Isaiah 56-60

The Facts (Chapter number: Verse)

56:5 - "I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off."

57:3-4 - "But as for you, come here, you children of a sorceress, you offspring of an adulterer and a whore. Whom are you mocking? Against whom do you open your mouth wide and stick out your tongue? Are you not children of transgression and offspring of deceit?"

Isaiah 58 - No mention of any women.

Isaiah 59 - No mention of any women.

60:4 - "Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far away and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses' arms."

My Comments

Why is it only the mothers are mentioned in 57:3? Why are no fathers mentioned here? Do the sins and transgression of the father not harm the child in the same way the mother's shortcomings do? I mean, men are already flawed because they have to be born from woman who is just so unclean and inferior, but to add to that the mother being a sorceress or an adulteress or a whore? I guess those born in such a manner really have no room to talk, huh? Though I guess it's worse to be born of a immoral mother than it is to be born of an immoral father, right? Because we don't get any mention of people born unclean because of fathers who were thieves or murderers or adulterers (only women can really be adulterers, it seems, because we hardly ever get mention of male adulterers, only the adulteress' victims). Nope, the sperm doesn't matter, only the body the baby actually comes out of.

It seems it is worse, in the end, to be an immoral woman than to be an immoral man. Any real reason for this, other than women suck and we just need more excuses to punish them?

And again, we get God telling us that he is better than any family you will ever produce. See those children God has commanded you to create? Yeah, they pretty much suck. God is better than any child or any wife you could have because only he can keep you living on forever. So really, it's totally okay to give up the people who depend on you and put God first. Again, this isn't something God tried to keep secret. God seems to have an incredible disdain for family, and it usually always seems to stems from the fact that a family can distract a man from worshiping God to the fullest. And again, I state that this is an incredible dick move because children and wives depended completely on the adult men in their lives. So God is telling these men it's okay to abandon the people who count on them the most. Go ahead and leave them as widows and orphans, because in the end the women and children will not give the man the immortality he needs. Only God can do that.

It always comes down to eternal life, doesn't it? One is not good for goodness sake and one does not really worship God because they really love God. They worship God and follow God's laws because otherwise they will not live on forever. It's a completely selfish system, which honestly never made any sense to me. I'd rather spend my life being good because it's just how I should spend my life, not because being good will eventually get me a pass into eternal paradise.

And such a system makes it easy to abandon the people who really need you in order to pursue that eternal paradise since that paradise is all that matters. This planet is just a doormat to heaven, right? So these kinds of teachings make it easy for parents (or others that are relied on) to throw out their children when they don't follow God's teachings (or the way those specific parents view God's teachings). Parents can kick their teenage daughter out of the house because she's a lesbian. Or their son because he's gay. Or their daughter because she was raped or had premarital sex. Brothers and sisters can ostracize you if they find out you're an atheist. Parents may deny you a college fund they have been saving for you just because you decide to move away for college and live with your boyfriend without getting married first.

I'm sorry, but a religion that can make it so easy for those you trust and rely on to turn on you and leave them not only guilt-free but their actions something to be praised and mimicked is a bad religion. I've seen family members made outcast and denied help because their choices were not in line with others' "moral" religion. I've seen friends lost because of simple disagreements when it comes to God or other religiously charged political ideas. Hell, I keep a lot of myself and my views quiet because I know many of the people I know would probably turn on me, even though I manage to tolerate their different views just fine.

It's just the way the religion works. God wants you all to himself, so he's more than happy to reward you for turning on others that may not follow his teachings and are likely to turn you astray. So just keep surrounding yourself with others who echo your religious views and cutting out those who may see and experience the world differently. Make sure you never have to look around and actually think about whether that invisible man in the sky is actually real or not or whether his teachings are even worth following. Never question, never learn, and don't forget to leave your 10% tithe before you exit the church.

Monday: Isaiah 61-66