Genesis
While it is generally accepted that statements from past times should not be judged by the standards of the present, this must be put aside when the Bible is considered by many as a template for action and thought in the modern world.
God is referred to as 'He' with a capital 'H' in this work to differentiate between when God is supposed to be speaking through His 'medium', and when that person is supposedly speaking for themselves.
Genesis is set in the Middle East. The authorship of the first five books of the Old Testament is often attributed to Moses, but multiple authors and editors are likely (see Exodus for details).
1. The first verse of Genesis is generally paraphrased as: God created the world and everything in it in six days and on the seventh day He rested, but careful reading shows that this is not quite correct. Before the 'first day', God creates the heavens and the earth, but the earth was formless and empty. Then, on the 'first day' (as it's called in the text) He creates light, day, and night. On the second day He creates the sky and water. On the third day He creates the land, seas, and vegetation. On the fourth day He creates the sun, moon, and stars. On the fifth day He creates fish and birds. On the sixth day He creates animals, man and woman; and on the seventh day He finishes creation and then rests. God tells humans to reproduce, fill the earth, and subdue it. The 'Creation Week' of Christian mythology. Biblical archaeologists have traced the roots of this story to Egyptian Creation mythology, which parallels the Genesis account closely. There was a long and continuous association between ancient Egypt and Israel. The story was reformulated by Hebrew scholars, changing the Egyptian polytheism into the monotheism of the Jews. Note that there are really seven periods (or days) of creation, with God resting on the eighth. The first period isn't counted so that God could be seen to rest on the seventh day to agree with later law regarding the Sabbath. There is considerable 'reverse engineering' in the Bible such as this. Note the impossible order: light, day, and night, are created on the first day, while the sun - the source of our light - isn't created until the fourth day, and vegetation is created before the sun. (Ref: Gary Greenburg).
2. God puts Adam in a garden called Eden. In the middle of Eden are two trees: the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge. God instructs Adam not to eat from either, or he will die. God creates Eve as Adam's 'helper'. The fruits of the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge, are life and knowledge. How then are we to read this metaphor? In any other context eating from these trees would be wholly positive. If God doesn't want us to receive the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge, we have to assume that he wants us to remain ignorant. The absurd concept that women are inferior to men and should be subordinate to them is promulgated early in the Bible and never refuted.
3. A serpent tells Eve she will not die if she eats from the Trees, but rather, her eyes will be opened and she will know good and evil. Eve eats from the Tree of Knowledge and doesn't die. Eve gives some of the fruit to Adam. God curses everyone, takes away the Tree of Life, and banishes Adam and Eve from Eden. It is clear in the text that the serpent told the truth, and God lied. A perverse metaphor. God behaves like a spiteful child.
4. Adam and Eve have two sons, Cain and Abel. Both give offerings of food to God, but God doesn't like Cain's offering. Cain is angry (presumably jealous) and kills Abel. Cain finds a wife and has a son. Where Cain's wife comes from is a bit of a mystery.
5-6. God sees that all the people are wicked and regrets making them. He decides to wipe them all off the face of the earth. God finds a favourite by the name of Noah. God instructs him to make an ark and stock it. Noah does. If this were true, it would have meant the deaths of many millions, of men, women, children, and babies. Are the children and babies all wicked? In modern terminology this is genocide. Fortunately it's myth.
7-9. The flood comes and every air-breathing creature dies except those on the ark. When the land dries, Noah builds an altar and burns a few of his ark animals as an offering to God. God's nostrils are pleased. God vows to not destroy all living creatures again. If God drowns every man, woman, child, and baby, except for Noah and his family, how do we account for the different races on the Earth? The story is, of course, fiction. To top it off, the God who commits genocide is appeased by the scent of burnt flesh. The biblical flood story could have originated from the 'Epic of Gilgamesh' (a Sumerian story that predates the Bible) which tells of ancient gods flooding the Euphrates - and from there the world - to punish mankind. (Ref: Gary Greenburg).
10-11. Noah's descendants spread out over the land. God splits the common language into many so people will not be able to understand each other. That's an excellent strategy to increase the bloodshed.
12-17. Tribes travel. God promises tribes land for their descendants. Tribes go to war. God promises Abram the land of Canaan on condition that every male descendant is circumcised. God changes Abram's name to Abraham. The instruction to circumcise is unexplained and arbitrary.
18-19. Two male angels arrive in Sodom. Abraham's nephew, Lot, beckons them to enter his house. The men from the city ask Lot to bring them out so that they can have sex with them. Lot offers them his daughters to be raped instead. The angels make the men blind, tell Lot to remove his family, then rain down burning sulphur on the city. On leaving, Lot's wife looks back and is turned into a pillar of salt. There is no evidence for the existence of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. 'Sodom' comes from a root word meaning 'scorched', a name that could only have been given after the event. (Ref: Gary Greenburg) Suspiciously, the story has an identical plot line to a story in Judges 19-20. Despite the story being false, it has been used to fuel hatred of homosexuals for centuries, which has resulted in discrimination, deaths, and misery.
20-22. God tests Abraham by ordering him to kill his son Isaac as a sacrifice. Abraham obeys but is stopped at the last moment by an angel. God blesses Abraham for his obedience. The cruelty of the Genesis God is truly astounding, as is Abraham's moral weakness. Unquestioning obedience to an instruction to murder a child is not a virtue by any stretch of the imagination.
23-36. Abraham's descendant's births, deaths, marriages, dreams, dramas, and goat trading. Abraham's grandson, Jacob, wrestles (yes wrestles) with God, who renames him Israel.
37-47. Israel's youngest son, Joseph, appears to be his favourite. Joseph's jealous brothers sell him into slavery, and he is taken to Egypt, where his ability to interpret dreams finds favour. Joseph predicts seven years of abundance and seven years of famine. Joseph suggests setting aside a fifth of each harvest to see Egypt through the famine. Pharaoh makes Joseph governor to oversee this. During the famine, Joseph's brothers come to Egypt, bow down before Joseph, and ask to buy grain so they may live. Joseph eventually reveals himself, forgives them, and the family is reunited in Egypt where they survive the famine's remaining years. A wonderful story of jealousy, good coming from bad, and forgiveness. The story derives from an Egyptian legend written by Herodotus. (Ref: Gary Greenburg).
48-50. On his death-bed, Israel prophesizes the destinies of his twelve sons, and the twelve tribes of Israel.
It is hard to see any value in Genesis apart from the moral tale of Joseph. Apart from this, Genesis values obedience higher than knowledge and moral strength. Its mythology is derivative and forced. Its account of the 'creation' of the world is poetic but false. Its God supports genocide and oppresses independent thought. Genesis has fuelled hatred of women and homosexuals. The God of Genesis could learn a thing or two from the story of Joseph.
Forward to Exodus.