Re: [asa] The Old Testament God is ..

Iain,=20

I may have taken the wrong tack with my last email. [For some reason
my =
emails aren't getting posted, but I'll keep sending anyway.] =20

We're given an atheist who finds solace in reading the Old Testament. =
(And Richard Dawkins is hardly the only atheist who goes to the OT for =
comfort.) Wherein does he find his solace? He reads all these
passages =
that reveal how God supposedly thinks and acts, and he says, "The God =
revealed here is pretty terrible. If there really were a God, he
would =
not be like the one portrayed here. Hence, since this is supposed to
be =
the best available revelation, I'm safe in believing that no god =
exists." =20

Let me give four examples to illustrate the kinds of things the
atheist =
sees in the OT: =20

God will punish the sin of the man who hates him, but God says he will =
also punish the man's kids, his grandkids, his great grandkids and =
possibly also his great great grandkids for that man's sin. (Ex.
20:5) =

Uzzah reached out to steady the ark of God when the oxen transporting
it =
stumbled. God killed him on the spot for this "irreverent act." (2 =
Sam. 6) =20

A captain on orders from the king tells Elijah, "Man of God, the king =
says, 'Come down.'" Elijah responds, "If I am a man of God, may fire =
come down...and consume you and your fifty men!" Fire came down and =
killed all 51. (2 Kings 1) =20

Some youths were yelling insults at Elisha. Elisha cursed the kids in =
the name of the LORD, and bears came out to maul 42 of them. (2 Kings =
2)

These are four out of many possible examples. =20

Now the atheist has been told that these words and incidents reveal
God. =
  Coming to the OT as a person with modern values, how is the atheist =
supposed to respect such a God? I won't back up every epithet Dawkins =
invokes, but it's clear that an outsider imbued with current standards =
of morality and political correctness will easily see that many of
those =
epithets apply to God as revealed in the OT. I've often read these OT =
words with Sunday-school eyes and just drank it all in; but try
reading =
with the eyes of an outsider. To an outsider the God of the OT is
often =
a most unpleasant and unjust person. =20

My way of dealing with this, as I described, is to say that God
adopted =
a persona that was unattractive and uncharacteristic but one that was =
suited to the task at hand. In other words, God accommodated himself
to =
the people and their situation. =20

You don't like my approach. What's yours? =20

Don

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Received on Thu Oct 5 23:16:43 2006