Photo: Brother Micah

For instance, after escaping the brimstone apocalypse inflicted on Sodom and Gomorrah by the Lord (19:24), Lot and his two daughters dwelt in a cave (19:30) where the two daughters got him drunk on wine and had sex with him (19:32), causing them to become pregnant (19:36)... eventually bearing Moab and Benammi. I was never told about the cave in church. And now I know why: incest is absolutely unacceptable and they know it. In fact it's almost as unacceptable as Leviticus 20:13, a directive to put to death any homosexuals who are merely trying to find their own happiness. If God is truly compassion and understanding, he'd certainly understand how ludicrous that request is to the point of being ashamed of it.

Sadly, that's just the beginning. Though the "Good Book" doesn't necessarily always advocate for cannibalism, sexism, slavery, stoning, adultery, decapitation, burning people to death, human sacrifice, religious intolerance and loads of genocide, it mentions them often enough to make a thorough read of the Bible an upsetting and alienating endeavor.

To its credit, there are plenty of respectable gestures and messages in the Bible as well - too bad it's overshadowed by all this awful stuff. Fortunately we've been blessed with several religions and moralistic philosophies. A true scholar reads and learns from each philosophy in order to form a comprehensive basis of personal morality.