This has been bothering me for a bit so I'd like to address it.
When confronting Christians about how nasty Jehovah/Yahweh/God is, they always use the defense that those actions are part of the Old Testament, and they only follow the New Testament and the gospels of Jesus that promise gummi bears and Jagermeister for eternity (
if you join the cult)
But then they are quick to use one or more of the following to enforce their arguments:
- J/Y/G created man in his image
- J/Y/G created the universe
- Reference Adam and Eve violating J/Y/G's law.
- Original sin.
- Invoke Noah and the Great Flood.
These are subjects of the Old Testament.
So if they don't live by the Old Testament, and the NT is where all the smart thinking is, why are they using the OT to validate their claims, especially when they dismiss any reference from it regarding the petty and violent actions of the J/Y/G.
Some treat Adam and Eve as a story, and others as literal truth. Yet there are those who consider the story of Eden to be a fable, and consider Original Sin to be real. If Eve was the one who committed the first sin, and you don't believe she was real, how exactly do you end up being born with her sin? And if you're one of those who believe that all suffering in the world is caused by "The Fall", yet will fall back on the "book of parables" defense, how exactly is it reconciled that a parable to teach people a lesson manifests in reality as all the bad stuff in the world.
Noah is invoked to counter geological evidence of tectonic plate activity and the presence of dinosaur fossils. So if Noah is real, then all the other vile and brutal actions of God, including the mass murder of innocent children and animals as retribution for the actions of a few is real.
This all makes just as much sense as them bitching about us being aggressive atheists and challenging their beliefs "Because Christians don't do that to atheists" and then profess the need to put prayer in schools, thereby forcing it on non-Christian children.
And why, when they are in danger of imminent death or dismemberment, do they pray to J/Y/G to save them? Aren't they only moments away from the eternal bliss of heaven? When a family member is dying of a terrible illness, why pray for a cure? Why not pray for a quick death and scoot them into the arms of Jesus? Maybe even trip over the life support power cord and give them a little turbo boost into the arms of the Lord.
Is it just because Heaven is boring? It doesn't take much to get a middle class Islamic teen to strap a bomb to his chest. Just tell him that holding hands with a girl will get her killed, but that he can have all the beautiful virgins he wants if he'll vaporize himself in a food court.
Apparently hanging out with Jesus for eternity is one of those "sounds good on paper" things, but nobody really wants to honor it unless they're so old they don't get up to go to the bathroom any more.
"Take me Jesus, my diaper is full."
I'll take the rationalist approach myself. Be good to friends and family. Help those who are in need. Learn what you can about the naturalistic world and dismiss any baseless supernatural claims. Have kinky godless sex at every opportunity that you can. And go out like a light switch. (Which is highly preferable to "go out like a tie caught in a paper shredder")
I'm more to the point when dissecting the incredible bullshit of the BongHits4Jesus Brigade, so thanks for indulging this ramble