• Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 month ago

      Hey, at least you’re judging based on the facts of what the Bible says. God is who He is. He’s not campaigning. You disagree with Him, but at least it’s really Him.

      Of course, that puts you in the same position as Job. You want to judge God. You want to put him on trial. You disagree with Him.

      And if you have the opportunity to question Him directly, you’ll say the same thing Job said.

      • FrostBlazer@lemm.ee
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        1 month ago

        I would add that not every author is writing unbiased in the Bible. We know now for instance that some books near the end of the Bible were attributed to Paul may not have been written by him, but by some of the people under Paul in the early church. So adding parts about women not holding positions of authority within the Church more or less served to cement their own positions and authority for the early-Christians that were formalizing the religion.

          • FrostBlazer@lemm.ee
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            1 month ago

            From my perspective, the Bible should have continued to been written forward, and included pieces of the issues Christians sought to address in their current times. I think an updated one would have spoken of the poorly of the actions taken by the church and followers alike through the ages, and would have followed people trying to do good in hard times.

      • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 month ago

        And if you have the opportunity to question Him directly, you’ll say the same thing Job said.

        That would be what, “Why are you so weirdly obsessed with Leviathan?” after Job 41?

        • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 month ago

          Haha, Leviathan was certainly the “big bad” in Job. I don’t know what creature was being referred to (maybe a species of large crocodile?) but yes, he gets a lot of air time.

          No, I meant Job 42:3, “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know.”

          • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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            1 month ago

            Haha, Leviathan was certainly the “big bad” in Job.

            To quote a work of fiction I particularly enjoyed, during a discussion between the characters on the Book of Job:

            “You know,” said Bill Dodd, “what is Leviathan, anyway? Like a giant whale or something, right? So God is saying we need to be able to make whales submit to us and serve us and dance for us and stuff? Cause, I’ve been to Sea World. We have totally done that.”

            “Leviathan is a giant sea dinosaur thing,” said Zoe Farr. “Like a plesiosaur. Look, it’s in the next chapter. It says he has scales and a strong neck.”

            “And you don’t think if he really existed, we’d Jurassic Park the sucker?” asked Bill Dodd.

            “It also says he breathes fire,” said Eli Foss.

            “So,” proposed Erica, “if we can find a fire-breathing whale with scales and a neck, and we bring it to Sea World, then we win the Bible?”

            https://unsongbook.com/

            • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              1 month ago

              I read Earthsea, and it is my professional opinion that Leviathan is a dragon. Which we know is, as they say in baseball, a “tough out.”

      • samus12345@lemm.ee
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        1 month ago

        I’m judging a fictional character based on how he’s characterized by the book he appears in. There may be a higher power, but the god of the Bible certainly ain’t it.

        • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 month ago

          Certainly? You have a better candidate? Baal? Molech? Satan, perhaps?

          You do you; pick a side, deny the battle, anything you choose.

          I’m quite seriously suggesting that the God of the Bible, and specifically the Christian God, is is the most perfect God that could be imagined, and yet wholly unexpected as He is revealed. The God of the Bible soothes no one. He ruffles everyone’s feathers. He is pure perfect and exacting. Yet there is love and mercy there.

          Now, His followers have done a lot to screw up that presentation. But that’s as it always has been. In the Old Testament, in Jesus’s day, and now, the people of God - even those with direct divine revelation - have been misrepresenting Him.

          Joshua 24:15 NIV

          But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. [Or the gods of reason, science, and unbelief?] But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

          • Maeve@midwest.social
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            1 month ago

            Certainly? You have a better candidate? Baal? Molech? Satan, perhaps?

            A rose by any other name…

          • samus12345@lemm.ee
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            1 month ago

            Certainly. Any candidate that doesn’t have a traceable origin as being created by people would be a good start, which all the religions of the world do.

            I’m quite seriously suggesting that the God of the Bible, and specifically the Christian God, is is the most perfect God that could be imagined

            Yes, that’s what people of every religion say about their god. I’m guessing your parents are Christian?

            • Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              1 month ago

              “Traceable origin…as being created by people.” You’ve set quite a high bar for yourself, but I assume you would consider your traceability as…

              Yes, nominally Christian. Raised in USA, fed cornbread and gospel music, prayin’ at baseball games.