Continuing today's theme of religious hatred, Crooked Timber links to a list of the "nine most badass Bible verses." Forty lashes for misnaming a teddy bear might sound harsh, but it's a clip around the ear compared to this, from Numbers:
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Say to the assembly, 'Move away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram'.…
As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, with their households and all Korah's men and all their possessions. They went down alive into the grave, with everything they owned; the earth closed over them, and they perished and were gone from the community.
