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Culture War Roundup for the week of November 13, 2023

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What is Judiaism without God if not Identity Politics? Are you going try to deny that Marx's religion had anything to do with his politics?

What is Judiaism without God if not Identity Politics?

Christianity. They play trinity-card-monte with god and replace him with the afterlife.

I dont think you know what you're talking about

I think my facile conjectures make more sense than yours. Get rid of the old testament god, and what's left? A shitty version of the enlightenment.

The idea that there is a meaningful difference between the old testemant God and the new is a lie that was sold to you by your aithiest college professor. It aint guys like me who are trying to get rid of the old testamant God, its you.

Just because they’ve had two thousand years to hone a lie, doesn’t mean it isn’t one. He’s a capricious blood god in the mold of allah or odin. You know why people believe the ‘antitheist professors’? Because what they say is convincing. They don’t rely on the gullibility of the recently born and the soon-to-be deceased. And for the record, I did not have to wait for college to notice the discrepancy between the old god and the new. Besides, those most involved in selling the image of a nice new testament god aren’t guys like me but modern christians, who by embuing him entirely with enlightenment values, sanewash christianity. I guess even the common man knows which way the bread is buttered, and it sure as hell wasn’t the old god that buttered his.

He’s a capricious blood god in the mold of allah or odin.

Can you give an example from the OT of God being capricious?

You know why people believe the ‘antitheist professors’? Because what they say is convincing.

Freud was one of the most convincing antitheist professors that has ever lived. Do you believe that this was because his arguments were correct?

They don’t rely on the gullibility of the recently born and the soon-to-be deceased.

No, they rely on the gullibility of people who yearn to be told that they can do what they want without consequence.

And for the record, I did not have to wait for college to notice the discrepancy between the old god and the new.

It would be interesting if you could demonstrate that discrepancy, then, because I don't think it actually exists.

Besides, those most involved in selling the image of a nice new testament god aren’t guys like me but modern christians, who by embuing him entirely with enlightenment values, sanewash christianity.

People who ignore bits of the Bible they find inconvenient aren't actually Christians. There are plenty of us left who do not.

The flood, sodom and gomorrah, the binding of isaac, being a dick to job, the killing of egyptian first-borns (was that some genocidal form of proto-identity politics, I wonder) are the most well-known and really define his personality, but the bible is full of examples:

Exodus 4 : 24 On the way, at a place where they spent the night, the Lord met him (Moses) and tried to kill him. 25 But Zipporah took a flint and cut off her son’s foreskin, and touched Moses’ feet with it, and said, ‘Truly you are a bridegroom of blood to me!’ 26 So he let him alone. It was then she said, ‘A bridegroom of blood by circumcision.’

Kings 4 : 23 And he went up from thence to Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, little boys came out of the city and mocked him, saying: Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head.  24 And looking back, he saw them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord: and there came forth two bears out of the forest, and tore of them two and forty boys.

Judges 11. 30 And Jephthah gmade a vow to the Lord and said, “If you will give the Ammonites into my hand, 31 then whatever1 comes out from the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the Ammonites shall be the Lord’s, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.” 32 So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the Lord gave them into his hand. 33 And he struck them from Aroer to the neighborhood of Minnith, twenty cities, and as far as Abel-keramim, with a great blow. So the Ammonites were subdued before the people of Israel. 34 Then Jephthah came to his home at Mizpah. And behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances. She was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 And as soon as he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you have become the cause of great trouble to me. For I have opened my mouth to the Lord, and I cannot take back my vow.” 36 And she said to him, “My father, you have opened your mouth to the Lord; do to me according to what has gone out of your mouth, now that the Lord has avenged you on your enemies, on the Ammonites.” 37 So she said to her father, “Let this thing be done for me: leave me alone two months, that I may go up and down on the mountains and weep for my virginity, I and my companions.” 38 So he said, “Go.” Then he sent her away for two months, and she departed, she and her companions, and wept for her virginity on the mountains. 39 And at the end of two months, she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow that he had made.

(ie, burnt his own daughter as a randomized trade/thank you note for crushing the ammonites. The morale of the story presumably being, you never know what’s gonna come through that door)

Freud was one of the most convincing antitheist professors that has ever lived. Do you believe that this was because his arguments were correct?

Again with Freud. Look, it’s not a binary. All else equal, an adult being convinced by arguments is more evidence of them being correct than a child believing something (eg, santa claus).

The flood

People throughout the world grow extremely wicked, God destroys them as punishment while protecting a righteous man and his family. Not capricious.

sodom and gomorrah

People in two cities grow extremely wicked, God destroys them as punishment while protecting a righteous man and his family. Not capricious.

the binding of isaac

God demonstrates that his chosen patriarch is willing to sacrifice his son, and also that such sacrifices are not desired by God; that is to say, the absence of child sacrifice is not due to a lack of fervor or obedience on the part of God's people, but rather because God himself considers child-sacrifice abhorrent. Not capricious.

being a dick to job

The point of Job is that God is under no obligation to justify his actions to his creation. It is not claimed that God acts arbitrarily, only that we are not owed an explanation for specific things that happen. This is as close to capricious as your list gets, but throughout God insists that he has reasons for what he does. Not capricious, any more than any other need-to-know system is.

the killing of egyptian first-borns

The Egyptians enslaved the Hebrews, and attempted genocide against them by ordering the execution of all their male children. Their own first-borns are killed by God as punishment, after they are given repeated opportunities to relent from their actions. Not capricious.

Exodus 4 : 24

Moses, while acting as God's prophet, has violated the covenant by not circumcising his sons in direct violation of God's command. Not capricious.

Kings 4 : 23

The youths treat God's representative with scorn, dishonoring God, and an example is made of them. Not capricious.

Judges 11

The capricious actions are all Jepthah's, not God's. Jepthah is a cautionary story about swearing foolish oaths, and Jephthah himself is no more an example of a righteous man than Samson is.

None of these citations involve a single capricious action on God's part.

Again with Freud.

Stop claiming that expert-based consensus settles arguments, and I'll stop citing the gold-standard of evidence that expert-based consensus absolutely does not settle arguments.

Look, it’s not a binary. All else equal, an adult being convinced by arguments is more evidence of them being correct than a child believing something.

And if Christians were only made by convincing children, this would be relevant. But they are not, and those convinced as children grow up and have ample opportunity to change their minds. Likewise, adults being convinced of something is not good evidence that the thing they're convinced of is true. There is no such thing as proof by social consensus, so stop citing social consensus as evidence.

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