The following is a guest post by OpenDiary blogger Atheist Under Ur Bed. This is part of an ongoing series that will be posted each Monday. You can read the introduction to this series by clicking here.

Yep, you guess it. It’s Monday! Time yet again for Monday School – which even my cat now recognizes as “The Rational Corrective For All That Nonsense They Tried To Teach You Yesterday!”

Today’s Lesson: Are There Any Genuinely Good Characters In The New Testament?

Several recent Monday School classes have been spent searching without success for genuinely good people in the pages of the Old Testament. It is with great relief that I now leave the many reprehensible killers of the OT behind and hurry forward to the New Testament in a desperate attempt to find at least one truly moral person in the Bible.

Are any to be found?

Let’s start with the likeliest candidate: Jesus.

Perhaps no character in all of history has been more often presented as the epitome of morality than Jesus. Is there any evidence to support this designation? Not that I can see. Instead, I find these less than praiseworthy characteristics:

—– Jesus promotes hate “If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26).

—– Jesus promotes war and division “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword” (Matt. 10:34). “I am come to send fire on the earth” (Luke 12:49). “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division” (Luke 12:51). “He that hath no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one” (Luke 22:36).

—– Jesus purposely deceived people just so forgiveness could be denied them “Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables; That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them” (Mark 4:11-12). (See also Luke 8:10)

—– Jesus repeatedly lied about one of the few things we can check him on “Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, until all be fulfilled” (Luke 21:32). (See also Matt. 24:34; Mark 13:30) “Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power” (Mark 9:1). (See also Matt. 16:28, Luke 9:27) “Behold, I come quickly” (Rev. 3:11; 22:7; 22:12; 22:20).

—– Jesus urged others to act dishonestly for their own gain See the Parable of the Steward, Luke 16:1-9

—– Jesus repeatedly threatens people with hellfire in order to get them to submit to his will while rarely, if ever, using facts and logic to construct a case for his views the way a moral, rational person would “The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth” (Matt. 13:41-42). “Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire…” (Matt. 25:41). “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matt. 10:28). (See also Luke 12:5; Matt. 11:20-24)

—– Jesus often resorted to name-calling and personal attacks on people instead of supporting his claims with facts and logic “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (Matt. 23:33). Others are referred to as “dogs” and “swine” (Matt. 7:6; 15:26; Mark 7:27). Jews who rejected him were angrily dismissed as the spawn of Satan (John 8:44).

—– Jesus repeatedly chastised those who quite reasonably base their beliefs on evidence and proof “And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? Verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation” (Mark 8:12). (See also Matt. 13:39; 16:4; Luke 11:29. Given the number of miracles Jesus allegedly performed and the many signs he says will accompany his followers in Mark 16, these passages also constitute contradictions/lies). “Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29). This idea that believing something without evidence is better than believing something because of evidence is perhaps the most dangerous, immoral idea Jesus and the Bible ever spread.

There are numerous other sins one might charge Jesus with (e.g., disrespecting his mother, stealing crops, working on the Sabbath, being the “dreamer of dreams” condemned by Deuteronomy 13:1-5, and apparently wasting decades of his life doing nothing very notable when he allegedly had it in his power to do much) but the 8 charges listed above seem to me to be the most significant and compelling.

What might one say in his defense? That Jesus preached “Love thy neighbor” and “Turn the other cheek“? Given the passages quoted above which clearly indicate the limited nature of his love and pacifism, that preaching seems merely to add hypocrisy to his list of sins….

The failings of Jesus become even starker when we compare his words and ways with those of other moral teachers. Indeed, once you’ve studied the rationalism and compassion of someone like Buddha, the seething diatribes, fear-mongering, and double-talk of Jesus just might make you want to throw up.

But Jesus is just one character is the New Testament, of course. Maybe one of the others will prove to be genuinely good and moral? A Big Gold Star to whoever can find one prior to our next class!