19 thoughts on “Did you know”

  1. mark says:
    February 22, 2016 at 09:03

    It comes as no surprise to me for my Granda had already made me aware of it. Although I am not religious my Granda is a catholic and when I tell you that he is currently 97 then you’ll understand what type of catholicism that he was brought up with. The type that you can’t escape.
    A couple of years ago he decided he was going to read the old testament having already read the whole of the new testament. One day when I was speaking on the phone to him he started talking about some of the things that he had read in the old testament and how he was horrified at what happened. At the time I didn’t question him too much about it and thought that perhaps he was over reacting. But he actually said that it made him question his faith, which is an amazing statement for my Granda to make. Having since done a little bit of research so I could understand better I realised that he wasn’t over reacting at all and that at times it can be fairly horrific. Probably one of the most famous psalms is psalm 137 which starts off as that familiar pop tune from the 70’s that most people will know, “By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion”, skip to the last stanza of that psalm and we find “Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who repays you according to what you have done to us. Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.” How terribly christian indeed.
    It makes you wonder though why the catholic church pushes the new testament so much and not really the old testament at all. Is it because it’s no longer relevant or perhaps too much allegory and therefore confusing. No, it’s probably because it will make people question their faith, if it did that to a catholic who was brought up in the 1920’s then less ‘brainwashed’ catholics might crumble altogether.
    note: when I say brainwashed I don’t mean it in a nasty way it’s just how things were back then. The ironic thing is that my Granda despite being brought up a staunch catholic has views that would shame a lot of other so called christians. At the end of the day he is a good human being, which means despite what the bible may say about things like homosexuality he uses his own mind and judgment and he doesn’t have a problem with it. Gratuitous violence in the old testament, now that’s a different matter.
    I’ve probably said way too much there, but it’s not the first time I’ve done so on this blog, it feels comfortable.
    Thanks,
    Mark

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    • makagutu says:
      February 22, 2016 at 10:20

      No, you didn’t say too much. You said all that was relevant to the discussion and thanks.

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    • koppieop says:
      February 22, 2016 at 16:37

      Mark: I like your clarification of ‘brainwashing’. The negative connotation of this word is unavoidable; therefore in this case, religion taught to kids, I prefer to say “brainforming”. That is a natural process we all go through, whereas ‘brainwashing’ indicates a deliberate [nasty] way of imposing an ideology.-

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      • mark says:
        February 22, 2016 at 22:00

        Thank you Koppieop for your clarification. You are totally correct about the term brainwashing and I should have given it more thought. I like your phrase of ‘brainforming’ it describes the process better. I actually looked up brainwashing and my dictionary gives it as – To effect a radical change in the ideas and beliefs of (a person), esp. by methods based on isolation, sleeplessness, hunger, extreme discomfort, pain, and the alternation of kindness and cruelty.
        What was I thinking, evidently I wasn’t.
        Thanks again, much appreciated,

        Mark

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        • koppieop says:
          February 23, 2016 at 00:04

          It was not my intention to critize your using the word ‘brainwashing’, because I read it in many discussions on this subject. I just thought that, generally speaking, ‘brainforming’ would be more appropiate. Although the word doesn’t even exist! Your anaylis however shows us that ‘brainwashing’ does not seem to be a correct description, but I guess this will not be changed..
          Sad but true, that early learnings are a double-edged sword. Regards.-

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  2. themodernidiot says:
    February 22, 2016 at 12:40

    We studied the women in it. Its def pretty bad in parts

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    • makagutu says:
      February 22, 2016 at 14:26

      most times when the women have names, they must be giving birth to someone or she is a whore.
      What is the name of Noah’s wife?

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      • inspiredbythedivine1 says:
        February 22, 2016 at 14:55

        Mrs. Noah. Yeah, the OT is a horror film just waiting to be made. Awful, really. Horrid stuff. Shows you how few people who claim to believe everything in it have actually read it.

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        • makagutu says:
          February 22, 2016 at 15:37

          It’s been waiting for script writers ever since it left the press.
          Mrs. Noah. How did I forget that

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        • fojap says:
          February 22, 2016 at 15:39

          I tried reading it a couple of time. Probably the most illiberal thing my mother ever did was making it disappear from the shelf after she saw me reading it. It could have been my father, but I think my father would have not behaved sneakily like that and simply told that he didn’t want me to read it.

          Dawkins has a funny story about Winston Churchill’s son reading the Bible for the first time:

          Winston Churchill’s son Randolph somehow contrived to remain ignorant of scripture until Evelyn Waugh and a brother officer, in a vain attempt to keep Churchill quiet when they were posted together during the war, bet him he couldn’t read the entire Bible in a fortnight: ‘Unhappily it has not had the result we hoped. He has never read any of it before and is hideously excited; keeps reading quotations aloud “I say I bet you didn’t know this came in the Bible …” or merely slapping his side & chortling “God, isn’t God a shit!”

          While I was looking for that quote, I came across an interesting little post;
          http://scienceblogs.com/evolutionblog/2012/06/21/on-reading-the-bible/

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      • themodernidiot says:
        February 24, 2016 at 09:59

        Number 2 *snickers*

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  3. clubschadenfreude says:
    February 22, 2016 at 15:31

    the OT is a great story, if one is up for what a evil villain does before the heroes of the story destroy him in a classic sword and sorcery story.

    For all of the claims by Christians that their god is “love” and that their god is “just and fair”, the OT certainly shows that this is not true at all.

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  4. Real real me says:
    March 5, 2016 at 02:34

    No, I didn’t know it… (I thought it was the opposite because of the jihad thing) but when I think about it makes sense, especially when considering the revenge.

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