Why the Hebrews?

[drfuzzy]

No, I'm not racist. The following are just two questions I have been asking of creationists / literal-bible theists ever since I was a little girl.  I have never heard an answer that made sense. So, we have some theists and bible scholars here at AF, I thought that I would ask.  


Creationists claim that the world is 6000 years old.  Science says otherwise. I have had creationists tell me that all of the dating practices are faulty creations of Satan.  So, whatever, for this question, let's go with 6000.

IF you believe that Salvation came through Jesus Christ - - and as many believe, the true followers of Yahweh who predated him were retroactively "saved" - - then what of all the other people?  What of the other nations who worshiped other gods: China, Egypt, India, Greece, Babylon, the Mayans . . . Stonehenge was started about 3000 bce, and I don't believe Ben Carson when he says the Noah built it as a dog park after the flood.

Why would the creator of billions upon billions of galaxies decide to show up and focus on one tiny little Semitic tribe who lived in an area 20,770 km / 12,906 square miles (1/4 of the size of England) - who were not as advanced as many other nations of their time?  If this creator truly wants to "save" everyone, why this one tiny tribe, and no contact with any other nations? What of the many, many people who had no knowledge of Yahweh?  

Do they automatically fry? (Then God is truly a monster.) Are they given a "pass"? (Then why was the sacrifice of Jesus needed at all?)

[Minimalist]

Why would the creator of billions upon billions of galaxies decide to show up and focus on one tiny little Semitic tribe

Because they wrote the fucking book.

[abaris]

Because they wrote the fucking book.

Beat me to it. There really isn't more to it.

[Divinity]

My youngest daughter asks this question a lot. "Why the fuck would God choose one small group of people to explain the rules to, and then expect everyone else to figure it out for themselves?" (She says Fuck almost as often as I do! I'm so proud.)

If the bible is true (and I don't believe it fucking is) then God's just lazy. "Eh, fuck it. Let the Hebrews spread my word. I'm sure it'll get to everyone eventually."

[Chad32]

The Hebrews were the descendants of Abraham. Why Yahweh picked Abraham, I don't know. You'd think he'd pick a group that wound up being amongst the highly advanced ones. the Romans, Greeks, Babylonians, Egyptians, or pretty much any other group that wasn't going to be a backwater tribe.

Then again Yahweh seems to hate Humans that manage to do well on their own. It's harder to convert people who are well off, than ones doing poorly in life.



Though realistically speaking it's because yahweh was originally a lesser god of the Canaanite pantheon, and the Yahwists were just the people who decided to worship Yahweh above the rest of the pantheon.

[Minimalist]

My youngest daughter asks this question a lot.  "Why the fuck would God choose one small group of people to explain the rules to, and then expect everyone else to figure it out for themselves?" (She says Fuck almost as often as I do!  I'm so proud.)

If the bible is true (and I don't believe it fucking is) then God's just lazy.  "Eh, fuck it.  Let the Hebrews spread my word.  I'm sure it'll get to everyone eventually."

Sadly,  the enormous effrontery of jewish bullshit was detected as early as the second century:

"Again, if God, like Jupiter in the comedy, should, on awaking from a lengthened slumber, desire to rescue the human race from evil, why did He send this Spirit of which you speak into one corner (of the earth)? He ought to have breathed it alike into many bodies, and have sent them out into all the world. Now the comic poet, to cause laughter in the theatre, wrote that Jupiter, after awakening, dispatched Mercury to the Athenians and Lacedaemonians; but do not you think that you have made the Son of God more ridiculous in sending Him to the Jews?"...


Celsus, c 180 AD.

[drfuzzy]

Yeah, yeah, I know, guys!  It was THEIR war-god, created to destroy other tribes, they wrote the book, etc.  But what's the official Xtian stance on the question?  C'mon, theists, I've been curious about this one for decades.  I won't bite.  I promise.

[Wyrd of Gawd]

First of all you really have to stop giving any credence to the God character as some celestial invisible spirit if you want to understand the fairy tale. No such entity exists. No real god exists. All gods are imaginary creations of superstitious con men who use such beings to control their even more ignorant and superstitious buddies.

The God character of the Bible was simply the series of big wigs who ruled the various Middle Eastern empires during ancient times. "God" was simply a title. The Israelites/Hebrews/Jews were their collaborators and henchmen. Sometimes they were in favor and sometimes the new ruler got pissed off at them and slapped them around. The fairy tale is about those times.

The Europeans took the Middle Eastern ethnocentric Jewish religious fairy tale and used it as a means to control their own superstitious twits. An English committee wrote the Bible around the year 700 as an elaborate joke gift to fool the stupid Pope. The Bible didn't exist before they wrote it. It was rewritten countless times in the succeeding centuries until it morphed into its current format, with nice chapters and numbered verses. They also changed the names of the major characters so that the story would be more appealing to the audience. They used it very effectively as an unifying tool to build nations and to counter the Islamic threat.

Now, as for what supposedly happens to people who lived before the Jesus character the story says that if people were "good" then they will be saved because they followed the law even though they didn't have it. The early Christians routinely held proxy baptisms for their dead ancestors so that they would be "saved". The Mormons adopted that practice. Everyone else tossed it into the garbage can.

The basic rule in the Bible and in the Koran is very simple: believe and obey without exception. If you don't then you are sinning and will get tossed into the fire.

[drfuzzy]

Right Wyrd.  I don't believe god exists.  I don't think that spirits go to an afterlife.  I think that "god" is just a means of control - a way for priests to gain power, a way for warriors to imagine they have the protection of a powerful invisible being who is on their side, etc.

I was raised right-wing Protestant xtian.  I'm pretty read up on the fairy tale.  I know that some folks believe that the "good" people who lived before Jesus would be saved.  (Most apparently believe that only applies to observant Jews though.)   What I'm saying is, that I have never heard a good explanation from a Christian, a preacher, a priest, a theologian, etc., about what their church's stance is on the "other" nations.  There are enough preachers on this forum, there are enough bible scholars, surely someone has run across an explanation that . . . well, some folks thought made some sense.  Because I have never found a decent answer.

[vorlon13]

Right Wyrd.  I don't believe god exists.  I don't think that spirits go to an afterlife.  I think that "god" is just a means of control - a way for priests to gain power, a way for warriors to imagine they have the protection of a powerful invisible being who is on their side, etc.

I was raised right-wing Protestant xtian.  I'm pretty read up on the fairy tale.  I know that some folks believe that the "good" people who lived before Jesus would be saved.  (Most apparently believe that only applies to observant Jews though.)   What I'm saying is, that I have never heard a good explanation from a Christian, a preacher, a priest, a theologian, etc., about what their church's stance is on the "other" nations.  There are enough preachers on this forum, there are enough bible scholars, surely someone has run across an explanation that . . . well, some folks thought made some sense.  Because I have never found a decent answer.

Religion 101:

we are right, everyone else is Wrong.  And wrong is wrong, whether they are in error only to the extent of the excessive width of the brim of their hats, or if they have punted every single salient jot and tittle of Holy dogma.