Christian Swanson, Living in Wisconsin #fundie

Christian Swanson, Living in Wisconsin #fundie quora.com

(In response to: "Thanos instantly wiped out half of existence. The God of the Bible murdered the whole population in painful circumstances except for 8 people. Why is one considered a villain and the other is worshipped?")

Because one deserves worship.

Think about it. God created us. He has the right to do with us however He sees fit. If you make a vase, don't you have the right to smash it if you don't want it anymore? God has ownership over us, and He has the right to do with us as He sees fit.

But God was merciful compared to what He could have done.

God made a very distinct set of rules. We as His creations are required to follow them. But what do we do? We break them. Therefore, we are at God's mercy. The fact that God does not strike us down at our FIRST sin shows incredible mercy and grace from God's side of the law.

Thanos, on the other hand, is one of God's creations, and is therefore accountable to God's law. When he committed mass genocide, he may have seen it as an act of mercy, but it was still murder. Sure, resources may be less spread out for the next few generations, but given enough time, the universe will be back to the way it was before the Snap.

When God sent the Flood (or any sort of massive cause of death), there was a very good reason. The Flood exterminated all of the people who were committing sins that would be considered heinous, even to today's standards. When Pompeii was wiped out, they were an incredibly evil group of people (what you never see in a museum, are all the paintings of horrid acts that the people of Pompeii did DAILY, such as beastuality). So yeah, there's still sin in the world. But the sins today are minimal by the people's pre-flood sins.

25 comments

old comment by

Because one deserves worship.

Think about it. Thanos created us. He has the right to do with us however He sees fit. If you make a vase, don't you have the right to smash it if you don't want it anymore? Thanos has ownership over us, and He has the right to do with us as He sees fit.

But Thanos was merciful compared to what He could have done.

Thanos made a very distinct set of rules. We as His creations are required to follow them. But what do we do? We break them. Therefore, we are at Thano's mercy. The fact that Thanos does not strike us down at our FIRST sin shows incredible mercy and grace from Thanos's side of the law.

The Christian God, on the other hand, is one of Thanos's creations, and is therefore accountable to Thanos's law. When he committed mass genocide, he may have seen it as an act of mercy, but it was still murder. Sure, resources may be less spread out for the next few generations, but given enough time, the universe will be back to the way it was before the Snap.

When Thanos sent the Flood (or any sort of massive cause of death), there was a very good reason. The Flood exterminated all of the people who were committing sins that would be considered heinous, even to today's standards. When Pompeii was wiped out, they were an incredibly evil group of people (what you never see in a museum, are all the paintings of horrid acts that the people of Pompeii did DAILY, such as beastuality). So yeah, there's still sin in the world. But the sins today are minimal by the people's pre-flood sins.

old comment by Anon-e-moose

We as His creations are required to follow them. But what do we do? We break them

>Lying (Abraham & Isaac)

>Murder/War Crimes (Hosea 13:16)

>Adultery (Joseph & Mary)

>Paedophilia (Mary)

Years ago - when "Passion of the Christ" was released - during the film section of Simon Mayo's programme on BBC Radio 5, film reviewer Mark Kermode interviewed the then head of the British Board of Film Classification.

He stated that, should a film of The Bible be made: but not glossing over certain events a la "The Greatest Story Ever Told" but instead used the Bible as the screenplay: warts & all, it wouldn't even get an 'R-18' rating; that issued to films only for private film clubs or porn DVDs/Blu-Rays for sale in licenced sex shops. Why?

Because of the hideous scenes in said film - of the Bible - it would be seized by the police under the Obscene Publications Act.

Even the BBFC ordered re-editing/re-framing certain scenes in the "Human Centipede" films before they could be given '18' ratings.

old comment by Swede

Think about it. Your mum and dad created you. Do they have the right to do with you however they see fit?

A vase has no feelings, it doesn't breathe or think. Humans are living breathing feeling beings, and no-one should have the right to own humans.

