The Old Testament kicks ass

[aneeshm]

It seriously does.

Whenever I've come across Christian ethics in modern culture, they've struck me as particularly insipid and pathetic.

However, a few days back I resumed by reading of the NIV Bible, Old Testament, and it's a very refreshing change. War, murder, rape, killing thousands with donkey jaws, mutilating hundreds of penises, genocide, prostitution, drunken incest, treachery, it's got it all.

What I like is the complete unselfconsciousness displayed by the authors. No moralistic BS. God is Isarel's pimp, Israel his beach, and that's very very clear. Israel prostitutes herself to Baal and Asherah, God delivers Israel into the hands of her enemies. Israel is the faithful to the LORD, the LORD provides. It's a very clear relationship, no moralising, no preaching, no nothing.

Who else likes the OT far better than the later "love they brother" and "mercy" and other boring-to-death stuff?

[CrONoS]

I hear the echo of Nietzsche in your appreciation of the OT

[aneeshm]

There is a bit of that, yes. But it's mostly just plain joy in reading something which doesn't judge itself too much. I get sick of moralistic BS sometimes, and at times like that the OT refreshes.

[UnOrthOdOx]

Bah. Just give me Revelations.

[Dinner]

I want to kill 1000 people with an ass's jaw.































This space for rent.

[Arrian]

Who else likes the OT far better than the later "love they brother" and "mercy" and other boring-to-death stuff?

Jews, presumably. It also appears that many fundamentalist Christians are awfully fond of the "ass kicking" OT.

-Arrian

[ramseya]

Cronos' comment got me thinking about what Nietzsche would have thought about Islam...

From The Will to Power

Mohammedanism, as a religion for men, is deeply contemptuous of the sentimentality and mendaciousness of Christianity, which it feels to be a woman's religion.

From The Antichrist

Christianity destroyed for us the whole harvest of ancient civilization, and later it also destroyed for us the whole harvest of Mohammedan civilization. The wonderful culture of the Moors in Spain, which was fundamentally nearer to us and appealed more to our senses and tastes than that of Rome and Greece, was trampled down (—I do not say by what sort of feet—) Why? Because it had to thank noble and manly instincts for its origin—because it said yes to life, even to the rare and refined luxuriousness of Moorish life!... The crusaders later made war on something before which it would have been more fitting for them to have grovelled in the dust—a civilization beside which even that of our nineteenth century seems very poor and very “senile.”—What they wanted, of course, was booty: the orient was rich.... Let us put aside our prejudices! The crusades were a higher form of piracy, nothing more! The German nobility, which is fundamentally a Viking nobility, was in its element there: the church knew only too well how the German nobility was to be won.... The German noble, always the “Swiss guard” of the church, always in the service of every bad instinct of the church—but well paid.... Consider the fact that it is precisely the aid of German swords and German blood and valour that has enabled the church to carry through its war to the death upon everything noble on earth! At this point a host of painful questions suggest themselves. The German nobility stands outside the history of the higher civilization: the reason is obvious.... Christianity, alcohol—the two great means of corruption.... Intrinsically there should be no more choice between Islam and Christianity than there is between an Arab and a Jew. The decision is already reached; nobody remains at liberty to choose here. Either a man is a Chandala or he is not.... “War to the knife with Rome! Peace and friendship with Islam!”: this was the feeling, this was the act, of that great free spirit, that genius among German emperors, Frederick II. What! must a German first be a genius, a free spirit, before he can feel decently? I can’t make out how a German could ever feel Christian....

[Kidlicious]

Both the NT and OT suck bad! Imagine a world where they were the only two things to read.

[SlowwHand]

Re: The Old Testament kicks ass

Originally posted by aneeshm
It seriously does.

Whenever I've come across Christian ethics in modern culture, they've struck me as particularly insipid and pathetic.

However, a few days back I resumed by reading of the NIV Bible, Old Testament, and it's a very refreshing change. War, murder, rape, killing thousands with donkey jaws, mutilating hundreds of penises, genocide, prostitution, drunken incest, treachery, it's got it all.

What I like is the complete unselfconsciousness displayed by the authors. No moralistic BS. God is Isarel's pimp, Israel his beach, and that's very very clear. Israel prostitutes herself to Baal and Asherah, God delivers Israel into the hands of her enemies. Israel is the faithful to the LORD, the LORD provides. It's a very clear relationship, no moralising, no preaching, no nothing.

Who else likes the OT far better than the later "love they brother" and "mercy" and other boring-to-death stuff?

David opened a can of whoopass on Goliath, then took the bastard's head. Served him right.

[Cort Haus]

You might also enjoy 'Mein Kampf', aneeshm.

[Ben Kenobi]

Wow, what's the hate-on for the Old Testament?

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi
Wow, what's the hate-on for the Old Testament?

Uhm, it's a religious scritpure that makes mein kampf look meek ?

[ramseya]

The Old Testament reads just like other period pieces of the region like Gilgamesh (hell, the OT plagiarized Utnapishtim's/Noah's Ark from Gilgamesh)... it sounds like it was written by tribal shepherds living in a violent Bronze Age-era.

[ramseya]

Also, in my opinion, the New Testament and the Qur'an are superior as religious texts. They're not as plain weird and they are more clear in terms of ethics. Yes, the OT has the books of the Torah as companions and there's an absurd about of laws and ethics in there, but most of the OT is a narrative story. The narrative of the NT seems more like just stuff to put around each of Jesus' sermons and his lessons and the Qur'an is like one big poem.

Like I've read the story of Moses and of King David and I can't see what the moral teaching is. Frankly, David was an a-hole.

[Jon Miller]

Why do you say plagiarized when most old cultures have a 'Noah' like story?

JM