Originally posted by divegeester
The observation of the absence or presence of pain and suffering in the world is not an inteligent basis for considering wether or not there is a god. It is completely irrelevant and I'm surprised that it even considered as an argument by people past the age of concent! It's like saying you don't believe in evolution because of the ecruciating pain a ...[text shortened]... f morality and the carnage that brings. It's not pleasant but there is a solution.
i have read genesis. on a side note, charlton heston played moses right? there is no moses in genesis as far as i can tell, is there?
the only worthwhile things from genesis are the hidden meanings some of the more smart authors or hey, maybe even god tried to convey.
1. god made the world in 7 days. impressive. the message is: "god is mighty and all powerful remember that when you discover it took him 15 billion years to obtain the monkeys from which we all come from and don't think he is any less awesome." the stone age savage could only count to as many sheep he had. if he had a lot he would simply say "god is merciful, he gave me a lot of sheep" how do you think 15 billion would have sounded? how do you think big bang and all the physics coming with it would have sounded to abraham?
2. adam ate from the tree of knowledge. the message is this: "mankind's definitory trait is a thirst for knowledge. even if he is not yet ready for said knowledge. God knows what is best for you, you might want to listen or suffer the consequences".
3. noah's flood. this one is hard. what moral can we take from "do what i want or i will freakin spank you". it is maybe the first as far as i know where we see the vengeful petty god from the old testament. later on he will send prophets, signs, dreams, even his only son to talk some sense into the stupid monkeys. but no, now he decides he will make most living things on earth bite the bullet. because probably his son wasn't born yet or his show was canceled, in short he was cranky.
setting aside the train of thoughts that led the merciful god to kill most of the animals on earth(humans included), it is interesting to look at the HOW. "I am cranky and i will kill everyone of you, but because i am also awesome and like big shows, i am not simply going to magic away all the evil bastards out there and leave the animals alone (who weren't responsible anyway), i will make a huge freakin show with lots of rain, an arc with a menagerie, a family that was the ONLY decent family on earth, and generally bend quite a lot of the rules of nature so noah will bear witness that i am so awesome. and after i put this show for one family, i will probably have to take care that each animal including noah and his family can form a successful population out of only 1 pair(some animals had 7). And of course, incest is ok when i say it is."
Quite the overkill wouldn't you think?
4. Abraham and his sacrifice. God is merciful, god is great. "Hey abe, get your son, we will barbecue him, muhahaha".
God is supposed to be all knowing, why didn't he knew what abe will choose?
God is all powerfull, he could kill isaac if he wanted to and abe knew that. So if he knew that if god wanted to kill isaac, he would have done it anyway, there wasn't much of a choice for him, was there. So basically he suspected that if he played along, there might be a chance God would change his mind. What was the point of this? To cause abe emotional distress? To remind him how puny he is and he could be killed along with his family any second of his miserable life?
Genesis is the first book in which we get to know the vengeful god of the old testament. filled with murders, useless lessons, and hidden useful lessons (very hidden). How much more of an open mind do you expect me to have?