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Ridiculous parts of the bible

EllieUnique 7 Mar 26
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It is more difficult to find bits of the bible that are not ridiculous.

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A lot of the Jewish dietary and cultural rules were actually providing a faux religious justification for some pretty reasonable health practices that were not just assumed by everyone to be good ideas in that pre-germ theory era. It is a good idea not to leave steaming piles of shit laying about, and doubtless, people had observed a connection between proper waste disposal and cleanliness and better health, but without an explanation for that connection it made sense to say god commands it in order to get people to comply. As well as to make it a matter of cultural pride to conform.

There's an old book, None of These Diseases by a Christian doctor, written back in the 60s or 70s, that covers some of this, and if you ignore the god-talk and overdetermined nature of his arguments, he makes some interesting and often valid points. The title of the book is a reference to a specific promise in the Torah that if the people would follow god's rules they would have none of the diseases of the surrounding peoples. The usual over-promise and under-deliver policy of religion, but not without some underlying validity, if not at all for the reasons claimed.

My theory is that the illnesses caused by improper sanitation, undercooked pork, spoiled shellfish, etc as punishment from God. My view is the converse of yours because old testament god was more into negative reinforcement than positive

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Yes, but he watches you take one all the time. Being a decent being it is just too much for him. Along come apologists and they make this verse into god giving sanitary rules that are needed for your survival. People were just so dumb in those days.

It was the 'please wash your hands' of its time. They used god because they needed to scare people into poo'ing away from the camp using the dagger/seaxe/shovel they all had. I imagine most people understood (like cats) that poo needs to be away from where you eat and should be covered. I suppose they were just making sure.

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I think it's one of those cases where health, which ensures the survival of the tribe, becomes a moral issue.

In the meantime they still throwing dead bodies on the river Ganges...different gods, different health issues...

Perhaps that's why the best sewage system in the world was produced within the Judeo-Christian culture.

@EllieUnique That's not right. The Ganges is in India.

@Amisja ... I know it, but thanks

@EllieUnique Its that intellectual honesty thing...sorry, I felt a bit of a dick when I sent it!

@Amisja I agree with you...just being honest.

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Presumably he created it in the first place!

If we are supposed to be made in the image of God, doesn't that mean god craps too?
Or is that just something he dumped on us for shits and giggles?

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