Psychological Perspectives on Reports of God Ordained Violence

                     7 Perspectives on Human Nature, God, and Violence

 

 Previously I asked the question 

“Why did God order the killing of so many people?”

See the previous post for context.

In this post I look at human nature and consider how understanding people might apply to understanding old texts like those in the Bible. As I said before, I am not a biblical scholar so I shall leave the evaluation of my ideas up to those who are experts in both biblical studies and behavioural science.

I can offer the perspective of someone who has studied human nature in the present as well as in historical narratives. Instead of assuming that the biblical writers were telling their audience what God literally said and did, is it possible the biblical texts are a true record of how the ancient Israelites interpreted events in their lives? For Christians, the perspective of Jesus that God is like a loving father offers a different take on the nature of God. His way of belief and practice clearly went against the current views of the religious leaders holding power positions.

So, I leave you with a few thoughts that I am willing to modify based on evidence and reason.

7 Perspectives on 

Human Nature, God, and Violence

1. Nature. Many people view natural events (floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, etc.) as caused by God and many insist that God has used the events as punishment for sinful acts. In some cases, Christians refer to the role of supernatural evil and the devil in causing contemporary problems. Religious scholars often disagree with these statements about God and the causes of natural events. 

An accurate biblical story about what people believed was true thousands of years ago is not the same as reporting a true cause of events then or now.

2. Propaganda. People use God or gods to embolden warriors going to war. Aside from a few psychopaths, most humans are reluctant to kill other people. Governments use whatever works to justify and promote killing real or perceived enemies and turn wars into acts of justice or even a moral necessity. Sometimes governments force people to fight because they cannot get enough volunteers. 

A true biblical report about ancient biblical propaganda is not the same as reporting that ideas and beliefs in the propaganda were literally true.

3. Exaggeration. National leaders have a propensity to retell victories in ways that exaggerate the heroic role of their commanders in past conflicts and wars. To boast is human. To criticise one's national story is to be regarded as a traitor and unpatriotic. Kind tales about enemies are unacceptable. It's hard to kill people you love so, "love your enemies" is a strange commandment in times of conflict. 

A true report of what biblical leaders said does not mean that the story was not exaggerated for a purpose.

4. Memories. All stories depend on the accuracy of human memory, which is not at all like a video recording of an event. Study after study has documented the problems with false memories including errors in details of events and the fabrication of events that never happened based on hearing stories of fictional events. When it comes to memory, humility is warranted. 

A true report of what people said or did does not mean an event happened the way it was remembered.

5. Cultural context. Humans interpret events in terms of their cultural context. We currently have diverse media interpreting current events in different ways. Few of us have the knowledge required to understand the culture of ancient Israelites and their nearby tribes to appreciate their understanding of God or nature, and their views of the people in those other tribes. While the Bible writers can provide a true view of the Israelites' perspectives on God, themselves, and the other tribes, we may not know a lot about what was actually happening in the other tribes. To some extent, archaeology can help confirm or fail to confirm matters like child sacrifice, extermination, the nature of warfare, and so forth.

 A true record of someone's belief thousands of years ago does not mean their belief was accurate or is relevant. 

6. Writing. Humans often use language in nonliteral ways to communicate truths and ideas. Writers use parables and tell stories. Writers create dialogues. Writers dramatize real events. Writers may rely on the memories of eyewitnesses. Some examples of figures of speech in the poems and proverbs of ancient Israel are obvious. Other examples of creative writing may be less obvious to those of us unfamiliar with the ancient Hebrew, Greek, or other languages of the Bible and ancient cultures. 

Creative writing conveys a truth, or truths, about life but the content of the story is not necessarily literally true.

7. Deterrence. Humans employ disinformation and exaggerate defences and weaponry to deter would-be enemies from invading their territory. Creating beliefs that you have a powerful God and army could serve a purpose even as fake weaponry and disinformation served combatants in WWII. There is no reason to believe ancient Israelites would not have created stories as a matter of national or tribal defence too.

