the preacher who stopped believing in hell

nittany ram wrote:

The concept, though, of a god who has terrible anger management problems, freaks out with these tantrums and throws earthquakes and volcanoes and tsunamis and cancer and AIDS on people, is a very frightening presupposition.

Well if you look at the status of the world today, it is more consistent with the idea of an angry god or at best an indifferent one.

I mean, right from the beginning – God could have created any kind of world He wanted to, but He chose to create one where half of the creatures on it must kill the other half to survive. Not exactly what you’d expect from a god of love.

But that’s not what started it.

The world was harmonious until we ate the forbidden fruit.

So, it’s our fault.

Not sure about how it works on other planets.

nittany ram wrote:

Btw, *WE* didn’t eat the fruit. Some naked rib-lady did 6000 years ago. Which is sorta my point. So he’s making me pay for an infraction committed by somebody else 6000 years ago? That’s not fair, right?

I mean, who does that?

Interestingly enough, Genesis 1-2 has 2 different human creation accounts. In one, Eve derives from Adam. In the other, they are created at the same time both in God’s image. That’s because Genesis is not really one text. It’s woven together, different texts.

This used to be my attitude toward Genesis 3 and the Fall. God really pours it on—we die, there’s pain in childbirth, the earth produces thorns and thistles where we must work to eat, we’re cast out of Eden. He just keeps adding on.

Then I was the parent of pre-teens.

At that point my view of Genesis 3 became this: you just had one damm rule and you couldn’t even handle that much?

….

Zooey wrote:

Well, this is the same god who turned a woman into a statue of salt just because she felt remorse at seeing the city of her childhood burned to the ground.

Whenever I hear the story of Lot’s wife I am reminded of this exchange on ‘All in the Family’…

Archie: Oh, shut up! You atheist you! The Bible is filled miracles, no magic. God didn’t fool around with no magic.
Mike: What about Sodom and Gomorrah? When Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt?
Archie: That’s because when she was running away from them two dirty cities, she stopped to take a look at her behind.

A stunned Mike slams his head against the table.

nittany ram wrote:

Zooey wrote:

Well, this is the same god who turned a woman into a statue of salt just because she felt remorse at seeing the city of her childhood burned to the ground.

Whenever I hear the story of Lot’s wife I am reminded of this exchange on ‘All in the Family’…

Archie: Oh, shut up! You atheist you! The Bible is filled miracles, no magic. God didn’t fool around with no magic.
Mike: What about Sodom and Gomorrah? When Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt?
Archie: That’s because when she was running away from them two dirty cities, she stopped to take a look at her behind.

A stunned Mike slams his head against the table.

It is possibly the worst story in the bible. Certainly Top Ten.