The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.
The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. (p. 31 of the hardcover edition and p. 51 of the paperback edition; see also: Dan Barker, God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction, foreword by Richard Dawkins, 2016)
God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction
Expanding on a concept from New York Times bestseller The God Delusion, former ordained minister and current atheist Dan Barker gives us a biblical play-by-play illustrating God's not-so-admirable qualities. What words come to mind when we think of God? Merciful? Just? Compassionate? In fact, the Bible lays out God's primary qualities clearly: jealous, petty, unforgiving, bloodthirsty, vindictive--and worse Originally conceived as a joint presentation between influential thinker and bestselling author Richard Dawkins and former evangelical preacher Dan Barker, this unique book provides an investigation into what may be the most unpleasant character in all fiction. Barker combs through both the Old and New Testament (as well as 13 different editions of the "Good Book"), presenting powerful evidence for why the Scripture shouldn't govern our everyday lives. This witty, well-researched book suggests that we should move past the Bible and clear a path to a kinder and more thoughtful world.
God: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction is a non-fiction book written by Dan Barker and published on 2016-02-02. The title of the book, and the layout of the chapters, are based on a line from the opening of The God Delusion, written by Richard Dawkins, where he describes the god of the old testament as being, "...arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully." Barker expands on each of these adjectives by listing bible verses which demonstrate each of them in detail and expounds on each, and then adds several more to the list. The book focuses primarily on the immorality of the character Yahweh, but also occasionally discusses the historical and literary aspects as well.
What Barker attempts to justify in the end is that God is not real and people should refrain from considering him as a being within us. He says that if God was real, he would be ranked above other heartless characters like Adolf Hitler, Osama Bin Laden, Attila the Hun and many others. The final urge according to Barker is that people should drop fiction and dwell upon better issues.
"The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all of fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully." (31; italics mine).
Richard Dawkins once wrote The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous, petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, capriciously malevolent bully. (The God Delusion)
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