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[kitashla]

Clearly, Christians who believe that bad things wouldn't happen if God had a bigger presence have never read the book of Job.

Godly man, considered the most godly man in all the world...has all sorts of horrible shit happen to him.

But bad things happening to us is because we don't have enough God. Yeah...right.

Comments

[sammy81]

Job, to me, is a clear example of how the Bible (or at least the Old Testament) is just a bunch of stories that are not held together by any coherent thread. Job doesn't just have some random shit happen to him even though he is godly. He is the subject of a *wager* between God and Satan where God tortures Job (and murders his entire family) to prove that Job's faith will remain even when things don't go his way. It is so petty and arbitrary an action of a supposedly omnipotent god that it is clearly a simple parable made by simple minds trying to answer one of life's big questions. The thought that scholars have pondered its meaning for hundreds of years boggles my mind.

[kitashla]

For me, it has always struck me as the "greek myth" of the bible. According to scholars, it's supposed to be the first book ever written, which I could see. The relationship between the devil and god is seen no where else in the bible which leads me to believe that it may have come about when the religion was still somewhat attached to the surrounding "pagan" ones. But honestly, Job reads like an excerpt from The Iliad

[sammy81]

Yes, I agree with you. I was raised Catholic, not evangelical, so we didn't believe God or the Devil punishes people for not being Christian enough. However, it felt just as hypocritical. Whenever something bad happened, they would say that God didn't cause it - bad things just happen, or man caused it through his free will. But whenever anything good happened, they thanked and praised God for sending the rain or working good deeds through people. Bullshit - so God doesn't cause anything bad, but causes everything good?? Well how fucking convenient! As you said, you can't have it both ways. Or, more accurately, you can have it both ways if you make a circular convoluted argument with tons of qualifiers and then call it a religion.

[gany]

I agree with you and besides, these things are said in such a poor taste and sound unchristian to the families that lost their loved ones.

[ladyfelicity]

Yeah, that has been really bugging me.