promotion of love,peace and trust among all the mankind and or nations on the face of this earth as GOD only spoke of it and indicated that we are all created by GOD for the purpose of living on this planet till death and departure but remains only the mankind memeories whether good and or Evil.
melium at 2:03AM on Jul 24th 2007
53. ONLY A FOOL SAYS THERE IS NO SANTA HEHE
CMON FOLKS GOD IS NO MORE REAL THAN SANTA
BUT IF YOUR A GOOD BOY AND GIRL SANTA WILL BRING YOU A PRESENT AND HE KNOWS IF YOU ARE GOOD SO BE GOOD AND GOD WILL NOT KILL YOU AS HE HAS KILLED MANY
CMON GROW UP RELIGION IS NOT WORKING
GOD AND SANTA ARE ONLY EXIST IN ONES CREATIVE IMAGINATION
patrick at 2:03AM on Jul 24th 2007
54. Agnosticism is a fine third option (and one that I subscribe to, though I call myself an atheist for the sake of those who don't understand the concept of agnosticism). Agnosticism, when you get right down to it, is skepticism. Is "God" an illusion? Yes? Prove it. Likewise, it is just as necessary (if not MORESO) for the believers---whatever their faith may be---to PROVE that their god exists. But then again, if we just realized that induction (science) and faith are two completely unrelated concepts, no proof would be necessary to support either "side."
Seth at 3:24AM on Jul 24th 2007
55. There is a difference between the "holy war" of Jews in Biblical history and Muslim "holy war." Onfray needs to take a closer look at his Bible; a book used only for reference, I'm sure. Is it my imagination, or are those darn Jews super
reluctant and always dragging their feet when Yahweh tells them to wipe out certain cities?
Sure, they wanted to see the enemies who had committed atrocities against them dead, but they were scared silly most of the time.
Careful study of their enemies' practices makes it easy to understand their fear. These nations had degenerated to such an extent that we would consider them rabid savages today. Gang rape, human sacrifice, dismemberment, forced enslavement are just a few of the atrocities listed and were the NORM. Yet what is most astounding is Yahweh's holding back extermination for hundreds of years! It's basically a "Well, I've given them a hundred chances over the last four hundred years and it's time for punishment." In one particular instance, Yahweh tell one of the Jewish prophets to go warn the enemies in a city called Nineveh (interestingly a part of Iraq) that He's had enough and is going to destroy them. Naturally,
the guy says no way and runs the other direction as fast as he can. But God FORCES him to go and warn them and when he does, the whole city is saved. The prophet guy gets really mad at God, and to tell you the truth I kind of understand.
Here is a God that keeps his own "chosen" to the rope (one of the 12 of Abraham's great grandsons gets cursed along with his ancestors for abusing some of his cattle) and yet he shows compassion to the enemies of his chosen. If anyone shows signs of "repentance" then all is forgiven and they can even be embraced into the Israeli nation. There WERE people saved out of the city called Jericho. One of them even winds up on the ancestry log for Jesus Christ. Lord have mercy!! Well, I guess he did
foolish at 4:12AM on Jul 24th 2007
56.
This is my take on the subject: Religion does not poison everything, but rather it is people who can poison anything, religion included. There are bad people in religion who, by proxy of religious teachings who accept anyone and everyone who proclaims to "believe" in their faith as equals, are allowed to exist in said religion and perpetuate a harmful message which their disciples are obligated to follow because the teaching is not a result of a human's evil thoughts, but rather a higher infallible power.
It is this aspect of religion that has allowed it to be manipulated for evil purposes: Because it is not people who deliver this message, but rather people who claim it as the word of a perfect being who spoke to them: A being who is unquestionable and infallible, and so whatever message he or she may hand down must be followed without question.
Of course evil exists outside of religion as well, because every human has the capacity to do evil. It is your own individual will, not your religion, the dictates how evil you are, and if it is socially acceptable to be religious you will simply warp religion for your own evil means. Religion is not evil, it is simply futile.
Peter at 5:16AM on Jul 24th 2007
57. There is not a single group who can say that they have a history free of violence. No matter who started it someone should have the sense to stop it. Unfortunately right now it doesn't look as if anyone really wants it to. If they did the USA for example they would quit sending aid to countries where they know such atrocities exist. Alas, we are as guilty of murder as anyone while we continually turn a blind eye to the degredation of humanity in the return of favors of those in power of other countries.
Kat at 6:08AM on Jul 24th 2007
58. Two comments in regards to Dinesh D'souza's opinion the the Jews being responsible for the "Holy War".
One: Who really cares what any French opinion is on ANYTHING!
Secondly: What an arrogant, my intellect has made me a blind foolish individual. To blame Jews and the Almighty God, which in his mind was created by man and not the other way around, shows and proves how incredibly stupid you become when "you" as a man, deny the powers and the existence of the Holy Father who created you.
Don't be fooled by some opinion stated by a Jack-ass Atheiest.
Look out, Dinesh! Humble yourself and repent!! Because, this God of War (as you put it), Yahweh is about ready to deal you a major blow.......
Mark Hamrick at 7:40AM on Jul 24th 2007
59. Thomas Green, please be kind to your family and look into the many drugs that are now available for peope who suffer from your condition. Thorazine is particularly effective for bouts of paranoia.
richter at 8:53AM on Jul 24th 2007
60. Agnosticism is no more a third option than "half-on" is for a light switch or "half-pregnant" is for a woman or "halfway have a car" are options. IOW: they aren't. They can't be, as they don't mean anything.
Knight_of_BAAWA at 8:57AM on Jul 24th 2007