A_C_E said:
But didn't you know that you have to be religious in order to be evil since religion is the route of all evil? /s As for the abrahamic religions teaching hate (I pretty much agree), that's only shedding light on part of the structure. Take Leviticus (Third Book) for example which talks about laws and morals separate from beliefs to convey the notion that God may walk among the Israelites so long as they avoid sin and impurity. Every book has good and bad parts, whether it be an awful book like Deuteronomy or Leviticus, but it is up to the individual to interpret and incorporate that into their daily lives. Having said that, I agree with you that the Old Testament is a harsh book, it's worse than the Quran (slightly), and that there are too many things that people could take into heavy action which would lead to breaking the law. But again, that is up to the individual. |
Every book has good and bad parts, but not every book claims divine origin. If I'm reading a secular book on morality, I'm free to say "oh I like this" or "that's stupid". When you're dealing with a book that is supposedly divine, you don't have that option. If an all powerful perfect being wrote the book, directly or indirectly, then you can't just throw out the parts you don't find appealing. If yahweh is the perfect being, and he created the old testament through his scribes, then you can't just throw out the parts you don't like.
As for "it's up to the individual", why does the individual need to concern himself with any of these books? There are truly vile ideas contained in all three books (I actually think the New Testament is far worse than the old) and the best way to take away the power of these ideas is to question the whole institution. The attitude of "there's nothing wrong with the religion, it's all just a misinterpretation" makes it harder to challenge the institutions.
