The Freedom From Religion Foundation is excited to unveil its new “Unpleasant Companion” webpage, a searchable database of Old Testament verses proving that God is, indeed, the most unpleasant character.
The pro-blasphemy site was inspired by biologist Richard Dawkins’ sentence in chapter 2 of his book “The God Delusion,” in which he writes: “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.”
That sentence prompted volcanic criticism. To back up this claim, Dawkins asked FFRF Co-President and former minister Dan Barker to compile a list of biblical citations for each unflattering descriptor. This resulted in Barker’s book “GOD: The Most Unpleasant Character in All Fiction.”
Now, FFRF is introducing the “Unpleasant Companion,” a site built to allow visitors to easily search through and share bible verses from Barker’s book that serve as evidence for the 19 adjectives Dawkin’s used to characterize God. The site categorizes the characteristics Dawkins used, along with eight additional sacrilegious attributes Barker gives to God in Part 2 of his book.
“God is every bit as depraved as Dawkins painted him, and more,” said Barker. “The new site includes biblical passages revealing that God is also pyromaniacal, angry, merciless, curse-hurling, vaccicidal, aborticidal, cannibalistic and a slavemonger.”
Recently, there has been an influx of blasphemy charges around the world, including one that Irish authorities brought against actor Stephen Fry over irreverent comments he made LINK TO STORY. In response to the investigation, Dawkins publicly denounced Ireland’s law that makes blasphemy a crime in a letter to the Irish Times quoting his famous slew of holy insults. There is an ongoing campaign by Atheist Ireland to repeal that law.
On Monday, June 12, Dawkins will be speaking in Dublin on the topic of blasphemy and will reference the verses to be found on FFRF’s new webpage.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is a nonprofit organization established to promote nontheism and the constitutional principle of separation of church and state.
Illustration by 18th-century French artist Gustave Doré