Yet another outrageous belief

Some time ago I heard one of the most absurd and outrageous idiocies ever uttered. It was a revolting, imbecile, absurd, undignified, preposterous and sadistic statement and, obviously, a blatant lie. As so many of such ideas, it came from religion and, because of that, a lot of people believe in it./

The outrageous statement was inflicted upon mankind in a a TV show called “Evidências” (Evidences) on a Brazilian network called “Novo Tempo” (New Times), which is financed by and targets the Seventh Day Adventist Church. The statement is that the Hebrew people made a favor to humanity by exterminating the perverted Canaanites, and he goes on to say that even a non religious person would agree it was a good genocide.

By now you may be as revolted as I am, but if you're not, let me contextualize things a little bit. The show aired Friday evening (which, for Adventists, is already the holy day of Sabbath) and started with the host Rodrigo Silva stating some quite obvious facts, such as that God ordered genocide multiple times and that the history presented in the Bible is filled with horrible deeds that doesn't fit a god of good. He even presented a study that revealed children are more prone to accept a genocide inflicted by the Hebrews on their enemies than the exact same brutality committed by other nation.

Okay, it was a good start, although he certainly was distorting a bit the facts. But he went on to say that his goal for the show was to prove religion is not so defenseless in front of this facts. I won't go into detail of every single lie, misconception or plain stupidity that moronic show was defending, but his main argument in favor of the Canaanite genocide was that all the region had been bought a long time before by Abraham, so that the Hebrews were just getting their property back. The Canaanites, not wanting to move, decided to exterminate all Hebrews, who were just defending themselves.

Now, you probably don't know much about the Canaanites, and I won't pretend to be an expert myself. But even if they were a wicked people that made human sacrifices for good harvests, had orgies and adored snake goddesses, you will most probably agree with me that they did not deserve genocide. Hey, the sacrifices aside, they seem like a happy bunch enjoying life – and quite the precursors of feminism. Of course, they weren't that – they were a bronze age people struggling against poverty in a very harsh world and shielding themselves from their cold realities with an incredibly autistic set of superstitions and ignorance – exactly like the Hebrews.
Too exactly, actually. You might not know and even not care that the Hebrews did not invade the land of Canaan after roaming the desert for forty years, and that's because they never roamed the desert since they never escaped slavery by the Pharaoh, and that's because they were never slaves in Egypt because they were never in Egypt to begin with. Hebrews and Canaanites are two peoples much more closely related than religion is advocating them to be.

When I saw the show I was next to an 80-year old relative who is a Seventh Day Adventist and, by this time, he wasn't very pleased with my comments on the show. He didn't have, of course, any argument in favor of the fallacies we were listening, so he resorted to authority: the host (Rodrigo Silva) is a very learned specialist, and you shouldn't suppose you know more than he does.
Well, Mr. Silva's views were immoral, to say the least, but he did base his opinion in misconceptions that were made very popular by religion. So I was forced to ask myself in what field is he a specialist. He surely has a Doctorate – in Theology. Then he went to the US to study Biblical Archeology, which 'seems' interesting enough but... no. He went to a Seventh Day Adventist Institution called Andrews University to learn the pre-approved and scientifically-free Adventist version of history: one that initiated with the creation of the world in seven days, then the great flood came, animal were stored in a big boat by a 600 year-old man and then god made a pact with a bunch of semi-literate desert dwellers that involved them being allowed to commit ethnically cleansing against their neighbors. Of course, they had to kill the people but take their silver and gold because, according to Joshua 5:19, “All the silver and gold and the articles of bronze and iron are sacred to the Lord and must go into his treasury”.

Knowing that Mr. Silva's education was not something to be proud of came as a relief. That's because if you seriously, really believe that Genesis' creation myth is a literal account of geological, biological and historical events, then there are very few things that can be going on.

• First, you might believe it in spite of science because that's your faith – period. It's not an intellectually satisfactory position, but I understand it. Without science, faith is airtight.
• Second, you may be ignorant about it, not having education, interest or brainpower to delve into the such matters. I'd suggest you, then, to read a little about the subject, just enough to discover that you do not know and therefore should not defend either idea.
• Third, you might have a good education and a clear view of the world, but you're a liar. You might be afraid of hell (or annihilation, in the case of Adventists), you might have social or financial gains in sight for professing a ludicrous “scientific” proposition such as creationism, or have some other nefarious goal.

The host of that particular awful show was an articulate and apparent bright man with a post doctorate degree, which in my view should put him clearly in this third category. But the fact is that there is a fourth category – he belongs to an autistic world, study in autistic institutions and is so immerse in this autistic metaphysics that he actually believes these things, and is desperately trying to twist reality into these views. To them, and to any religious discourse that crosses over to the realm of science (which is most of them), truth is not as important as orthodoxy, discovery pales before apologetics and intellectual honesty is abandoned for faith.

And that's why religion is increasingly criticized and feared in a world that is addicted to it: a bright person can get a post-doctorate in archeology (well, biblical archeology) and can belong for decades to loving communities that support love, forgiveness and care. And this same person can go on and claim that a series of non-existent catastrophes and genocides committed by a people he is badly misinterpreting are good deeds because a cruel, cryptic and narcissistic divinity said so.

Creationism is not science. Churches are not educational institutions. Theology is not an intellectual discipline. Human genocide is never OK. Never, even if a bearded fairy in the clouds told you so.

Note to enraged Christians. This text is not meant as disrespect or offense. Really. I defend your right to disseminate your religions and teach Creationism to your children and maintain you schools. Really. The reason I'm writing this text is because I am taking you seriously instead of patronizingly ignoring your ideas. But your religions - no religion, actually – have the monopoly on science or morals, and when you make scientific and moral statements, there will be responses. When you make ridiculous pseudo-scientific claims such as creationism, they will be called ridiculous and pseudo-scientific. When you make appalling, barbaric and idiotic morals asserts, they will be called appalling, barbaric and idiotic. Please understand the criticism is to the ideas, and that I don't have any love or hate for your religion. I just want honesty.