So, I’m now a couple of weeks into my re-read of the Christian Bible. I have made it from Genesis through Numbers, so I’m about to wave good bye to Moses and the exile in the wilderness because the Israelites seem determined to piss their god off.
It’s bee a very curious thing this re-read. I was raised Southern Baptist, I remember going to Sunday school quite often, so, from my youth, I had a Christinan foundation. I have long since walked away from organized religion in general. I knew these Bible stories, but sitting down and reading them on one go, like a novel written by a committee is a very different experience.
One aspect that has kept me fairly interested is the evolution of god though the text. In Genesis he strikes me like other gods of antiquity. He takes a physical, human form, doesn’t know what is in your heart, and can even be wrestled with. I mean man on man, fighting god to a standstill up until he dislocates your hip.
By the time we get through Exodus and Leviticus, he’s much more a formless god, a cloud of smoke, fire, and wrath that appears to Moses and Aaron (Mose’s P.R. Man who gets far too little credit in the popular media.) God appears on mountain tops, or in columns of smoke and fire to lead the Israelites through the desert, when he isn’t getting ready to wax’em because they sound like a whiney bunch, or even atop the Ark of The Covenant, you know that thing the Nazis were hot for in the GOOD Indiana Jones movie, where he chats with Moses and other high priests on the very exactly nature of the sacrifices they are to present.
On the topic of sacrifices and ritual, this has been very interesting. Is it wrong that this may very influence how I present the pagan religions in my D&D game? Though I have to say up through Numbers, god’s alignment strikes me as, at best, Lawful Neutral. You did the ritual wrong? DEATH. It wasn’t that you were evil or vile, nope you just didn’t follow the rule, and rules are rules. Makes god sound like a mid-level government clerk doesn’t it?
I’m just getting into the war for Canaan, so this should get fun.
One of the Christian concepts (and it varies from church to church on how firm a belief this is expected to be) that I’ve always had problems with is the idea that the Christian Bible is the exact, literal words of God and therefor infallible and not, NEVER subject to interpretation. This gets especially hairy when you examine the early books and compare them to later books – even if you confine yourself to the Old Testament. What God seems to be, as s/he relates to people, changes so much. God is always presented as unchanging – but then how do you explain this? Of course, ultimately, matters of faith don’t really have to make sense. Faith is belief in the absence of definitive proof.
BTW, I was watching a terrific work on the History Channel – “Secret Access – the Vatican” and I heard one of the best things ever said about science and religion. I will attempt to quote – but it will probably be more of a paraphrase, though the concepts are accurate, believe me! “What we know about a science book is that in ten years it will be out of date. What we know about the Bible is that it never goes out of date. The Bible is NOT a science book and you do it no favor when you try to turn it into one!!” I WISH, deeply wish, that all the verbatim-style churches around here would get that message!!!