A loving God?

[Peter]

"And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men,
and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to
remain." (Deuteronomy 2:34)
"And we utterly destroyed them, as we did unto Sihon king of Hesbon,
utterly destroying the men, women, and children, of every city. But all
the cattle, and the spoil of the cities we took for a prey to
ourselves." (Deuteronomy 3:6-7)

"And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into the
ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and
threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had
smitten many of the people with a great slaughter." (I Samuel 6:19)

-- "Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did to
Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from Egypt.
Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and
spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and
sheep, camel and ass." (I Samuel 15:2-3)

And yet my local Vicar persists in saying that God loves us?

I do hope he never hates us! The Bible makes Hitler, Pol Pot and Stalin
look quite benign.

Peter

[Jim Hawkins]

But it's almost benign by comparison with the sheer bloodthirstyness of
the Koran. And in recent decades Islam's mullahs and ayatollahs seem
to be becoming more and more literalist in their interpretation of its
injunctions, whereas all but the more extremist of the christian church's
leaders seem willing to gloss over or explain away the horribly vicious
bits of the Bible.

Jim Hawkins

[Dakota]

The Koran does not outdo the Bible when it comes to violence. Both
books should be rated X.

[Melzzzzz]

On Sat, 26 Jan 2013 20:16:44 +0000
pfjam...@googlemail.com (Peter) wrote:

>
> And yet my local Vicar persists in saying that God loves us?
>
> I do hope he never hates us! The Bible makes Hitler, Pol Pot and
> Stalin look quite benign.
>
> Peter

There are Christians that think that God of Old Testament is Evil.
Gnostics, Cathars (Bogomils) but they were viciously killed all over
medieval Europe.

[Smiler]

It's a good job, then, that they're both fiction.

--
Smiler,
The godless one. a.a.# 2279
All gods are tailored to order. They're made to
exactly fit the prejudices of their believers.

[Florian Kutscherauer]

Dakota wrote:
> Jim Hawkins wrote:
>> Peter wrote:
>>> "And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the
>>> men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none
>>> to remain." (Deuteronomy 2:34)
>>>
>>> "And we utterly destroyed them, as we did unto Sihon king of Hesbon,
>>> utterly destroying the men, women, and children, of every city. But
>>> all the cattle, and the spoil of the cities we took for a prey to
>>> ourselves." (Deuteronomy 3:6-7)
>>>
>>> "And he smote the men of Bethshemesh, because they had looked into
>>> the ark of the LORD, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and
>>> threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the LORD
>>> had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter." (I Samuel
>>> 6:19)
>>>
>>> -- "Thus saith the LORD of hosts, I remember that which Amalek did
>>> to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, when he came up from
>>> Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they
>>> have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and
>>> suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." (I Samuel 15:2-3)
>>>
>>> And yet my local Vicar persists in saying that God loves us?

Most modern Christians do. They seem to be blind to the passages that
don't agree with their views. And even when one points it out to them
they try to weasel their way out of it, usually by changing the topic.

It's a good thing, I suppose, that we had the Age of Enlightenment and,
as a consequence, Humanism. Because most of these ideals aren't of
Christian origin, they are secular achievements!

>>> I do hope he never hates us!

Don't worry: It's all made up. At least the parts about God.

>>> The Bible makes Hitler, Pol Pot and Stalin look quite benign.
>>
>> But it's almost benign by comparison with the sheer bloodthirstyness
>> of the Koran.

As Dakota said: The Koran and the Bible are pretty much the same in
that respect.

>> And in recent decades Islam's mullahs and ayatollahs seem to be
>> becoming more and more literalist in their interpretation of its
>> injunctions,

Which is, as far as I can tell, not for religious but for political
reasons. They use their followers religiousness to fuel their own
campaigns. Just as the popes used their power to get people for the
crusades in the Middle Ages.

>> whereas all but the more extremist of the christian church's leaders
>> seem willing to gloss over or explain away the horribly vicious bits
>> of the Bible.
>>
>> Jim Hawkins
>
> The Koran does not outdo the Bible when it comes to violence. Both
> books should be rated X.

--
Ceterum censeo Creationismum esse delendam.