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Why is it that religious people think saying “well that was Old Testament” is a valid argument about all the contradictions?

It is still supposedly “the word of god”.

Him saying “sorry, my bad, i was being too much of an ass hole and will tone it down in my next book”, doesn’t erase the fact it was said in the first place.

Ooops, had left out half a sentence changing the context. (Corrected).

I have a tendency to think I typed something when I just actually only thought it. Must be because I am closing in the 5.0 upgrade...

Doug_in_Colorado 6 Sep 30
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13 comments

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1

They like to pick and choose what they like and disregard that which they don't, both in the Old and New Testaments.

2

All religions change their beliefs/doctrines to accommodate the newest bs of the leaders. It's a control thing, god spoke only to me and here are the new rules. O yeah, send money.

2

It's the equivalent of looking back at some shameful exploit in your own history and then excusing it by saying, "Well, but I was only 19 then." The idea is that they are excusing all the violence and misogyny and incest by saying, "Well, it's the OT..." The idea is that the OT is an "immature" set of documents in which God was instructing and shepherding a single chosen people in a hostile land full of enemies, and all those horrible things were somehow necessary for the survival of the Jews. The NT, on the other hand, is supposed to be a "mature" testament intended for the whole world to embrace.

Beyond ignoring that most of the OT is pure mythology, this ignores the fact that Jesus, himself a Jew, was an apocalyptic preacher who expected the world to end in the generation of his disciples (if we believe the writings that came down several decades later). His preaching was for his fellow Jews. It was the Gentile Paul (Saul) who generalized this message for the world. Jesus would be spinning in his tomb if he knew what has become of his religion.

1

They get away with this because they think Jesus changed everything. Many cherry-pick to try and prove it.

1

I think it’s because most of them actually know that it’s a book of fairy-tales, and not to be taken seriously....except that is, for the really deranged evangelicals who believe every word of the OT...they are dangerous fanatics with no grip on what is credible. Most Christians I know acknowledge that the OT is only a loose guide to what came before the birth of Christ...the main event in their eyes.

The wording on this crack me up. Deranged is spot on!

3

Religious people saying that Old Testament is no longer valid are showing ignorance of their fairy tales. The fictional Jesus said in the New Testament that he wasn’t come to abolish but to fulfill the laws.

1

Power of belief is decreasing day by day.

I have noticed that too. Most of the younger generation in my extended family is skeptical, even though their parents are still religious.

However I think there will always be fanatical groups.

1

Ans do not think only old testament is bad, even in the new one there is misogyny, slavery, violence etc.
Jesus was an apocaliptic preacher, he tells the world would end soon, he tells that gather material possessions was useless because the time was short.
The church interpret generations by eras or the whole Christianity as a generation.
Around the first century the patriarchs started to verify that there was a need to shift the new jewish heresy from an apocaliptic cult to a society stabilizer (because the end was obviously not near).

2

Religious people will say any old crap, so long as it allows them to go on comforting themselves with idiot delusions that A) they are better than everyone else, B) they have no responsibility for anything and C) you can be as much of a bastard as you want all week so long as you eat bits of a dead Jewish carpenter in church on a Sunday

2

Old testament was written by superstition

bobwjr Level 10 Sep 30, 2019
3

Those stories were written by goat ____ers who thought the sun got eaten by a snake every night.

I'm guessing "Goat herders"? for 50 points

Pretty sure the sun-eating snake was in a different mythology.

@Paul4747 But I have heard that herders get very lonely.

And bullshit is bullshit no matter he flavor of the mythology.

3

Because religion is built to be non falsifiable, the cherry picking is essential so the priests can reinterpret it to any occasion according to their interests.
The religion must claim that it never changes, but at the same time have complex enough rules to allow loopholes that will be able to adapt to the times.
they need to be able to go from very nice and comprehensive people when they are minority, yo very aggressive, demanding and hegemonic when they have the power. They need to claim to follow the god of love or the god of justice depending on the situation.

So the contradictions of the bible are the strength of the religion, because to be a follower, first they teach you to trust blindly, so when they shift from one instance to other you won't question and you will (by cognitive dissonance) accept the contradictory speeches, if they claim to come from god.

And they need to be able to say that whatever their opinion, it has extra authoity because it comes from god. Case of cherry picking your cake and eating it.

@Fernapple pretty much. That's why the literal and the metaphor keeps changing and never will be only one church. The meme (Dawkins sense) needs this multi interpretation possibilities to keep alive.

2

The Bible was not faxed down to Earth by an invisible god.

I don't believe in an invisible being that resides somewhere beyond the clouds.

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