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[–]SloppyJoeBeaver 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (14 children)

God kinda does some really shitty things in the Bible.

[–]fschmidt 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (13 children)

Like what? I follow the Old Testament and I love it because the god of the Old Testament slaughters more scum than any other god ever described.

[–]LtGreenCo 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (12 children)

Scum that he created, despite already knowing beforehand exactly what they'd do

[–]fschmidt 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (11 children)

What are you talking about? God never claims to be omniscient in the Old Testament. This is just moronic nonsense.

[–]LtGreenCo 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (9 children)

Then you may want to send a letter of complaint to this website

[–]fschmidt 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (8 children)

Nothing quoted from the Old Testament is God speaking. The Old Testament has many contributing authors, and some are overly anxious to kiss God's ass. But it is still a great book. I would send these authors letters if I had a time machine.

[–]LtGreenCo 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (7 children)

I don't know the first quote kinda sounds like God speaking.

"I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come."

God himself may not have written that passage but he certainly created the guy who did write it. Which means if that's not a direct quote from God then his holy book is at least partially full of lies, which doesn't seem like something God would tolerate with his holy book.

[–]fschmidt 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (6 children)

Well this part is actually true and doesn't imply omniscience. What God says in the Old Testament are basically universal laws ethics comparable to universal laws of science. This isn't knowing everything, it is just knowing what can be verified with inductive reasoning based on history.

[–]LtGreenCo 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Even without the omniscience argument, I'd still argue that God is a bit morally dubious for punishing humans for simply doing what he knowingly gave them the capability to do, and in the environment he created and the parameters he set up. It doesn't seem ethical or fair to, for example, create a species, give it raging hormones and high libidos, and then judge them harshly when that particular mechanic goes beyond the boundaries you set, (e.g. rape, adultery, homosexuality, etc.) regardless of the fact that not every individual of said species is aware of said boundaries, save for the fortunate ones who were made aware from the correct books and preachings, as a result of being born into or converting to the right religion.

[–]fschmidt 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

This criticism depends on God being sentient, and I personally don't view God as being sentient. God is personified in the Old Testament only as a means of explanation, but God actually represents the aggregate universal forces of nature. You can read more here.

[–]Vulptex 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

To me it's looking more and more like there's more than one god throughout the Old Testament. He gets confused with angels and demons all the time, and "Elohim" seems to be a catch-all name for any kind of deity, even ghosts.

Compare the way the god of Genesis 2-3 acts with the one in Genesis 4. The former is extremely vengeful and gives very harsh curses for the offense of eating fruit from the wrong tree, as if the knowledge itself wasn't already enough. And then he fears that if man lives forever he would become "like one of us", so apparently this is a polytheistic god, who shows little concern for his creation now that it hasn't worked out the way he wanted it to, meaning he also makes mistakes. But then the god of chapter 4 puts marks on murderers so no one will take revenge on them, even though he warned them not to murder or do wrong. Cain does accuse him of cursing him, but he himself never actually says he gave the curse (and scribes probably edited it to make Cain say so). Then in chapter 6 we're back to the first god who forever resents his creatures for disobeying him, and apparently doesn't have the all-encompassing power to make it go his way. And obviously almost all of the New Testament is the chapter 4 god, and it occasionally mentions a "god/archon of this world" as an enemy.

[–]Vulptex 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Sometimes he is and other times he's not. Because the ancient Israelites were pagans who wanted in on the new god being talked about in their community, but they couldn't get straight who he was so they misattributed many things to him from their pagan gods.