What we should be able to agree on is the active avoidance of anything remotely suggestive of gods or the supernatural when dealing with AI. It occurred to me that the use of the Bible as a training tool for AI may be the single best argument against those that consider it the ‘foundational source of morality.’ Yahweh’s body count in the Old Testament is astronomical, and in the account of the Flood—arguably his most vindictive act—was limited only by the number of his human generations that had had a chance to reproduce since he created them. He literally killed them all (minus the few he liked). And when the 10 commandments are overlaid on all the carnage, there is a very clear message of: Do as I say, not as I do.

The existence of advocates for Divine Command theory and Revealed Truth in a modern era is evidence of failed critical thinking. The inclusion of their input into what may be the most consequential human endeavor in history is sadly the next step in that failure. If religion is the thing that is supposed to keep us safe from our AI overlords, god help us all. (Of course, pun intended—this is faith-free future after all.)

For those interested in the topic of morality, I recommend reading fellow Substacker Graham Lapworth’s posts. He makes a pretty compelling case that ‘morality’ is not even real. This is an unsolicited plug—I find his work answers a lot of questions I’ve had since leaving Christianity and want to share his ideas.

As far as Bible stories go, this is pretty standard, especially for the Old Testament. What sets it apart from the other genocidal behavior found in the Bible, however, is one incredibly important detail: God repeatedly tells Moses to offer the Pharaoh a choice first—a way to avoid the plagues and death—and then God psychologically manipulates Pharaoh into make the wrong choice. The mechanism is unclear, but I like to imagine it as something along the lines of the ‘These are not the droids you’re looking for’ scene from Star Wars, where the Jedi master hypnotizes and tricks the stormtroopers.

The end result of the plot of this story was always written--God was going to torture and kill the Egyptians, regardless. He had already made up his mind. So why pretend to offer them a chance to escape those consequences beforehand? What exactly is gained by this? This is literally what serial killer Ted Bundy did with many of his victims, psychologically toying with them in order to demonstrate his power and to increase the sadistic pleasure of the experience.

Sadly, the story does not end in Exodus. The final part of this story continues today in the form of mountains of excuses from Christian apologists arguing that there is nothing wrong with God’s behavior in this story. Their ability to rationalize this straight-up evil is remarkable, considering that most of them are otherwise good, well-intentioned humans, albeit with tragically flawed critical thinking skills. This is one of the most obvious potential downsides of faith.

If you haven’t already, check out today’s other post: Meditation vs. Prayer

Thanks for reading!

There are two very different versions of creation:

In Genesis 1, God ‘speaks’ everything into existence, in the following order:

Plants first, then

Birds,

Land animals, and finally,

Adam and Eve together.

In Genesis 2, God ‘forms’ things from existing matter, in the following order:

Adam alone—first, then

Plants,

Animals, and finally,

Eve (best for last).

As a rational human being with an understanding that the Bible is a series of stories passed down from generation to generation before being written down, organized, translated, reorganized, curated, reorganized again, retranslated again, voted on by committee in the 4^th century 3 different times, and finally retranslated two more times to get to today’s iteration, a couple of different versions of a creation story makes complete sense.

As a former fundamentalist, who thought that every word in the Bible was Absolute Truth— conveying ultimate wisdom, morality, knowledge, and containing the answers to all mysteries of the universe, and who shrugged off any inconsistencies such as the multiple versions of creation—it’s a little embarrassing.

This is merely the first in a very long list of inconsistencies, immoralities, contradictions, and scientific inaccuracies in the ancient book, so it’s a pretty remarkable feat of indoctrination that so many Christians argue the power and inerrancy of this book, often without even reading it.

Check out today’s other post:

The Original Echo Chamber: the American Church

If you’ve ever had doubts about Christianity,

That is your brain trying to reach you through the noise of indoctrination.

That is your brain showing you that it still works the way it’s supposed to.

That is the seeds of Critical Thinking.

Don’t ignore those doubts!

So many of us have escaped our belief systems and found reality.

You can too.

The first woman has no problem with this (even more WTF?!) but the second is very upset, thus proving that she is the mother.

This was the wisest guy in the Bible? What would that women do with half a baby and why was she okay with it—and how is it that no one else was concerned about Solomon’s solution? So many questions…How does any of this make sense?

Ohhhhhh, I almost forgot. We traded in our critical thinking for an imaginary best friend.

I’ve often wondered why Christians don’t ask this simple question:

Why does Jesus take such good care of his sheep?

LAMB KEBABS!!

If Jesus were The Good Lion-Tamer, at least that would seem to bestow a little respect on to his followers. Sheep exist for selling, shearing, or slaughtering—nothing more, and the shepherd simply keeps them safe to fatten them up. Not to mention, they’re kind of known as not being very bright… Please don’t get huffy, it’s not my analogy—that one came straight from God to his minions.

Now that Sunday Skool is over, Check out the today’s main post ‘God Damage!’ about religious trauma. Otherwise, see you next Sunday for Sunday Skool!!

Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him.

“Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!”

He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled 42 of the boys

(Great job, thanks God!!)

Bears: 42

Kids: 0

THE END

Cannibalism!!

Don’t believe me? Check it out!

Leviticus 26: 27-29

If in spite of this you still do not listen to me but continue to be hostile toward me,

then in my anger I will be hostile toward you, and I myself will punish you for your sins seven times over.

You will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters.