Is the New Testament any better than the Old?

[_Shulem]

No matter how you slice it the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament are both blood thirsty insane bastards that require the spilling of blood in order to appease sick requirements of forgiveness.

The God of the Bible Testaments are Dark Aged cultish murderers who demand their worship or threaten hellfire if disobeyed. Well, they will get no such pleasure from me. I will not obey such nonsense, neither will I bow my knee to blood thirsty doctrines of killing first born sons.

Evil! The Bible is sick. However, I do confess that are some pretty good teachings in the New Testament, mostly by Jesus. The apostle Paul can go jump in the lake. St John, writer of the Book of Revelation, was no doubt an acid head or was chewing on some kind of plant when he wrote that sorry ass book of garbage.

Paul O

[_cksalmon]

To be moral, according to Jesus, man must shackle his reason. Less criticism leads to more faith. Indeed, "unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). Children, after all, will believe almost anything.

I disagree with a lot of what you've written above, but this, in particular, interests me.

Can you point me to any New Testament exegete/scholar, of whatever stripe, who interprets this verse as you have here? Is this an idiosyncratic gloss?

To rephrase: Jesus taught that you must shackle your reasoning ability because the less you engage your critical faculties, the more faith you will have in him?

I admit that yours is an interpretation I've not come across and I'm curious.

[_Aristotle Smith]

Can you point me to any New Testament exegete/scholar, of whatever stripe, who interprets this verse as you have here? Is this an idiosyncratic gloss?

cksalmon,

Shame on you. You know that the breadth and depth of all biblical interpretation is exhausted by the penetrating minds of CES, the correlation committee, Mormon folklore, and the combined insights of local Mormon Sunday School teachers.

Even though most here have rejected Mormonism in toto, it's still nice to know that everyone here still knows this: that all biblical interpretation outside of that done inside Mormonism is utter horse crap.

[_cksalmon]

Can you point me to any New Testament exegete/scholar, of whatever stripe, who interprets this verse as you have here? Is this an idiosyncratic gloss?

cksalmon,

Shame on you. You know that the breadth and depth of all biblical interpretation is exhausted by the penetrating minds of CES, the correlation committee, Mormon folklore, and the combined insights of local Mormon Sunday School teachers.

Even though most here have rejected Mormonism in toto, it's still nice to know that everyone here still knows this: that all biblical interpretation outside of that done inside Mormonism is utter horse****.

Nah, I'm betting he's got an ace in the hole. Anyone gestated in the womb of Judeo-Christian morality would have to have a pretty darn good reason for aborting himself.

[_Stormy Waters]

Anyone gestated in the womb of Judeo-Christian morality would have to have a pretty darn good reason for aborting himself.

Like being offended by God commanding his people to kill homosexuals? That alone seems reason enough to me.

Leviticus 20:13 "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."

[_bcspace]

Like being offended by God commanding his people to kill homosexuals? That alone seems reason enough to me.

Leviticus 20:13 "If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."

Don't forget Romans 1:32

[_Stormy Waters]

Don't forget Romans 1:32

32 "Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them."

So BCSpace, would you like to go on the record condoning capital punishment for homosexuals?

[_MrStakhanovite]

Straight up, the Hebrew Canon is much cooler than the tiny Greek Testament. The history is more expansive, the text has multiple layers with all kinds of authors and theological agendas, it has temple cults, rival priesthoods, and above all, the Hebrew language is soooooooooooooooooo much better than lame koine Greek.

[_huckelberry]

The New Testament is founded on guilt. It must convince men that they need salvation, that there is something to be "saved from." It has nothing to offer the happy man (see, e.g., James' Varieties of Religious Experience - Christianity is a religion of the "sick soul" rather than the "healthy mind"). Just as it must destroy reason before it can introduce faith, it must also destroy happiness before it can introduce salvation. I remember doing this on my mission, and I am not proud of it. I had to convince happy people that they weren't saved, that they wouldn't see their family members again, so that I could sell the smut I was peddling.

The New Testament is very effective in inculcating guilt in connection with pleasure. The pursuit of pleasure, when accompanied by guilt, becomes a means of perpetuating chronic guilt, and this serves to reinforce one’s dependence on God. It is not accidental that the Bible regards pride as a major sin. A man with self-esteem is an unlikely candidate for the master-slave relationship that Christ offers him.

according to Jesus, man must shackle his reason. Less criticism leads to more faith. Indeed, "unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 18:3). Children, after all, will believe almost anything.

The whole moral foundation of Christ's teachings can be summed up as follows: obey and be rewarded, disobey and burn in hell.

Howling nonsense is this. These are amazingly twisted and perverted readings of the New Testament. Absolutely none of this makes any sense to me. I do not think it would make any sense to argue. If you actually hear these monstrosities then you should get far far away from the Bible. Try to understand the world with most anything else.

[_moksha]

If religion serves any purpose, it should include making us better people first and foremost. There are so many mixed messages in the Bible that sometimes hellfire and love are even juxtaposed in the same sermon. My advice is to follow the good and seek the betterment of Mankind. A loving God would approve and it would make life more pleasant for us and our posterity. God gave us reason. Let's use it.