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The Old Testament

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Tenth Speed Writer

PostPosted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 5:06 pm
I'm not one to make waves just for the sake of doing so, but something I've noticed lately is a tendency to mock passages from the Christian old testament at face value.

I feel I should state my disapproval of this. While there are some parts of it that are beyond antiquated, often simply archaic, there are others which are blatantly allegorical of valuable, and timeless, moral lessons.


The story of Joshua, Chapter Seven, for example, if you care to read it as mythology. In it, a man by the name of Achan breaks "God's Covenant" of coveting and stealing from a conquered foe (Taking a fine robe and a good amount of money), and burying his spoils in shame. The result of this, is pulling the entire Israelite army from "God's Favor" and bring them misfortune. As retribution, their god tells them to find who broke his covenant, and punish them. They discover Achan, who confesses, and stone him and his entire family, eventually burning them all.



While it sounds nothing short of absurd, if one stops to dissect it, you get two moral lessons, and one theological one.

The latter is obvious, and irrelevant to us atheistic folks. The two moral lessons, are the consequences of hiding one's wrong doings instead of fessing up to them, and that one should use nothing but their best effort to clear the personal flaws that brought them to commit said crime, if they want to avoid it in the future.



Honestly, the Old Testament, as archaic as it is, is riddled with lessons like this. For anyone with the time to spare, it would be quite an interesting project to go through and analyze various OT stories like that.  
PostPosted: Thu Oct 25, 2007 4:37 pm
The old testament was also extremely violent, and at times absurd.
The Bible
And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses.
Numbers 15:32-35
 

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