Do You Think That Most Xtians Ignore The Hard Stuff?

[kellyb]

I remember the first time I stumbeled across the part where god asked the jews for child sacrifice on a large scale.

I was horrified, but filed it away as "in the time before time".

I figured people were different before Jesus, therefore God dealt with them differently.

Plus the whole "Guard your thoughts, your ways are not my ways, where were you when I created the universe" mentality helped.

[SkepticOfBible]

I remember the first time I stumbeled across the part where god asked the jews for child sacrifice on a large scale.

 

Which part was that?

[kellyb]

I remember the first time I stumbeled across the part where god asked the jews for child sacrifice on a large scale.

 

Which part was that?

I don't remember exactly.

The verse went something like "and they gave unto him their firstborn of their household".

I remember thinking "Is that talking about animals?" but as I reread it a few times, it very much seemed to only leave room for human children.

Someone else mentioned it earlier in the thread...whoever it was, do you remember where it's at?

I want to say it's somewhere in leviticus?...

 

ETA: Here ya' go.

http://www.apocalipsis.org/difficulties/childsacrifice.htm

And here:

http://www.evilbible.com/Ritual_Human_Sacrifice.htm

[godlessgrrl]

ReligiousThink reminds me a lot of the way abuse survivors or non-recovering drug/alcohol addicts think. Kind of a multi-level denial about things.

 

I think there are a lot of Xians who just don't know about the hard stuff. Like they haven't read the entire Babble or haven't studied it in-depth, or for whatever reason just have never really delved into it in anything other than the most shallow, cherry-picking way. (And note here that I have NEVER in all my born days met a Xian that didn't cherry-pick, just some are more obvious than others and some are more honest about it than others.)

 

Then it seems like there are other Xians who know about the hard or bad OT stuff - the atrocities god commits and whatnot - but think it's okay somehow. Or think it's normal. Like abuse survivors think that being treated like shit is normal or okay. Or that they deserve it even if they understand that it hurts. Or the way that perps and abusers either deny that the way they treat people is wrong, or else don't deny it but say that their victims deserve such treatment so therefore it's okay.

 

Plus sometimes it's just easier to let other people tell you how to live your life, or what to believe, or whatever. It's easier not to think about things, easier to just accept what someone else tells you as true, easier sometimes not to grow up and start really looking at what's around you and figuring out for yourself if it's true or whether you can believe it.

 

And sometimes I wonder if a lot of people just get so worn out trying to deal with the inevitable difficulties of life - working 3 jobs to make ends meet, trying to raise a family, whatever - that they just don't have the time or energy to look critically at things in the first place. Critical thinking shouldn't be a luxury, but I wonder if it is for a lot of people.

 

It's easier to control the masses if they're tired and worn down. It's easier to control people if they're stupid (like herd mentality stupid) and don't know how to think for themselves, or if they don't have the time or energy to do so.

 

Hm. Maybe I should get a new job as a part-time deity...