No, your god was not merciful. He drowned almost all life on the planet, because it behaved as he had created it to do.

The "set of rules" is pretty far from distinct. It's contradictory and varies over time. Should you Not Kill, or should you kill the ones God orders you to kill? He as our creator ought to know what we're capable of following.

Oh yes! Not striking us down for wearing clothes of mixed fabrics nor for mixing dairy and meat in the same utensils and on the same plate, that is VERY merciful of him, indeed...

Mass genocide? Is that obliterating many cultures at once?

The Flood (supposedly) also exterminated all animals and plants and fungi. Neither of them had committed any heinous sins.

The people of Pompeii were killed doing daily things. If "beastuality" was that common, there ought to be several plaster-casts of people in coitus with their animals. There is quite a lot of erotic art there, but to my knowledge it was depicting mostly humans, and sometimes gods, not animals.

I'd say denying people healthcare, taking tax-money from the people and giving it to the already rich, lying in office and lying about lying, those are much more heinous sins than wearing clothes of mixed fabrics...

old comment by Timjer

Dude, Thanos may have been a bad guy, but at least he (in his insanity) genuinly believed he was doing the right thing. He didn't do it because he was butthurt people didn't worship him as much as they should have. He also chose to snap completely at random. Not taking any favorites at all, and only took 50% of all life rather than 99%.

But anyway, you're saying that creators can do with their creations whatever they want regardless of the creation's feelings? So does that mean parents can abuse and use their children however they see fit? After all, children are just the creations of their parents and therefore don't have any rights, do they? And then you assholes dare to say we are the immoral ones!

old comment by SpukiKitty

Ah! The ol' "God can do it cuz he's God" defense (I forgot the name of the TV Trope thing).

It's a very stupid argument.

@Titania
Exactly! I believe that The Bible shows two deities, the real one and the Demiurge. The Demiurge is Deity as described by powerful bigoted authoritarian people. When BibleGod is more "The Great Stalin In The Sky" rather than "The Loving Heavenly Parent", that's the phony man-made Demiurge.

I'd love to rewrite the Bible just to reinterpret everything and make it more in line with archeological and scientific fact as well was better values....

THE HEBREW TESTAMENT
* The Creation Story would have the Earth and life on it created after the Sun and Moon. "Let there be light!" would be The Big Bang.
* Adam & Eve would be strictly described as a metaphor of the human species as a whole and as a metaphorical androgyne that split in two instead of "woman made from man's rib".
* The "Fall of Man" would be about how humanity developed the ability to understand right & wrong but chose to do wrong, anyway.
* Noah's Ark would be about a local flood that inundated much of the known world. God would only be warning of it, not causing it. Only Noah and his family would listen to God, thus being saved.
* Sodom and Gomorrah would be similar. Also; The citizens of both towns strictly described as as greedy psychopaths who loved brutal violence as much as they did greed. If everyone is literally Ted Bundy then seeing them zoarched by a volcanic explosion wouldn't be so bad.
* The Exodus was about a labor dispute between a group of Hebrew workers and a new Pharaoh who wanted to restrict their religious expression. The plagues would be caused by the effects of the island of Santorini erupting and the Hebrews fled through the REED Sea. The Egyptians were so embarrassed that they didn't dare jot the events down in their records (which is exactly how real ancient Egyptians did things).
* The "Conquest of Canaan" was a social/religious revolution and not mass-genocide (but with a number of battles happening, anyway). BibleGod is technically a composite of the Canaanite Pantheon.

