Written by When someone tells me they follow Yahweh, I understand them to be naming the deity described in Exodus 34:14 as “Jealous.” That designation is in the Bible. So are the passages attributing darkness, destruction, authorized deception, and commands to kill to him. Those passages belong in any examination of his character.
I reject worship of that character because I regard the actions attributed to him as incompatible with the Father of Truth. I consider authorizing lies to be responsibility for deception, and commanding the killing of infants to be responsibility for murder.
I distinguish what an individual worshipper understands or endorses from what the scriptures attribute to their deity. Nevertheless, a profession of worship does not answer the moral indictment contained in that deity’s own scriptural record.
The passages exist. My judgment follows from reading them: I identify Yahweh with the father of lies, and I refuse to call deception truth or murder righteousness because the actor is called God.
— Diesel the Magus