1. I think that the god of the Old Testament (or Hebrew Bible for Jewish people) shows both psychopathic & deeply narcissistic traits. He's someone I could neither respect nor even consider worshipping or obeying. Fearsome: yes. He is that BUT not because of divine this or that BUT because he's a violent, explosive murderous vengeful jealous crack-pot!
2. The god of the new testament is an absentee landlord. Jesus, his alleged 'only begotten son' must 'consent' to be tortured, humiliated & murdered before so-called god can 'forgive' a bunch of other people HE created in an vulnerable state THEN permitted them to be decieved by a talking reptile & then punished them for it?
Hello Soup
I believe in God. It is not a choice I have made but a part of my consciousness that accepts this concept. When I was in college I tried to become an atheist. I read Hume, Nietzsche, Sartre, Camus to name a few. Sartre was all the rage in the 1960's and i carried a copy of Being and Nothingness (L'?tre et le n?ant) for the entire year until i gained a thorough and complete understanding of his thought. Well i failed to extinguish God from my mind and accepted that I am a believer. So, what version to choose? Christianity, Judaism, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist etc.
I thought it weird when people raised in North America would tell me they were Buddhist. Why travel across the world to find a religion in another culture? I am raised in the Western Culture with all its flaws and decided on Christianity. Joseph Campbell, before he died, was asked if he had any regrets; his answer was that he was sorry he did not choose a single mythology and immerse himself in it. I agree with him.
Are there contradictions and weird stuff in the Bible? You bet. But it must be taken in context and understood using reason. I am Episcopalian, the American version of Anglican. After exploring dozens of variations of Christianity I choose Anglicanism because they base their understanding of their faith on three pillars: Scripture, Tradition and Reason. When we read the Bible we understand it in the context it was written. Genesis has its precursor in ancient Sumeria. It was an early attempt by a primitive patriarchal society to understand the formation of the universe.
The book of Job is a masterpiece that begins with Satan and God making a wager. Job's friends tell Job he must have done something evil to deserve the punishment God has given him. Job rejects their council and instead dares to angrily confront God with his rage at the injustice God has rained upon him, a just man. God's answer is not to strike him down for blasphemy but to ask Job Who are you to question me? Did you create this world? Did you put the whales in the sea? And God restores all that Job had lost.
In the Old Testament God makes a covenant with Abraham that his descendants shall become his people. Then God demands that Abraham sacrifice his son Isaac. These verses can be taken at a literal face value or they can be seen, in my thinking more accurately, as the Jewish people's rejection of human sacrifice that was common among their neighboring tribes.
The Jewish people accepted Yahweh as their God and created a society with a system of laws that was much more just and fair then any that preceded them. Christianity is merely an extension of the Jewish legal tradition. Farmers were prohibited from gathering all of their grain. They were required to leave part of their harvest for the poor.
Leviticus 19:
9. And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest.
10. And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the Lord your God.
Slaves, as well as all free people were to be allowed to rest on the Sabbath and every seventh year was a jubilee year when all debts were forgiven. These were highly progressive ideas for the times and the forgiving of debts is more progressive then our current punitive laws.
There is the Book of Ecclesiastes which I read as a 2500 year old statement of existentialist philosophy. I could go on with many more examples but will close with the extraordinary and brilliant literary masterwork and enchanting offer of comfort in the 23rd Psalm:
The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul:
He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name' sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil: For thou art with me;
Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies;
Thou annointest my head with oil; My cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the House of the Lord forever.
My argument is that the Bible contains much wisdom and much to be admired and loved, It just depends upon what you choose to emphasize. The Episcopal Church was one of the first mainline Churches to embrace woman as priests and accept gay and lesbian partnerships as equal to heterosexual unions. They elevated an openly non-celibate gay man as a Bishop. It is our emphasis upon reason that allows us to be progressive and choose what is good and holy in the Bible while rejecting what is archaic and wrong-headed.