Mass Murders Today are Child's Play Compared to the Bible

God of the Old Testament was a mean child killing mass murderer. He would be on the front page today among those who are killing with AK47's.

Many Christians have developed a clever technique for giving these stories of murder and mayhem a pass. It is to say all the bad stories of God are allegory. All the good stories are to be taken literally. 

Some who justify a mean God say, "You have to take the Old Testament God in a spiritual sense." Apparently this means we are to ignore parts of the Bible.

Augustine back in the 400's recognized the need for intervention. He is supposed to have written, "If a passage seems to endorse wickedness or wrongdoing or to forbid selflessness or kindness, it is figurative and not to be read literally."

The late comedian, George Carlin, entertained with atheist themes. One of his most popular was to list innocent people God murdered in the Bible and end with, "But God loves you."

While I have not read the Bible that carefully, those who have say the God character in the story telling changes as the story moves along. My theory is that when the first writers started the God thing they wanted those under them to be frightened. As time moved on, the needs changed. A more attractive version of God was needed because the competition was nicer. The practical solution was to market a different and nicer God.

For whatever reason, writers did not always portray Jesus a Mr. Nice Guy either. Jesus chewed out his mother and took a bull whip to men just doing banking-type business in the Temple. Nice guys all these gods.

While it is understandable God needed to shape up over the last couple thousand years, it's baffles me people still believe he "loves" them.

Comments

  1. MaxSeptember 4, 2019 at 7:25 PM

    I hear today's religious hucksters claim 'through them' God will make you rich. Just like that. Purely about the money. Of course it requires a 'donation' to start it off. What nice guys!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jon LindgrenSeptember 4, 2019 at 7:27 PM

    Yes, in the end, religion is a Bidness.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. little helperSeptember 4, 2019 at 8:22 PM

      More conflation and broad brush.
      All college professors are liberal Democrats and atheists

      Delete
    2. Jon LindgrenSeptember 5, 2019 at 7:31 AM

      "More conflation and broad brush." As I recall, you object to calling your branch of Lutheranism as a "business." You are welcome to define the institution anyway you like. From a market perspective, nonprofits are almost identical with private businesses/corporations. Both non profits and private/corporations sell a product or service. Both need customers (which include donors, grant sources) to pay their expenses. Without paying customers both nonprofits and private/corporations would not exist. Without paying customers and staff to promote the existence of a god the god itself might fade out of consciousness and not exist. Corporations/private have the goal of maximizing profit which may be different than at least some nonprofits. (With my nonstop skeptical mind I have come to think some nonprofits have the goal of maximizing CEO and VP salaries.)

      Delete
    3. Jon LindgrenSeptember 5, 2019 at 8:36 AM

      I'll be traveling today (Thursday) and may not be on line until Friday afternoon to post a blog or approve comments.

      Delete
  3. Ardy BSeptember 5, 2019 at 5:37 AM

    "Satan, as the FALLEN GOD of this FALLEN WORLD". To me the linked article reveals the importance of Satan in the Christian pantheon. It's character becomes the prescription for the OT God's image make over. In the literal reading of the OT, God seems to be the superposition of both Good AND Evil. We don't know which personality, the Good OR the Evil one will be expressed until an act of God occurs, is supposedly observed, and an "interpretive knee is bent". But the Good News is "a child-drowning, infant-burning, throat-slitting, plague-sending, people-smiting killer [God]" is a blasphemous description. It just can't be. Instead of a superposition of Good and Evil in one deity, we now have the opposition of two dieties, a Risen Good God and a Fallen Evil God. Furthermore the one Good God is now a superposition of three persons; a Father, a Son, and a Holy Ghost. Helpful article. Thanks Jon. Welcome Max.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. little helperSeptember 5, 2019 at 8:51 AM

      Ardy
      "Satin, as the FALLEN GOD of this FALLEN WORLD"???"

      "we now have the opposition of two deities, a risen good god, and a fallen Evil god". Here we have two good examples of disinformation/ false information.

      The uncreated God as opposed to the created angels. Do a serious study of angelology.
      There you will find the "fallen angels" (those who rebelled, including Satan) included in the created. Not gods, Your take on this similar to the Jehovah's Witnesses, and the Mormons.

      The triunity of the Godhead, (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) does not include created the angels who did not rebel, nor the angels who did rebel, (Satan and his followers.)
      Don't confuse the two natures of the Son (singular), (both God and man) with Satan.
      You are correct to say "three persons", (one essence) including the two natures of the Son, (human. begotten not made, and divine. See CHRISTIAN DOGMATICS JT Mueller page 147 forward. and THE TWO NATURES IN CHRIST Martin Chemnitz. There, you have the material. I won't spend any more time on this.

      There is a popular term; "The god of this world",(Satan), but it is not accurate in the definition of God. It is a slang term describing the following and practice of evil, not to be worshiped.

      Delete
    2. Jon LindgrenSeptember 5, 2019 at 9:16 AM

      "does not include created angels who did not rebel, not the angels who did rebel (Satan and his followers)" This detail about unseen beings, there mischief, etc., reminds me of the Greek god stories. The unseen gods had affairs and were involved in all kinds of intrigue. So it is with the Christian stories. Oh, I know, the Greek stories were made up and the Christian stories are actual history. To the skeptic they sound the same.

      Delete
    3. little helperSeptember 5, 2019 at 10:49 AM

      Jon @ 9;16; Well, if it is false, and didn't happen, Ardy's speculations are equally false and clearly fall under the definition of false information/ disinformation.

      Delete
    4. little helperSeptember 5, 2019 at 11:16 AM

      Ardy; To help you; see https/carm.org//Jesus-two- natures

      Key words; Hypostatic union--homousius - communnicato idiomatum, and fully divine and fully human.

      Whether you don't accept or believe, at least know what you disagree with.

      There. I "teached" you.

      Delete
    5. little helperSeptember 5, 2019 at 11:51 AM

      That goes for you too Jon. At least have the integrity to know what you don't believe.

      Delete
  4. little helperSeptember 6, 2019 at 2:17 PM

    On another related piece of mis-dis-information re. created angels, both the ones who rebelled and those who didn't; At the time of the memorial following Sandy Hook,; many clergy and other dignitaries in attendance had words of encouragement. One of the speakers was Oprah Winfrey. When her turn came to speak, she said; (paraphrasing) "I don't know what you think, but I believe when one dies they become angels." Nothing more than feel good new age thought,

    ReplyDelete

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