Christianity remains on top

I'm at the bare beginning of The Heritage Podcast. For a treatment of the first ancient civilizations, the host tells a very short history of each in one ep, then talks about their religion and philosophies in the next.

With India, this meant a rather interesting lecture on Hinduism and Buddhism. I have to say I've never before heard ideas so utterly alien to Western thought (Confucius, in contrast, might as well have been Greek). And yet I did understand the gist of each system. I disagree with them completely, of course. Buddhism in particular strikes me as completely pointless.

What surprised me is they both make better sense than Christianity. not in goals, but in structure. as far as utter befuddlement goes, Christianity is still on top.

Quote: Nareed

Buddhism in particular strikes me as completely pointless.

Buddhism is built around reincarnation. First
you realize you are reborn, and then you need
a purpose. Buddhism gives you a purpose.

The universe has no purpose, apparently. Why
should we have one. It seems we have many different
purposes every day, why does there have to
be a central one.

Christianity is a latecomer, it's a religion patched
together from other religions. We've discussed
it before here. Unfortunately, the parts it borrowed
were not always the best parts. The virgin birth
was a bad choice, for instance. It's just silly.

Consider the book of Job.

Here's this guy Job whom Jehovah himself considers "blameless." But Satan says he's pious only because Jehovah has blessed him. That if he were to take away Job's wealth and family, he would surely curse his god. So Jehovah tells Satan to go ahead and take it all from Job.

Job loses his wealth and his children are killed, but he holds fast to Jehovah. So Satan ups the stakes, saying if Job lost his health, then he would forsake god. Jehovah tells him to go ahead, but not to kill Job. So poor Job winds up with boils form head to toe. His friends ask him what he's done to piss off almighty Jehovah, but Job insists he's done nothing.

Job does want to know why Jehovah has punished him, as he believes his deity would not punish the innocent. Jehovah appears to him, and pretty much tells him "Who are you to question me, you insignificant being?"

Oh, we're then told Job recovers his wealth ten-fold, produces a new family and lives until age 140.

Of course, this shows Jehovah thinks of people as replaceable, since he simply replaced Job's children with other ones. That's what people do when they lose a child, right? Get a new one.


This, mind you, was all done to a man Jehovah "loved." Imagine what he does to those he dislikes.

Why do people worship this evil monster?

Things like this is why I claim I don't need to read the Bible: I'm already an atheist.

Quote: Nareed

Consider the book of Job.
.

What's funny about Job is, god and Satan are
kind of 'hanging out' one day. Say what? They
just hang out and discuss things? That's what
the Roman god's did. They say Job is the
oldest book in the Bible, people hadn't invented
the real religion yet.