The God of the Old Testament

[Mahatma Gandhi]

Imagine a guy walking up to you and telling you with glee how many children he has molested and killed so far. How would you react? With a lot of anger, so much so that you might even want to kill the guy! But suppose you are a pedophile yourself, you wouldn't be so angry, would you?

In other words, you're angry because--and only because--you hate pedophilia. If you loved it, you wouldn't get angry. Your anger hints at righteousness on your part, some sense of what is right and what is wrong.

And since God is the most righteous, his anger is evidently going to be all the more severe. This is the context in which God's wrath should be understood: his wrath and righteousness are two sides of the coin. In view of this, it is wrong to compare the wrath of God with that of dictators, as is commonly done by liberals and leftists. The wrath of God is righteousness itself.

Mahatma

[x371322]

Except that God didn't just kill 'child molesters'. He killed all kinds, including innocent children. So in the analogy here, God would be the child molester.

[Blackscare]

OI, as far as I can tell, is not a place to preach. This is the third blatantly preaching thread of his.

At least in this one he hasn't shown his stunning lack of understanding of any religion besides christianity, which by the way he doesn't seem to understand in any sort of objective way either.

I suggest that he be banned, seeing that he's degenerated to blatant preaching and ceased any sort of even vaguely political contribution to this site. This does not belong here.

[Demogorgon]

The God of the old testament was written about in brutal times where brutal events were the norm, hence people based their mythology around it. Look at other religions at the time, people back then liked right brutal bastards as their Gods! That's what they understood. It is modern culture where cruelty is often more subtle and based on exploitation more than the fear that a group of brigands will kill your family or your children will starve because of a bad harvest that wants a much more compassionate God. If you look at people today who do still live in these often conditions, their religion often does have a harsher edge to it.

That isn't to say that a loving God was alien to the ancient Jewish people or indeed to very poor people today, indeed the God of the old testament was understood as a loving God, it is just that he existed in a certain environment where love and brutality could go easily together. Parents back then loved their children every bit as much as parents today do, but they subjected their children to things we definitely wouldn't accept now, to put it flippantly, the same goes for Gods.

It is funny to see both religious fundamentalists and anti-theists (and I could say some rude things about the similarities) trying to read this stuff out of context. Trying to read the old testament through a modern prism without trying to understand the times in which it was written is laughable. You might as well try to apply Odin and Thor to the twenty first century (and a few idiots do!)

[Raúl Duke]

And since God is the most righteous, his anger is evidently going to be all the more severe. This is the context in which God's wrath should be understood: his wrath and righteousness are two sides of the coin. In view of this, it is wrong to compare the wrath of God with that of dictators, as is commonly done by liberals and leftists. The wrath of God is righteousness itself.

1)that's if god exists, which no one has proven or provided any convincing evidence, much less yourself.

2) why hold 2 different standards? god acts like a sociopath in the old testament, destroying whole cities and killing relatively innocent people. If that is "righteousness" I prefer not be be "righteous."

3) You still have not made any logical case why we should consider god's sociopathic wrath to be righteous and good. Although, if you ever do, you would also have to deal 2 things:
1)Eutyphro dilemma:
"Is what is morally good (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_and_evil) commanded by God because it is morally good, or is it morally good because it is commanded by God?"
2) God's existence
If you say that ethics is dependent on god, than you need to prove that god, particularly the judeo-christian one, exists.

[Dimentio]

Except that God didn't just kill 'child molesters'. He killed all kinds, including innocent children. So in the analogy here, God would be the child molester.

Lex Luthor has also killed lots and lots of people...

[Adi Shankara]

"Mahatma", judging by your posts recently (including this one) and your new avatar (despite claiming to be a devout christian) I honestly think you're just a troll.

[Raúl Duke]

...and trolls and preachers get banned eventually.

[Invincible Summer]

Thread Closed.


This is a verbal warning to Mahatma Gandhi - no preaching.