While researching various discrepancies and oddities in the story of Lot, and the cities of Sodom and Gammorah, I came across an article with the type of religious thinking that I have probably the most trouble respecting, personally.

The article is titled “Did Lot Sin in Sodom?” and looks into the items related by the Bible, where Lot offers his virgin daughters to the rape-crazed crowd at his door, and where he later has sex with them. It definitely is an interesting question, since the Bible still calls him “righteous despite those two events. My problem with this person’s article on the subject is that they have identified an interesting quandary in the Bible, but rather than try to explore it with their god-given powers of intellect, they basically prefer to shut their eyes and ears, saying:

I prefer to stand on the Holy Scriptures instead of my own opinion.

… I don’t know any more than the Scriptures relate and on the surface it does appear that he sinned when he offered his daughters to the homosexuals of Sodom. But if he sinned, the Scriptures would not be consistant.

Therefore, I choose to believe he was righteous, as the Scriptures say, whether I understand it or not.

… Again, I don’t know what all happened in Sodom. I just know that whatever happened, the Bible is true and does not disagree with itself. Lot did not sin in Sodom.

To me, this whole idea of creating faith by trying to blissfully ignore doubt is just stupid. God fucking forbid that you think and feel on your own two feet for once! If the Bible and the Christian story is some kind of deeper “Truth”, then it can stand up to even the most rigorous scrutiny. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be self-consistent at all times. Nor does “Truth” need to clothe itself in literal facts. I’m of the mind that the Bible and all religions are an invitation to struggle, and to question, and to engage your full intellectual and emotional facultires in so doing. Maybe that sort of attitude is best expressed in my favorite quote from comic book author Alan Moore:

Faith is for sissies who daren’t go and look for themselves.