@Gwendolyn2018 i tend to rely on less mainstream etymologies, wouldnt go near a Strong's now, etc, but those got a lot of it right i guess. The literal part anyway?
[abarim-publications.com]

flood mythology exists in virtually every culture on the planet, and no offense but you could not be more wrong

@bbyrd009. I am not referring to the flood myths of any other cultures, but to the biblical flood myth and the character of the god portrayed in the bible.

@Joanne and wadr that is how wisdom is hidden from the wise, i guess

see bc "he"--the God that you don't believe in--cannot possibly have killed anyone, right? And they were not killed for not worshipping Him, they were killed bc they wouldnt get in the fucking boat! and, and, and, on and on, see, what most likely really happened was a bunch of ppl did perish in a great flood, and the occasion was incorporated into various cultures' mythologies, but you are just mad at Yah maybe?

I mean wouldnt an equally fair perspective have it that Noach spent "120 years" warning ppl that "a flood" was coming, whether they believed in Yah or not? And the significance of "120" and "flood" we could get into later, or not, but those are very basic analogies

Why do you credit a God you don't believe in with "punishing" Adam and Eve, who btw were plainly warned not to "eat the fruit" of "the tree of knowledge" do you need me to Quote it for you? And how exactly, may i ask, were they "punished?"

i mean do you really believe there was an actual tree? or for that matter an actual Old White Guy in a Long White Robe? that youre pissed at, i guess? And wadr even the "forbidden" part is crap, as they were not, ever, "forbidden" from eating anything--"eat anything you want, but if you eat from this tree, you will fucking die" is not "forbidding" shit, see, its warning, isnt it?

could i suggest that these might be analogies anyway, and that reading them literally is pointless, or worse? I mean you are certainly allowed to read like a chump if you want, like a "believer," but after all arent those the ppl you detest?

so anyway i hope you don't take this wrong ok, and i for sure don't know, but i suspect its all a matter of perspective, and i know for a truth that the Bible is fab at...misdirecting attention, would i guess be the way to put it

so, the God Who told Noach "tell everyone a flood is coming, and build a big boat so anyone who wants to can be saved" is an asshole then, fine. I mean, no offense, but are you listening to yourself?

@bbyrd009

@bbyrd009 : Of course I don't believe in the god of the bible, or any god for that matter. It is the silliness that people take these writings literally that is being questioned --not any real god or any real events. And, also, the in the bible the Hebrew god did punish people who did not believe it it( people who had never heard of it). And it instructed those who did follow it to horribly murder those who followed other gods. And this god destroyed the earth because everyone was supposedly so evil that only one man and his family deserved to be spared.

@Joanne ok, how to show this without making it personal to you, and inadvertently offending...um, note that you say "it is silliness, that ppl take these writings literally" but then you go on to condemn Yah via a literal reading?

Who got "punished for not believing?" i tell you that no one did, ever, so maybe you could say who and we'll see. The Good Samaritan (atheist), the Roman Centurion (mithraist), and others, are generally the most praised, while the "believer's" whole theocracy (Israel) was wiped out, yes?

"horribly murder" literally maybe, yes, but we know that none of those OT slaughters actually took place, and we even know that the authors knew that we would be able to find that out, meaning that they were not trying to fool anyone reading with the right eyes; as a handy corollary, Jericho had no walls, and this would obviously be easy enough to verify

and "destroyed the earth?" ha well im on the earth right now, and it seems fine to me? (Fwiw im pretty sure it was the world that was destroyed, and that is a completely diff thing, a construct made by humans)

@bbyrd009 : Oh, my gosh. I am NOT condemning any god, or the acts of any god, because I don't think any gods exist or that any of it happened.

What I am condemning is that people think the bible is an accurate account of a god and its actions and the actions of its people. And, that people use this god to excuse their OWN bad actions or to excuse atrocities (whether they actually happened or not). But, they think that they DID happen and excuse it because this god can do no wrong in their eyes.

When I say "this god, this or this god, that" I am not saying this god exists or did anything. I am simply using that wording. Just as if I were talking about a Harry Potter book and said "Voldemort did this or that, or whatever." I am not saying that Voldemort actually exists or has done anything in reality.

Of course this god doesn't punish people for not believing in it--because it doesn't exist. But, great harm is caused, by humans, because they think it does exist and they use it as an excuse to condone, or do, some horrible things.

strikes me as a pretty fair description of ignorance eh