Christians assert that the Bible is the Word of God. Yet many of them try their best to distance themselves from the First, or “Old’ Testament. They seem to believe that the Old Testament was overruled by the Second or “New” Testament, even though they still claim that Jesus came to fulfill the Old Testament teachings. Blatant contradictions are not unusual for theists. However, this one is especially problematic and irrational.

The main reason that so many Christians try to avoid the Old Testament is because many of its ideas are especially barbaric. Aaron, Joshua, Samuel, Gideon and other biblical “heroes” reportedly carry out campaigns of extermination against their enemies. Women are not just expected to obey men, as in the New Testament, but they are clearly considered to be the property of men. In the Old Testament, the owning of slaves is not softened a little by the Sermon on the Mount. The Old Testament God is angry, jealous, petty, vengeful, and so on.

However, Christians can only run so far from the Old Testament. Not only is it a part of the so-called Good Book, but much of the New Testament would not make much “sense” without it.

In the Old Testament, we have the story of Adam and Eve, and Original Sin. Not only does this myth tell us how evil came to be, but it is what makes our salvation through Christ absolutely necessary. Jesus was not just a religious leader, he was the supposed Son of God who mysteriously washed away our alleged sins.

The Old Testament also tells us about the creation of the universe. The Bible starts out with a (since) falsified hypothesis: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” While the supposed creation of heaven probably cannot be falsified, it is clear that the earth was not “created” in the beginning. The universe is about 13.8 billion years old, but the earth is only about 4.543 billion years old. Moreover, we now know that stars (including the sun) come first, and then planets. And though the Bible says that God created “the lesser light to rule the night” (i.e., the moon, Genesis 1:16), the moon is not a light. It merely reflects the sun’s light. These kinds of obvious errors also make many Christians avoid the Old Testament like COVID-19.

Noah’s Ark is a pretty important myth to Christians. However, that myth is in the Old Testament. Christians that value science and common sense might be embarrassed by this outlandish tale. It is obvious that it is physically impossible for so many animals to fit on a boat that, if it existed, was smaller than the Queen Mary. Furthermore, there is no scientific evidence that a worldwide flood ever occurred.

The story of Moses and the exodus is of great importance to Christians. That is where we get the Ten Commandments that conservative Christians are always trying to post in government buildings. It is also where we learn about the Passover.

Christians also highly value the stories of Job, David, Solomon, Jonah and other Old Testament figures. If the Old Testament is irrelevant, then so must be the stories of these figures.

One of the most important aspects of the Old Testament is prophecy. Old Testament prophecies supposedly predicted the coming of Christ, divine intervention on behalf of God’s Chosen people, and so forth.

The New Testament is obviously dependent upon the Old Testament. To claim that the God of the New Testament is somehow different than the God of the Old Testament is to contradict the claim that God is immutable. We just as well separate the books. Indeed, many people only have copies of the New Testament.

Religious apologists like William Lane Craig and John Lennox claim that Christians have an objective foundation (rooted in God’s nature) for morality. Yet the biblical God condones genocide, slavery, patriarchy, homophobia, xenophobia, and so on. That is to say, he condones the worst crimes against humanity that we know of. The New Testament God even condones anti-Semitism (I Thessalonians, 2: 14-16!) This all raises the question, if God is truly the objective foundation for morality, should we not get rid of this foundation? Would all of this not make God’s objective foundation a moral liability? And is it even necessary or possible to even have an objective foundation for morality?

Christians can run from the Old Testament, but they cannot hide. Moreover, cherry-picking biblical passages will only get them so far. The Bible is one book consisting of two parts supposedly inspired by the same immutable, omniscient God. We must examine it as such. The God-sanctioned genocide is every bit as important as the Sermon on the Mount.