This writing is from Sandi_T. over on the Ex-Christian Reddit board. She does have a lot of interesting things to say about religion. I always enjoy her posts. I deconverted long ago realizing some serious things about Christianity did not add up. The brutal foundations of the religion is one reason I no longer consider myself a Christian. I do believe Jesus had many good teachings about love your neighbor and much more, but I separate the good from the bad. I do not believe there is a huge invisible man demanding blood sacrifices and appeasement anymore. These teachings have brought brutality to our society, and violence on multi-layers.
"Well, the NT portrays yahweh as a monster because jesus is a human sacrifice.
Human sacrifice is objectively evil.
Yahweh screwed up and created people who didn't know right from wrong. He expected them to obey him when they didn't know disobedience was wrong. He sat back and did nothing while their "big brother" tricked them into learning about right and wrong.
Then he had a hissy fit and made everyone forevermore after that pay the price.
What price? DEATH.
Which, by the way, he lied about. "If you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall surely die that very day." They did not, indeed, exactly as the serpent said, die that day. Or the next. Or the next, or the next, or the next.... for years yet to come.
That being said, why, precisely, do you think that the NT renders all of the slaughter, savagery, rape, and monstrous behavior of the yahweh and his people in the OT perfectly fine?
Because the perfect human sacrifice was needed, and absolutely anything whatsoever, however brutal, horrific, and savage was perfectly fine because it led to THE PERFECT HUMAN SACRIFICE??
Tell me, what do you think of the ritual of eating your demigod's flesh and drinking his blood as "communion"? Isn't that just a LITTLE on the sick side? What kind of god can't fix his screwup without a human sacrifice? How weak, pathetic, and stupid does he have to be?
Or sadistic? Which is it is? Sadistic, or weak? Under what circumstances is it acceptable for a thing of unlimited power to be incapable of fixing their own mistake of miscreation without HUMAN BLOOD SACRIFICE??
The very premise of the new testament is sickening. The fact that you think all of the old testament is FINE and even GOOD because it led to the ultimate human sacrifice makes me wonder if you've really, genuinely thought that through.
An entire race slaughtered en masse in a grotesque drowning... to pave the way for what? Ritual human sacrifice to a monster who thinks the scent of burning flesh is "a savory odor."
Now, I understand that you think it's BEAUTIFUL and all that, but... me? Not so much."
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Oh the proverbial churlish data-entry clerk, who thinks she knows more about running the organization than her boss - who, by the way, worked very hard, and took real risks to start and keep His company successful.
ReplyDeleteHmm if Yawheh was the Boss of a company there'd be cat of nine tails hanging on every other wall and people would be chained to their desks, but that's the way Republican evangelicals like it.
DeleteYes, because, you know, Yahweh is doing such a great job, just look around there, anonymous! The corporation is going to crap! A new management team is needed!
ReplyDeleteYeah he's screwed up and then some. Some Gnostics believe Yahweh was evil. Hmmn why'd they get that idea?
DeletePeep, it's great to read your blog! Was turned onto it by the subreddit Radical Christianity.
ReplyDeleteI was abused as a child by my stepfather. Verbally, sexually, and physically. Therefore, I had a hard time warming up to Yahweh, Jehovah, whatever one wants to call him. I had "Christians" in my life wringing their hands over my reticence. I spent a short time as a born-again Christian, but it was miserable. I spent many, many years trying to figure it all out for me. Alot has happened with regards to that, and I did alot of research, including reading the Bible daily over the course of the year, and really decided to let Christianity go. I don't know if you've ever read Thomas Paine's Age Of Reason, but for those who haven't and are questioning their commitment to Christianity, I recommend it.
My impression after reading the Bible for a year is that God doesn't come out of it looking too good. I didn't see or feel this love that was alleged. I saw violence. I saw blind obedience being required often for pretty random rules. I saw girls being raped and married off to their rapists. I saw a man offering his daughters to the village of lusting men beating at his door rather than allowing them to take the "angels" they were lusting after! Where was the love?! It was gross! That was in 2019, then in 2020 I read The Age Of Reason and that was all she wrote for me and Christianity. Like you, though, I gravitate to UU, and will probably seek them out assuming the pandemic ever ends and things get back to normal-ish.
Hey Claudia, welcome to my blog, glad you found it through reddit. :)
DeleteThat's horrible to hear you had an abusive stepfather. Well one reason I deconverted is Yahweh acted just like my abusers. I know my ACON studies disengaged me from Christianity too, we definitely have that in common. It sounds like you were a "seeker" like me and gave Christianity a chance. I had that process too, where Christians when I spent my youthful years in the UU after leaving my family's church never let up.
Reading the bible takes many out too. Some atheist websites will joke reading the bible will make you an atheist quicker than anything. I read the Age of Reason ironically as a child, mentioned on here. I want to REREAD it as an adult. I am glad you were able to let Christianity go. It made me miserable. It definitely adds a load of fear and stress to someone's life with hell, its demands for perfection, conformity and compliance. I told someone forget who, if I was still a Christian during this Covid stuff, I would have lost it, not that I am doing perfectly but to have the bible prophecy and other pundits go on about God's wrath would have been a bit much.
Yeah I read of genocide in the bible, chapter 9 Ezekiel, God is beyond cruel. Well look how he treats his own son. If God is all powerful he is the one who made the demands for blood to forgive. Yeah something is very wrong with him.
Well abusers always have to pour a little sugar on top to get you in the game, so Yahweh love bombs a bit, be my child, blah blah, and then you learn the real rules while he stokes up the fires for the majority of humanity. Oh the thing with Lot is completely gross. There's a story in there too where a man offers his daughter to be sacrificed because he made a "promise" to yahweh and good ole blood lusting Yahweh doesn't even say "hey it's okay your daughter can live".
There's a lot of sick stuff in there, and now I want to puke because of the explanations told to me as to why the bible said these things. With the UU see if your local UUs have any Zoom sessions, most of us are meeting via Zoom, or any Youtube videos. Glad to hear it. I am always happy when someone gets free of Christianity especially in it's conservative forms!