The Old Testament kicks ass

[Ben Kenobi]

Well, that should be obvius - it's not written with todays knowledge. All what back then was seen as act of gods, we now know is just plain nature.

When did that idea first come about?

About thoughts, well, slavery for one is a bit outdated, stoning neither is considered a right way to punish.

So an outdated idea is only one which is considered to be false in the present day? Does that mean there was a time in which slavery was a novel idea, and therefore correct?

Further, it seems like god doesn't care so much today about life on earth - he was quite busy back then interviening, while today he doesn't do anything.

Again, how old is this idea? Is it new?

Back then god mercilessly murdered thousands of infidels for mere insults, but today ? No nonchristian armies has been destroyed by gods merciless weapons despite the numerous chances there has been.

My point is pretty simple. Just because an idea is currently 'out of style', says nothing about whether the idea is true. There are many truths that are believed today, and there are many falsehoods.

Secondly, ideas which are considered to be true, are in fact, never false, even if they fall out of favour. This is how novel ideas introduce error, in rejecting older ideas which are true.

[aneeshm]

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

Well, at least I was serious. I actually like the book. Compared to a lot of other insipid religious drivel, it's honest and actually interesting.

[Impaler[WrG]]

Concerning ramseya quotations of Nietzsche which put Islam in a more favorable light then Christianity, remember that he explicitly says this Islamic nobility was ALREADY destroyed by his time (he speaks of ancient Greece in the same way). I think today Nietzche would view radical Islam as the ultimate in Nihilistic resentment which he consistently despised, not that his view of Christianity would be much better mind you.

[SlowwHand]

Number 1, Nietzsche was full of crap.

[MattBowron]

I've heard that the flood of Noah could've been related to the end of the last ice age, when numerous land bridges previously occupied by hunter-gatherers because they were fertile hunting grounds were flooded, thus destroying many villages. The last major flood caused from the end of the ice age was believed to be around the Black Sea around 7000 BC.

Also, it has been thought that Abraham also left Mesopotamia around 2000s BC. That's right, MESOPOTAMIA. He came from Ur, a region of Mesoptamia, also known as Sumeria, the major civilization of agriculture in the Fertile Crescent, where Babylon developed later as well as the Persian and Islamic empires. Also now currently existing where Iran and Iraq combine. Mesopotamia also believed in demonic creatures, and the name of their moon Goddess? Sin.

[Robert]

Originally posted by ramseya
BK:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_of_Gilgamesh

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanakh

Gilgamesh pre-dates the OT by nearly 2000 years!

I hope you know the difference between "to compile" and "to write".
There's no evidence that the Genesis accounts came from Gilgamesh. Only stating that Gilgamesh may be older is certainly not enough.

Maybe they both have the same source.
Not to mention that the Gilgamesh story is, apart from the flood and the boat, completely different in the way it looks at god(s) and humans.

The Gilgamesh story is about antropomorphic gods.

Lastly, we simply don't know and can't know when the Genesis story and the Gilgamesh story exactly came into being. We don't know how long it was shared verbally till it was written down. We can guess, but we can never know for sure.