RE: Atheist Bible Study 1: Genesis
December 17, 2018 at 1:48 pm
(This post was last modified: December 17, 2018 at 1:51 pm by GrandizerII.)
(December 17, 2018 at 10:31 am)unfogged Wrote:(December 17, 2018 at 10:00 am)Grandizer Wrote: This story clearly looked to me like it was the ancient Jew's reconstruction of what they may have thought happened with a couple of ruined ancient cities that may have been observable to them. They may have also noted what looked like a pillar of salt outside of the cities, and thereby made a specific story out of that one as well. But that's just me speculating.
There are apparently many odd salt formations around the dead sea. It isn't hard to see how they could be incorporated into a legend.
Interesting. Thanks for this tidbit.
This reminds me. There is a story that's told in my home country (Lebanon) about how a saint was once offended by a woman that he grabbed her by the boob (as she was carrying her baby) and pushed her to the wall, somehow causing her to become stone. And why this story came about was exactly to explain a weird stone formation attached to a cliff near a cave that is attributed to that saint. That formation looks like a figure carrying a child and with a boob popping out.
Also, in Lebanese Arabic (and probably Arabic, in general, not sure), we have a slang/slur word for "homosexual", which is based on the character Lot for some reason. The word is pronounced "Lootee" (as in "Lottian" or something). Never understood why exactly, but I guess it's because Lot is the main character of a story that involves men who love to have sex with other men.
(December 17, 2018 at 10:48 am)Jörmungandr Wrote: It's important to remember that this is the old testament, wherein God visited punishment for sin upon people in this life, not in a life to come. So death in the old testament is very much a punishment, and so, if unmerited, seems like a dick move by God. In the new testament, life before death is just a prelude to final and eternal judgement, so God killing people is less consequential. If I'm not mistaken, it also results in a lot fewer people being killed in the new testament.
You're not mistaken. In the New Testament, divine punishment becomes more of the spiritual kind (like with many other things).
