Must we believe that God sanctioned and commanded all the cruelties
and horrors described in the Old Testament; that he waged the most
relentless and heartless wars; that he declared mercy a crime; that to
spare life was to excite his wrath; that he smiled when maidens were
violated, laughed when mothers were ripped open with a sword, and
shouted with joy when babes were butchered in their mothers' arms? Read
the infamous book of Joshua, and then worship the God who inspired it if
you can.
Fiftieth. Can any sane man believe that the sun stood still in the midst
of heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole day, and that the moon
stayed?1 That these miracles were performed in the interest of massacre
and bloodshed; that the Jews destroyed men, women, and children by the
million, and practiced every cruelty that the ingenuity of their God
could suggest? Is it possible that these things really happened? Is it
possible that God commanded them to be done? Again I ask you to read
the book of Joshua. After reading all its horrors you will feel a grim
satisfaction in the dying words of Joshua to the children of Israel:
"Know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more drive out any
of these nations from before you; but they shall be snares and traps
unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns in your eyes, until ye
perish from off this good land."2
Think of a God who boasted that he gave the Jews a land for which they
did not labor, cities which they did not build, and allowed them to eat
of oliveyards and vineyards which they did not plant.3 Think of a God
who murders some of his children for the benefit of the rest, and then
kills the rest because they are not thankful enough. Think of a God who
had the power to stop the sun and moon, but could not defeat an army
that had iron chariots.4