A true retelling of disinformation narratives does not mean the contents of the disinformation were literally true.

This post refers to the previous post: Why did God order the killing of so many people?

See the previous post for context and to discover answers provided by religious scholars and other leaders.

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Notes

1 Nature

It is not hard to find examples of clergy blaming the behavior of people for the destruction in a natural disaster. See for example Hudson (2010, January 14), Gilgoff (2011), Jelten (2017, September 4).

2 Propaganda

Enns (2014) suggests the stories about the Canaanites might be propaganda (Locations 514, 734). The US National Archives contain examples of persuasion encouraging people to support the WWII war effort. Artists were recruited to develop propaganda posters (history.com, 2018). The British also used propaganda posters in a variety of ways (Harris & Webb, 2017).

3 Exaggeration

Keener (2014, Aug 5) refers to the record of Joshua’s conquest of Canaan as a genre called “triumph boasts.” Copan (2010) refers to the Joshua texts as “typical ancient Near East rhetorical language that exaggerates what actually took place.”

4 Memories

Several religious scholars have noted the limitations of human memory regarding the events recorded in the Bible (Enns, 2014, Chapter 3). Keener (2019) recognizes the problems of memory in the gospels and cites the work of psychological scientist, Elizabeth Loftus and her colleagues (e.g., 1998). Loftus and Ketcham (1994) summarized several studies documenting how easy it is for people to accept a false story as a true memory as well as the various ways human memories are distorted by stories and questions after an event.

5 Cultural context

Friedman & Dolansky (2011) identify important characteristics of scholars qualified to understand the Hebrew Bible (Christian Old Testament). Scholars are on a quest for truth and even when declaring an opinion as wrong they do not necessarily support a particular alternative. Their approach to difficult texts is as follows: “We shall apply historical-critical methods, philological and literary analyses, text criticism, source criticism, redaction criticism, anthropological perspectives, archaeology, and ancient languages: Hebrew, Greek, Akkadian, Ugaritic, Aramaic—the variety of tools of our trade—to address these questions.”

6 Writing

Several religious scholars have commented on the importance of considering different genres (e.g., poetry, proverbs) and purposes (e.g., to convey a moral truth, encouragement) when interpreting the Bible. Others have pointed to literary techniques such as similes, metaphors, and hyperboles. Taking the Bible literally does not make sense for modern readers and some say, it did not make sense to ancient hearers.

Friedman & Dolansky (2011) discuss biblical nuances on various topics. They comment on hyperboles on pages 47 and 166 and metaphors in several places e.g., 23, 48.

Enns (2014 writes about the purpose of the stories in Genesis.

Evans (2014) recognizes the difficulties with metaphors and the recognition of hyperbole as well as inconsistencies in how to interpret texts in her spiritual journey.

7 Deterrence

Deterrence theory developed at the beginning of the Cold War in the 1940s. It is based on the idea that governments would act rationally in light of the power of nuclear weapons (see for example Sagan, 1991).

A classic example of deception in warfare is the use of parachuting dummies and the presence of fake inflatable tanks for Germans to “see” before the invasion of Normandy (iwm.org).

 

References

Enns, P. (2014). The Bible tells me so...why defending scripture has made us unable to read it. New York: Harper-Collins.

Evans, R. H. (2014). Evolving in monkey town: how a girl who knew all the answers learned to ask the questions. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

Friedman, R. E. & Dolansky, S. (2011). The Bible Now. New York: Oxford.

Keener, C. S. (2019). Christobiography: Memory history and the reliability of the gospels. Grand Rapids, MI: Erdmans.

Loftus, E. F. & Ketcham, K. (1994). The myth of repressed memory: False memories and allegations of sexual abuse. New York: St Martins.

Loftus, E. F., Nucci, M., & Hoffman, H. (1998). Manufacturing memory. American Journal of Forensic Psychology, 16, 63–75.