Interesting. But not to be facetious, if one reads carefully, literally and critically the story of garden of Eden, one could easily asks “Okay, what is actually bad with eating the apple of knowledge? Everyone wants knowledge, right?” I have thought about this when I was a child. But I brushed it off because the church teach that the moral of the story is to follow god etc, or you will be punished. I guess the point of that story worked on me as I let go of that nagging feeling the it doesn’t add up. Religion discourages one from thinking critically even at the face of irrational and illogical inconsistencies; resulting in adopting a double think.
The thing is, not liking something doesn’t make it less real. A child submitting to their parents is a good thing, so is someone following the law. The only difference is that God will never issue a bad command.
It’s not like unquestioning obedience to authority hasn’t led to despair, and to both figurative and literal mass suicide before. The Germans only said they were only following orders from their fuhrer; and so were the people in Jonestown following their prophet’s order to drink poison.
Plenty of nonsensical rules in the bible, my friend. And Yahweh has issued so many bad commands, particularly in the Old testaments with violent punishments. Like, ordering to kill first born children, who have nothing to do with enslaving Jews as they are too young to be involved nor make any decisions. Not to mention the really weird accounts on Lot’s family, starting with the arbitrary command to not look back while Sodom was being smite, resulting in Lot’s wife turning to a pillar of salt.
I don’t like all of these, and even if they are true accounts, then the whole world just blindly follows a power-tripping deity who punishes innocent children, and turn someone into a pillar of salt for breaking a command that serves no purpose and has no sense in its nature whatsoever. Only an absolute ruler could make such rules and commands with no sense-- like ordering not to eat the fruit of knowledge. What is so bad with eating the fruit of knowledge? Everyone wants knowledge after all, right?
The firstborn children in Egypt likely went to heaven, as is common with children who do not understand sin. As for Sodom and Gomorrah, the destruction of those cities were very much justified.
The consolation after killing childrenfor the sins of their parents is that they go to heaven. Great.
Lot’s wife turning into a salt of pillar is not justified though…leading to his daughters raping him and committing incest to “repopulate the earth”. That would not have happened had the wife not turn into a salt of pillar, simply for arbitrary command given by Yahweh that doesn’t make sense. What a wholesome story.
So you tolerate rules that are not only nonsensical, but also makes everyone’s lives harder? And that everyone should put up with it simply because they’re rules no matter how arbitrary? Segregation between black and white people was also a rule, you know?
Moreover, nowhere did you and I mention Yahweh prevented any disobedience. In any case, your comment acknowledges that Yahweh allows disobedience but has the power to prevent it. So, either he is omniscient and could prevent future actions but does nothing, or he isn’t omniscient at all.
Interesting. But not to be facetious, if one reads carefully, literally and critically the story of garden of Eden, one could easily asks “Okay, what is actually bad with eating the apple of knowledge? Everyone wants knowledge, right?” I have thought about this when I was a child. But I brushed it off because the church teach that the moral of the story is to follow god etc, or you will be punished. I guess the point of that story worked on me as I let go of that nagging feeling the it doesn’t add up. Religion discourages one from thinking critically even at the face of irrational and illogical inconsistencies; resulting in adopting a double think.
The thing is, not liking something doesn’t make it less real. A child submitting to their parents is a good thing, so is someone following the law. The only difference is that God will never issue a bad command.
It’s not like unquestioning obedience to authority hasn’t led to despair, and to both figurative and literal mass suicide before. The Germans only said they were only following orders from their fuhrer; and so were the people in Jonestown following their prophet’s order to drink poison.
Plenty of nonsensical rules in the bible, my friend. And Yahweh has issued so many bad commands, particularly in the Old testaments with violent punishments. Like, ordering to kill first born children, who have nothing to do with enslaving Jews as they are too young to be involved nor make any decisions. Not to mention the really weird accounts on Lot’s family, starting with the arbitrary command to not look back while Sodom was being smite, resulting in Lot’s wife turning to a pillar of salt.
I don’t like all of these, and even if they are true accounts, then the whole world just blindly follows a power-tripping deity who punishes innocent children, and turn someone into a pillar of salt for breaking a command that serves no purpose and has no sense in its nature whatsoever. Only an absolute ruler could make such rules and commands with no sense-- like ordering not to eat the fruit of knowledge. What is so bad with eating the fruit of knowledge? Everyone wants knowledge after all, right?
The firstborn children in Egypt likely went to heaven, as is common with children who do not understand sin. As for Sodom and Gomorrah, the destruction of those cities were very much justified.
The consolation after killing childrenfor the sins of their parents is that they go to heaven. Great.
Lot’s wife turning into a salt of pillar is not justified though…leading to his daughters raping him and committing incest to “repopulate the earth”. That would not have happened had the wife not turn into a salt of pillar, simply for arbitrary command given by Yahweh that doesn’t make sense. What a wholesome story.
Lot’s children raping him wasn’t justified or requested at all. They were affected by Sodom’s immoral culture.
Lot’s wife was told not to look back and she did. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
And yet Lot’s children were spared by Yahweh and let a man be raped.
Lot’s wife played games with stupid rules that is.
So you’re upset when God seemingly allows disobedience but also upset when He prevents it. Interesting.
So you tolerate rules that are not only nonsensical, but also makes everyone’s lives harder? And that everyone should put up with it simply because they’re rules no matter how arbitrary? Segregation between black and white people was also a rule, you know?
Moreover, nowhere did you and I mention Yahweh prevented any disobedience. In any case, your comment acknowledges that Yahweh allows disobedience but has the power to prevent it. So, either he is omniscient and could prevent future actions but does nothing, or he isn’t omniscient at all.