I have read through the entire Bible once, and sections from every book in the Bible another time. I hope that when I finally get totally retired and moved that I can read through it again.I shouldn't be surprised by her comments anymore. They seem spontaneous and without thought. I can't imagine what she was thinking when she wrote about wanting to wipe out humans many times over. Also, notice the multiple exclamations after that sentence. She truly thinks she's saying something profound.
After reading through it the first time I was awed by how patient God has been with people throughout the ages. If I were God I would have wiped out human beings many times over!!!
The following is my response to her. I hope it gave her something to reflect upon.
As I was reading the Bible I was awed by how concerned he was with our sex lives. I was shocked by the amount of blood sacrifices he demanded. I was horrified by his determination to kill whole groups of people for trivial reasons. I was concerned with the two different creation myths, the two different flood myths, and the two different Ten Commandments myths. So you can imagine how confusing it is to a young teenage girl reading the Bible for the first time to find out that the all-loving, all-powerful, all-merciful God does not have these attributes. You do know that God wiped us out (except for Noah and his family) in Genesis. I remember thinking about all those poor innocent babies who died such horrible deaths by drowning. Did you ever think about them? Did you wonder why God killed those babies when he could've easily saved them?
I would conclude that your definition of patience is much different than mine.
Dr. Francis Collins opined that God exists outside time and space which is why he is immeasurable. Perhaps giving God this particular human attribute is an error since, according to this definition, he can pop in and out of reality at anytime he so desires. Therefore patience is not required, just the ability to travel thru time.
I'm curious as to why you would've wipe out the human race many times over if you were God? What is it about Christianity that makes you want to do this? Or are you angry about something?
For the record, such a violent thought as never occurred to me. I'm a pacifist.
6 comments:
I very quickly lose patience with fundies, wish I had godlike powers sometimes : )
The bible, I find excrutiatingly boring, I think many believers do too, Which is why the priesthood only use snippets and the same snippets over and over again.
Much easier to present a consistant front when you choose only specific passages.
It amazes me that these fundies actually believe that an entity so powerful and intelligent as to create this universe is somehow going to get his rocks off every tiem a Canannite priest sacrifies a lamb to him.
Excellent! Please let us know how your fundie relative replies.
Sean, the bible is indeed boring and filled with such atrocities that we should have discarded it hundreds of years ago. How people, especially my relatives, interpret it and apply it to their daily lives is what fascinates me.
Nicholas, I suspect this relative will ignore me like all the others when I start pointing out how immoral their god is then imply that they are as well for accepting this crap at face value.
I tried reading the bible cover to cover. Genesis killed it for me.
I read it from Genesis through Revelation three times in a row when I was in high school.
It was after reading it a number of times that the god of the Bible's actions did not jibe with my sense of justice and morality.
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