One of Many Stories

I have read the bible. I find it to be a contradictory mess, filled with hatred, anger, misery, bigotry, incest and violence. Everyone who cares to know understands that the bible is was not written by God, although far too many people naively believe it to be.

The bible is a big story book, compiled over the course of hundreds of years by dozens, if not hundreds of authors. Many of the stories existed before the written word, and were passed down through oral storytelling. Each book was written by a human who, in the natural course of writing, added their agenda to the soup, further complicating an already poor-written text. Over the course of this ridiculous book's history, books were added to and removed from the bible, to suit the interests of the political/religious leaders of the times.

Rather than digress on the great many problems that exist in a literal interpretation of the bible, I’m going to talk about the one book that had the biggest impact on me and the way that I view God and the bible: The Book of Job.

According to the story, Job was a successful land and business owner, with a loving wife and adoring children. He was also a strong believer in God. One day, God and Satan were chatting when God pointed out how much his adherents loved him, and cited the case of Job. Satan remarked that of course Job loved God; his life was perfect and he wanted for nothing. Satan suggested that if Job were to lose everything, his faith would be discarded. God said that Job would keep his faith regardless of what happened in Job’s life. And then a bet was struck.

God told Satan that he could destroy everything Job loved and cherished, except for his own life, and God was certain that Job would remain faithful to him, regardless of the misfortune that rained down upon him. Piece by piece, Job’s life fell to ruin until he was penniless and alone. Sure enough, Job remained faithful to his lord.

Some view this as a story in which the power of faith is put to the ultimate test and it is through God’s divine love that even the worst of tragedies can be tempered by devotion to God.

I view it differently.

The way I see it, the story of Job is a testament to the vanity of God and his total lack of caring for even his most faithful. Job did nothing at all wrong, and yet God allowed his life to fall to total ruin just to prove a petty point to Satan, a fallen angel that he himself had created. Satan tries to play God for a rube, and Satan succeeds spectacularly. Not only is God a sucker for a bet, the manner in which he immediately agrees to let Satan play with the life of his faithful is nothing short of disturbing.

The message is that you can work hard all your life, do everything you should without causing anyone harm and even then, God will sell you out in a heartbeat if it will make him look good. This brilliantly illustrates just how little God cares for those who love him most.

I’m also inclined to think that God may by the original prototype for an abusive parent: He can do whatever he wants to you, take or destroy everything you have done, everything you have worked for, and in return he demands your absolute obedience and worship. And if he does not get these things, you will be punished severely. Is this any different than the father who beats his wife and molests his children, all the while claiming that he loves them, but if they report or even speak against him, things just get worse? I see no difference.

The Book of Job is a prefect exercise in unintentional definition. Through this brilliant piece of embarrassing self-promotion, God shows himself to be nothing more than a petty, vain, gullible rube who was all too easily fooled by one of his own creations into destroying the life of a man who did nothing to deserve this, other than to love God the way that was demanded of him.