Good Friday greetings to all.
I was watching The West Wing Season 6 Episode 20 and a quote from one of the characters struck me.
"I cannot believe in a God who said that the penalty for working on the Sabbath is death." - Senator Arnold Vickers, Republican.
I know I'm going to bum out a lot of religious folk with this, but if you are religious, avert your eyes now.
Many of my religious friends cannot explain to me why do they ignore the Old Testament. Is there a new God in the New Testament? There is not. Accordingly, He is one and the same.
How can one believe in a God that says, “Because they have sinned against the Lord, their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung.” (Zephaniah 1:17)
A God that is violent against non-believers? “I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the LORD.” (Haggai 2:17)
Sure, its all quite rosy now that He has sent his Son down and did a PR exercise, resulting in a New book. And we do get rock concerts now in Evangelistic churches where people roll their eyes back and start speaking in tongues (when there is no need to, since all in the House understand English) but have a jolly rocking good time. But do we ignore the fact that God is violent? And He kills if you incur His wrath? How do you equate that with the message of loving all that is preached now? Is God a clever politician? Speaking the message that the masses will want to hear? This used to be violence, and the rule by fear, but its changed now, and we need subtlety, persuasion and to preach a message of peace (but still scare you that you will BURN eternally if you don't believe).
Anyway, I think that the religion has been subjugated by Man for his own purposes. Religion has been used by King James to unite his country, to give him a religious mandate to rule his country (thats why all Kings are crowned by ArchBishops), and used for 3 Crusades in the genocide of Moslems when the real reason was to plunder. The Book may not even be accurate, since it was translated several times. Was the Virgin Mary a Virgin? Or just a fair maiden because of a nuance in the Latin word? How can we base teachings on something we know not of its accuracy? Its different from us having copies of the Koran, Torah or Buddhist scripture that were written in the language of the time, and have exisited for hundreds of years which are still readable today.
Well, I guess in the End, religion is what you make of it. And what it does for you psyche. I know I've opened a can of worms, but don't hate me, I'm going to burn in Hell as it is already.
I was watching The West Wing Season 6 Episode 20 and a quote from one of the characters struck me.
"I cannot believe in a God who said that the penalty for working on the Sabbath is death." - Senator Arnold Vickers, Republican.
I know I'm going to bum out a lot of religious folk with this, but if you are religious, avert your eyes now.
Many of my religious friends cannot explain to me why do they ignore the Old Testament. Is there a new God in the New Testament? There is not. Accordingly, He is one and the same.
How can one believe in a God that says, “Because they have sinned against the Lord, their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung.” (Zephaniah 1:17)
A God that is violent against non-believers? “I smote you with blasting and with mildew and with hail in all the labours of your hands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the LORD.” (Haggai 2:17)
Sure, its all quite rosy now that He has sent his Son down and did a PR exercise, resulting in a New book. And we do get rock concerts now in Evangelistic churches where people roll their eyes back and start speaking in tongues (when there is no need to, since all in the House understand English) but have a jolly rocking good time. But do we ignore the fact that God is violent? And He kills if you incur His wrath? How do you equate that with the message of loving all that is preached now? Is God a clever politician? Speaking the message that the masses will want to hear? This used to be violence, and the rule by fear, but its changed now, and we need subtlety, persuasion and to preach a message of peace (but still scare you that you will BURN eternally if you don't believe).
Anyway, I think that the religion has been subjugated by Man for his own purposes. Religion has been used by King James to unite his country, to give him a religious mandate to rule his country (thats why all Kings are crowned by ArchBishops), and used for 3 Crusades in the genocide of Moslems when the real reason was to plunder. The Book may not even be accurate, since it was translated several times. Was the Virgin Mary a Virgin? Or just a fair maiden because of a nuance in the Latin word? How can we base teachings on something we know not of its accuracy? Its different from us having copies of the Koran, Torah or Buddhist scripture that were written in the language of the time, and have exisited for hundreds of years which are still readable today.
Well, I guess in the End, religion is what you make of it. And what it does for you psyche. I know I've opened a can of worms, but don't hate me, I'm going to burn in Hell as it is already.
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