In his 2012 book Why I Became an Atheist, the former theology student John Loftus lists among his many criticisms of the Hebrew Bible its belief in the existence of such fanciful creatures as satyrs and unicorns. Dave Armstrong points out the shallowness of this argument:

Unfortunately, the word “unicorn” appears in the King James Version (note that translations are not the Bible itself, and not infallible) nine times. But even the secular editors of the Encyclopedia Britannica wrote that “certain poetical passages of the biblical Old Testament refer to a strong and splendid horned animal called r’em. This word was translated ‘unicorn’ or ‘rhinoceros’ in many versions of the Bible, but many modern translations prefer ‘wild ox’ (aurochs), which is the correct meaning.”

The Hebrew word sa’ir appears about 52 times in the Old Testament, . . . and is used, for example, to speak of the male goat used as a sin offering on the Day of Atonement. For some reason the 1611 King James Version rendered sa’ir as “satyr” twice (Isaiah 13:21; 34:14). The surrounding contexts, however, prove that it is again referring to wild goats. Isaiah 13:21-22 makes reference to wild beasts, howling creatures, hyenas, and jackals (all real animals, last time I checked). Goats fit right in with this “zoo.”

Meanwhile, the Roman natural philosopher Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE) literally believed in legendary creatures such as the manticore, basilisk, catoblepas, phoenix, and werewolf. Herodotus, Ovid, and Virgil wrote seriously about werewolves. [But] the ancient Hebrews (unlike the “sophisticated” pagan Greeks and Romans) did not believe in mythical animals.

Two extraordinary events demonstrate something important about Israel’s most fervent adversaries. One was a speech given at something called The People’s Forum (funded generously by Goldman Sachs), which stated, “When the state of Israel is finally destroyed and erased from history, that will be the single most important blow we can give to destroying capitalism and imperialism.”

The suggestion that this tiny state is the linchpin of a global, centuries-old phenomenon like capitalism goes well beyond anything resembling rational criticism. Even if Israel were guilty of genocide, apartheid, and oppression—which of course it is not—it would not follow that its destruction would help end capitalism or imperialism.

The other was an anti-Israel protest that took place in front of New York City’s Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, deemed “complicit” in Israel’s evils. At organizers’ urging, participants shouted their slogans at kids in the cancer ward, who were watching from the windows. Given Hamas’s indifference toward the lives of Gazan children, such callousness toward non-Palestinian children from Hamas’s Western allies shouldn’t be surprising. The protest—like the abovementioned speech—deliberately conveyed the message that Israel is the ultimate evil and its destruction the ultimate good, cancer patients be damned.

The fact that Israel’s adversaries are almost comically perverse does not mean that they can be dismissed. If its allies fail to understand the obsessive and irrational hatred that it faces, they cannot effectively help it defend itself.