THE NAZARENE TESTAMENT
* Bethlehem would be a kibbutz-type settlement of Nazarene Essene lay people. Not a town or city.
* Deity induced parthenogenesis within Mary. Jesus was a parthenogenetic baby.
* "Demon-Possessed" people in the Gospels would be described as severely mentally ill.
* Lazarus and the Rabbi's daughter would be comatose and not dead.
* Instead of "The Jews", it would be "The Corrupt Temple Officials". Much will also be made of Jesus, his followers and The Nazarene Way's "Jewishness" and how The Nazarene Way is an optional Alternate Judaism that even Gentiles can follow.
* Jesus & Co. will be referred to by their Jewish names.
* When Jesus dies on the Cross, a solar eclipse happens as the Temple curtain's ripped in two (but none of the dead rising from graves stuff).
* Only epistles proven to be written by Paul will be used. Since they were letters from Paul, they would be mostly unchanged. However; The more bigoted parts might be either excised or reinterpreted while still retaining the message and spirit of the letters. Most of the bad stuff is in the spurious epistles, anyway. It will also be made clear that Paul does not supersede Jesus and that his letters are the opinions and interpretations of a Church Leader....not infallible "Gospel". Paul was a theologian and his opinions don't have to be followed to the letter.
* The Book of Revelation will be strictly stressed to be a metaphor and not literal in the slightest.

....and so on....

Basically; I'd try to clear things up and make it more plausible. Deity and the supernatural will still exist but be more of a hands-off thing and miraculous stuff would still mostly be plausible (like Deity inducing parthenogenesis in a young Jewish maiden engaged to a slightly-older but still youngish carpenter).

This NeoBible would be divided into The Hebrew and Nazarene Testaments (Not 'Old' and 'New'). Deity will be described as androgynous: The Father-Mother/Parent.

@Swede
Amen to that! My idea for a rebooted Bible would remedy that!

@Timjer
Also; It's likely that the Snap would be undone in the next movie, anyway. I mean; A whole bunch of famous, beloved superheroes just died, I doubt they're going to stay dead. They're not just going to have the bad guy win and leave it at that!

@InsultToRocks
Wouldn't be great if Squirrel Girl undid the Snap? LOL!

old comment by NonProphet

So might makes right, parents can beat or murder their children, and "worshipping the wrong god(s)" is bad enough to justify murdering millions of people with a global flood - for which there is no evidence or even enough water on the planet - but your God is still a good guy, huh?

Oh, and where's the evidence for your claim about Pompeii? I'm guessing you don't work in archaeology (you'd know how much horseshit the Biblical history is) or in a museum, so where does your claim about "all the paintings of horrid acts" come from? Are you, perhaps, bearing false witness?

@SpukiKitty: I think the Gnostics have a similar concept about the Demiurge. I think there's an English-language Gnostic Bible out there somewhere (though your personal theology may differ greatly, I don't know).

old comment by Churchy LaFemme

The whole Noah story just shows that God has temper tantrums without thought of consequences. Think about it: he can selectively kill the first-born in Egypt, while passing over houses with a special mark on the door, but the only way he could deal with evil humanity was to wipe out everything on earth? What did all the animals do that necessitated them being destroyed? Considering the length of time it took Noah to build the ark and gather the animals, God didn't have second thoughts or come up with a better way of eliminating evil people?

Then there's the stupidity of using a rainbow to remind Him not to destroy the earth with a flood again, since rainbows don't appear until after the rain has stopped.

old comment by SpukiKitty

@The Angry Dybbuk & NonProphet

Yup; And I have read some Gnostic stuff. My interpretation, however, is more non-literal....as in I don't see the Demiurge as a literal being who created the physical universe. I'm open to the Gnostics but am not keen on the "matter is evil" mindset.

In my interpretation, The Demiurge isn't necessarily synonymous with God but is rather thee embodiment of humanity's misinterpretation of God. I also apply the Demiurge to all faiths and not just Christianity.

I'm a NeoPagan who follows a Universalist Interfaith-inspired path. I'm the "blind person" who tries to "grab as much of the elephant" as possible. I take the stuff from the world's faiths and try to condense it down to it's basic components (removing all the moralistic and cultural elements while keeping the unifying common threads within).

I take the above and apply it to a generic, NeoPagan, witchy, Left & Right Hand Path belief system. I call it "Greywicca".

I still have a thing for Shaktism but I prefer a more Universal approach.

I'm all about unifying opposites and balance.