Citrakāyaḥ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
citrakayah) wrote2022-12-28 06:50 pm
citrakayah) wrote2022-12-28 06:50 pm
You Know What's Irritating?
Seeing Christians act like their New Testament is so much better than the Old Testament.
Like I've said in the past, there's plenty in the Old Testament I don't like. At all. Actually, there's plenty of stuff in there that no Jews like (well, at this rate some of the worst people in Israel probably love that shit), which is one reason Biblical interpretation is a big thing in Judaism, it's just that I'm willing to declare myself a heretic and say that I reject part of the Torah. It was written thousands of years ago; it has God do really horrible things and justifies a lot of things I don't like. It also commands us to obey God, which is obviously a no go for any anarchist like myself.
But there is something really irritating about seeing Christians declare the God of the New Testament kind, merciful, and loving, and call the God of the Old Testament vengeful. The New Testament is the document where God consigns much of the human species to an eternally burning pit and destroys every other living creature. It's thoroughly entangled with the theology that justified Christians trying to turn themselves into the Borg and make everyone else like them. It justifies slavery and obedience to kings (granted, so does the Old Testament).
If it is true that there is less violence in the New Testament, it is because it is a mythologized history about some random dude's life rather than the story of an entire nation and its associated states. Jesus had no power (I mean real power, not supernatural powers his disciples later decided he had), which meant he wasn't ever in a position to say that God smote his enemies or that God approved of his massacres. Let's note that as soon as the New Testament starts talking about things that happen at a large scale and involved powerful people--in Revelations--God is acting if anything worse than he ever did in the Old Testament (and yes, I'm including the Deluge).
Quite frankly, this idea reeks of anti-Semitism to me.
Also, if you're an atheist I don't want to ever see you talking as if the problem with conservative Christians is that they're paying too much attention to the Old Testament and not enough to Jesus.
Like I've said in the past, there's plenty in the Old Testament I don't like. At all. Actually, there's plenty of stuff in there that no Jews like (well, at this rate some of the worst people in Israel probably love that shit), which is one reason Biblical interpretation is a big thing in Judaism, it's just that I'm willing to declare myself a heretic and say that I reject part of the Torah. It was written thousands of years ago; it has God do really horrible things and justifies a lot of things I don't like. It also commands us to obey God, which is obviously a no go for any anarchist like myself.
But there is something really irritating about seeing Christians declare the God of the New Testament kind, merciful, and loving, and call the God of the Old Testament vengeful. The New Testament is the document where God consigns much of the human species to an eternally burning pit and destroys every other living creature. It's thoroughly entangled with the theology that justified Christians trying to turn themselves into the Borg and make everyone else like them. It justifies slavery and obedience to kings (granted, so does the Old Testament).
If it is true that there is less violence in the New Testament, it is because it is a mythologized history about some random dude's life rather than the story of an entire nation and its associated states. Jesus had no power (I mean real power, not supernatural powers his disciples later decided he had), which meant he wasn't ever in a position to say that God smote his enemies or that God approved of his massacres. Let's note that as soon as the New Testament starts talking about things that happen at a large scale and involved powerful people--in Revelations--God is acting if anything worse than he ever did in the Old Testament (and yes, I'm including the Deluge).
Quite frankly, this idea reeks of anti-Semitism to me.
Also, if you're an atheist I don't want to ever see you talking as if the problem with conservative Christians is that they're paying too much attention to the Old Testament and not enough to Jesus.