patrick.net

Dan8267 says

Then your god is evil. A moral god would not require unquestioning faith in him, especially when that faith is first and foremost determined by what culture you are born into.

God is beyond good and evil. But faith is all about YOU.

Today, Dec 6th used to be the st. Nicholas day.

Here is a Polish cartoon I think it's funny.

She says something like: "Which (st.) Nicholas do you (try to) depict, an idiot (you)!"

Peter P says

God is beyond good and evil.

No sentient being would be beyond good and evil. Any sentient being claiming such a thing is likely evil. If your god raped babies and clubbed old ladies, then your god would be evil.

... Or told people to kill all the women and children, except the virgins.
... or asked that a dude go through all the motions of sacrificing his son, just to stop him a the last minute.

I never got the last one. If God is omniscient, then he knows Abraham's loyalty without testing it. Job too.

thunderlips11 says

... Or told people to kill all the women and children, except the virgins.
... or asked that a dude go through all the motions of sacrificing his son, just to stop him a the last minute.

... or advocated slavery. That Christian god is such an asshole. He's not only for the Roots kind of slavery, he's also for sexual slavery of minors. Yep, the Christian god, according to the Bible, is in favor of pedo-rape.

Exodus 21:7-10
21:7 And if a man sell his daughter to be a maidservant, she shall not go out as the menservants do.
21:8 If she please not her master, who hath betrothed her to himself, then shall he let her be redeemed: to sell her unto a strange nation he shall have no power, seeing he hath dealt deceitfully with her.
21:9 And if he have betrothed her unto his son, he shall deal with her after the manner of daughters.
21:10 If he take him another wife; her food, her raiment, and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish.

Yep, your post also reveals the non-universal nature of the OT; "Strange Nation". I also loved the women and child killing on God's orders.

http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/num/31.html

What is interesting is that the Hebrew fighters spared most of the conquered people, but God and Moses were Wroth, having given clear instructions to kill everyone but the young virgins.

Some mercy!

Slavery is not condemned in the NT, either, as the Confederates pointed out to various Yankee "Mainstream" Religious groups who tried to couch their anti-slavery in the Bible and Exodus.

One of Jesus' parables is about obedient slaves working in their Master's interest when he is away. Paul also lectures slaves on obedience.

BTW, now that I read the Bible with adult eyes and the benefit of reading non-"History Channel BS" archeology of ancient Israel, I notice all the careful points about tithing and sharing the booty with the Priests therein.

thunderlips11 says

BTW, now that I read the Bible with adult eyes and the benefit of reading non-"History Channel BS" archeology of ancient Israel, I notice all the careful points about tithing and sharing the booty with the Priests therein.

Yes, human nature remains constant; religion was largely about money and faith healing all along. Read the story of Bethesda, for example. Human frailty is universal, and faith healers have always exploited it. People want to believe their condition will improve, and they will pay to hear what they want. PhRMA is only occasionally better: the goal is to make $, any benefit to patients is merely incidental. Reading both the OT and the NT is a bit like reading the history of the 20th century as told by Jim Jones, Pat Robertson, and Raymond Gilmartin.

I hear that Christanity is heavily influenced by Buddhism, which in turn is heavily influenced by Hinduism. Buddhist monks traveled up to Italy to spread the word. Also there are articles showing christ visiting India and hanging out with indian monks . Its only 800 miles (couple of months walk or boat time) where he was

Why do people confuse God with some man-made religions?

Peter P says

Why do people confuse God with some man-made religions?

That's a good question. The answer is because organized religions, almost by definition, purport to tell you what "God wants." The obvious contradiction is, if an omnipotent god wanted you to know something, you would know it; an omnipotent god wouldn't need preachers to "spread the word." As a former priest explained to me, and this took me years to understand fully, "Organized religion is fundamentally about the denial of God." As soon as man puts one stone atop another to build a church, man puts himself above God, deciding what God wants, and building something that obviously no omnipotent god had wanted to build. No omnipotent god can ever need your help, but organized religion depends on preventing donors from realizing that tautological fact.