Lol. That's gangsta???

My fave is where someone picks up a bible and it turns them atheist. A very common theme in deconversion stories.

I actually like the story of Job although it is obviously just an allegory. As I see it, Job had a high concept of God. It was impossible for him to “curse God and die” as advised by neighbors. It was not that Job was more moral or more worshipful, rather his deep insight meant that such a shallow attitude was logically impossible. He couldn’t help but abide his pain.

@LimitedLight The Bible is a bunch of myths and allegory mixed in with Jewish history. I never look at it.

I do think however, if not read literally, the story of Job has a pertinent message. When hit by sorrow, there’s something better than to curse God and die. That would be to shine the light of awareness on your true essence, thereby finding joy and sustenance.

@LimitedLight the serpent in the Garden is believed to have been (at least in kabbalistic texts) the archangel Samael, whose name means 'poison of God' and whose sole purpose is to test the faith of the faithful and attempt to make them give up their faith.

@geist171 A noble cause that.

@Rossy92 not really. He's the...manifestation of that neurotic 'I'm gonna make this person prove they love me by subjecting them to a situation where they have every motivation and reason to leave and no reason but me to stay and see what they do.

The original silent Hill game's final boss is Samael, and the endings suggest a very Jacob''s Ladder scenario where the protagonist is battling for his soul by proving his devotion to rescue his daughter who is one half of Samael's being (Alessa is the other half) despite all kinds of opportunities to give up and distracting temptations to divert from the goal.

But as Satan is not technically a name so much as a designation (it just means adversary) it's possible every instance of the word Satan could be referring to a different entity operating in similar opposition to the god-allied hero of the story in question. Maybe the narrative required one big bad instead of a bunch of little ones.

@geist171 You appear to refer to God. I'm referring to the noble cause of the serpent. Normally I prefer to put things in my owns words, but in the interest of catching a few more winks before getting up for work, I'll refer you to this quote from the great Robert Ingersoll:

There are some schools of thought which explain the 'where did Cain get a wife' through the idea that Adam is not the first human, but the first Hebrew, and Cain went and met non-Hebrew people and that's where he found his wife. Which, honestly, makes the Judeo-Christian god sound a bit like an alien, in the same way the Innunaki (of...hell Gilgamesh is...Babylonian? Sumerian?) read kind of like an occupying extraterrestrial group who created a slave race to do the gold mining for them.

That is one I've asked many times from people that say they take the book litterally, and I've never got a straight answer

@geist171 The logical answer would be that Adam and Eve went to on to have other children which would mean that Cain’s wife was his sister, but of course that would mean that they had an incestuous relationship. Most clergymen say that god went on to create more people, but they have to admit that the bible makes no mention of this. If they believe everything in the scriptures is true, then by that same logic, if it is not in the scriptures then it is not true..

@Marionville Given the incestuous precedent in the stories of Noah and Lot, it also seems presumably logical that they acquired wives by way of sex with Eve. I know it's highly twisted, and would have taken quite some time, but given the twisted nature of so much of the bible, and that people apparently lived to be as much as 600 years old back then, it's not out of the question.

For me, not so much the story but the writing in Job when God speaks and drops a big "fuck you" on Job in particular and humanity in general.

@LimitedLight Yes, thats what they say. Most scholars believe the 1st and 3rd section were original with the second section added later. I still like the first section the most. The third section however, does seem to me to be taking place in his head, like the first could possibly have.

Outside of porn, I've yet to meet a female who was fond of horse sized emissions. I guess its more proof of the bible's paternal bias.

It gets even more messed up when you realize later in the story that the daughters were engaged and that their fiancées were probably in the crowd.

Yeah. And what of the shelter of a loving, caring father???

@Seminarian Divinely inspired my ass. Reminds me of this meme.

@Rossy92 It's true, women were very low value on that societies value scale. The lesson was supposed to be about not raping and murdering any guests even if they were outsiders. Unwelcomed outsiders were still open game. Hey, one step at a time. They just stopped child sacrifice after the Abraham story The problem today is that some people don't recognize these were important stories for societies evolution at the time they were written, not intended to help modern people gain understanding. We should be beyond these lessons, although unfortunately some aren't far enough beyond, even today.

@Seminarian How about not raping and murdering anyone. How about the golden rule. And why should this hold sway over any modern day person. An interesting artifact perhaps. A moral tale to draw lessons from? GTFO. Divinely inspired absolute morality? Don't waste my time. Seems you have awareness of this though I wonder what that New Thought ministry is about? Sounds a bit questionable.

@Rossy92 We view the Bible as a recording of mans spiritual evolution. Jesus also evolves in the new testament as well (even though he might be fictional). All miracles are metaphorical. There are no such thing as miracles only natural laws (Divine Laws) that science hasn't figured out yet. The real Jesus, if he actually existed, was the founder of Humanism. "Have I not told you that you are Gods" ," The kingdom of God is at hand" (within you). "Greater works than these you shall also do" and we did, with help from science. See? all true. Oh and God is not a conscious being but is consciousness. In other words we are Panentheists. By the way, the human mind could not evolve without language in other words "In the beginning the WORD was with God and was God". See?

@Seminarian Interesting.

Pretty good 'tail' though

@nicknotes Yes, I guess quite a few will. Oh dear! What to do?

Water represents physical life. Wine represents an enhanced spiritual life. There are several little clues that support this interpretation. Anyway, we know Cana wasn't a real city.