Regarding the Bible

[Rainbow Mage]

Uss your argument still is pointless, because you haven't proven to me yet that it was actually your god who gave me the things I believe my gods have given me. You would have to prove that it's actually your god first, and if it is, that leads to a second question. Why would your god bless me when I worship other gods? Why would he give me things, knowing that I would thank other gods for them?

 

[Caladan]

I guess I want to get other people's viewpoints on something that's been bothering me. When I read the Bible, I see some horrible things in there like war and plundering, things I could never call good. My sense of empathy and compassion won't allow me to see it as good, but then I see some people saying it's good and even loving on God's part. This is where it really bothers me. Isn't it bad when people start to totally redefine words in their minds to justify terrible things? Let's face it, what the Bible says Israel did to the Canaanites is not loving, not compassionate, not merciful, and not good. You have to totally redefine the meanings of those concepts to say such. Doesn't this suggest that it's dangerous and de-sensatizing to a society to read this book in this sense, literally?

The problem is that you are reading the Hebrew Bible without a critical look and without some very basic wits. as if it is a child reading the Bible and taking it at face value. I noticed that this is a problem many ex Christians suffer of, you still seem to read the Bible as if it supposed to deliever divine truths. and as if its supposed to meet the standards of a modern human rights activist. many Americans need to breakaway from the religious paradigm that still seem to follow them even after they label themselves 'atheist'.
Instead of appreciating the many layers of the Hebrew Bible, people try to place this Iron Age literature, poetry, codes, ideologies into an anachronistic bubble of their own private world. read the text for what it is, appreciate its importance in human history, appreciate its literary qualities, understand its importance to ancient near eastern epigraphy, to the study of historiography, and to use it as the key that it is to English literature, and to understanding European politics throughout history.