Why I Think God is Angry, Part 2

[andyfox]

Indeed, it is my contention that the irrational anger of the God of the Old Testament reflects the irrational anger the Isralites saw in the environment in which they lived.

I too appreciate your day to day input on the forums andy and i too think this is a tad less impressive than some of the other stuff i've read. Firstly, were you kidding about reading only those five books? I hope so because frankly, it would be quite pathetic if you were indeed making such a broad generalisation about "the god of the bible" with so little study of the whole book. Hopefully the word "pathetic" won't give this reply a bit of a bitter tone to those who read it.
In all my discussions about the "angry god" i've heard little or nothing about the concept of JUSTICE. In dealing with punishments how can we so often forget justice as being the central concept? We know God sent down some horrible judgements and we know he was angry. The question should be whether or not that anger was justified.

Now to say that God is angry based on some of his judgements is to say that you believed what you read. Im not trying to say you subconsciously believe in Christianity or Judaism or anything like that. I only mean to say that you cant possibly give creedence to the bad things you read without giving equal respect to the good things.

I don't know if we can say even that God is angry or that God is cruel because of things that may happen to us. Rather i believe that it is just the natural order of things for sin to be punished. In the light of a just God, to not punish sin would be the cruel thing to do.

[NotReady]

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When I read the Bible (and it seems Andy agrees with this) I see God as a very bad parent.


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Analogies between two things doesn't mean the two things are exactly the same at every point. If they were, it wouldn't be an analogy.

[RxForMoreCowbell]

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When I read the Bible (and it seems Andy agrees with this) I see God as a very bad parent.


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Analogies between two things doesn't mean the two things are exactly the same at every point. If they were, it wouldn't be an analogy.

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I know I'm pretty new here and all, but am I established enough to nominate that post as "Best silly attempt to rationalize your belief without adding any substance to the discussion" of the day?

[PairTheBoard]

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Indeed, it is my contention that the irrational anger of the God of the Old Testament reflects the irrational anger the Isralites saw in the environment in which they lived.

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My guess would be it came from the Anger amongst the people themselves. The people responded to punitive methods of control so they described a punitive controlling god. Your theory about the environment might have merit but it's dubious to me because I didn't think of it.

PairTheBoard