RE: a theory about modern xtian deconversion
April 28, 2016 at 4:25 pm
(This post was last modified: April 28, 2016 at 5:04 pm by Lek.)
(April 28, 2016 at 3:27 pm)drfuzzy Wrote: Just musing. Feel free to refute or clarify.
But I was looking at all of the Bible stories that I once loved as a child, that now horrify me, and wondering why they DIDN'T horrify people in the 1960's and 70's. You know, the Flood (genocide), the Exodus (deliberate torture of the Egyptians and then deliberate drowning of their army), the many stories of god-sanctioned murder in order to take a city, the stories of stoning and maiming for minor transgressions . . . all of those and more. Wondering why my uber-fundamentalist parents told us the story of the Tower of Babel, and cheered the moon landing at the same time? Why did I not hear "god committing murder" when he slaughtered the firstborn sons of Egypt, hardened Pharaoh's heart, and sent the Egyptian army into the parted sea in order to deliberately drown them?
- - Because they were the bad guys. They didn't worship god, so they deserved to die.
Actually, when you think about it, those stories aren't so shocking. God murders every single one of us. What about all of those who died in the recent earthquakes? He could have stopped them, but he didn't. And what about the many young children who are dying of painful diseases or starving to death? He could prevent everything that kills every single one of us, but he doesn't. At least the people in the old testament stories died quickly. I think he was more merciful to them than to most of us.
