Heather, I worried a bit about my use of “prim” in my previous comment. It’s not a word I had associated with you before, but only occurred to me as a contrast to the blatant anti-conventionality of this post. It was all meant in an admiring way.

“Anyway, this isn’t really a serious analysis. The whole God thing is a myth, and all this is, is a poke at those who take the Bible seriously and use it as an excuse for their homophobic bigotry.”

Exactly…I interpreted this piece as a sarcastic reaction to Kim Davis. And it is spot on from that pov.

Cheers. As I alluded to in my answer to Paxton, that’s pretty much what this post is about – “spluttering bluster” is a great description of what I’d expect. 🙂

Not sure if this is a compliment or not! I’ve been called a lot of things in my time, several uncomplimentary, but never “prim.”

I don’t see my atheism as very “rebellious” either. It’s another word that’s probably never been applied to me. I just do what I think is right , so deciding on atheism was probably more “prim” than “rebellious.” Maybe you’re right after all! 🙂

I’m a very calm person, generally tolerant and laid-back. So in writing, I guess that could come across as conventional.

Anyway, this isn’t really a serious analysis. The whole God thing is a myth, and all this is, is a poke at those who take the Bible seriously and use it as an excuse for their homophobic bigotry. As has been proven many times, you can use the Bible to justify whatever attitudes you choose for your religion. Both the slavers and anti-slavers invoked God and the Bible. Same with the white supremacists and their opponents.

There’s nothing to beat yourself up about. It’s a good piece — and Asherah is (basically) nonexistent in the Bible as it survives today, so, as far as the Abrahamic religions are concerned, she’s not part of their pantheon and never has been. Leaving them stuck with Jealous jilted Jehovah.

I doubt there’s any response any apologist can make aside from spluttering bluster about how sacrilegious this blasphemy is.

b&

Thanks Diane. I got the idea before I even had a website, but I was too scared to post it, so no more than the title and a few lines ever got written. It’s taken a year of posts for me to get up the courage!

However, it turns out that I’d forgotten how the story was supposed to go (because that’s what it originally was – a short story) and Asherah (God’s wife) got forgotten, as Ben points out. I also forgot Lilith, but I don’t think I thought about her when this first came to mind anyway.

I guffawed when I got to this: “Yahweh failed to intervene (setting a precedent)…”

Yeah – someone else reminded me on Twitter. And the annoying thing is, when I first started writing this, I was going to weave Asherah (and Lillith) into the story, and it was going to go differently (obviously). I’ve got a couple of good pics of Asherah and everything!. But I completely forgot about her, and this is what I ended up with. I’ll blame old age, although I’m not sure I can really get away with that at 51!

“… horn of the dilemma for the Abrahamists to impale themselves upon …” would have made a good phallic symbol to include too! 🙂

It’s a very reasonable interpretation of the Bible as it stands today, especially considering who’ve stood as its guardians over the millennia and who shaped it to be what it is.

But it’s also worth noting that YHWH actually had a wife.

…which, of course, merely presents the other horn of the dilemma for the Abrahamists to impale themselves upon….

b&