[nine_k]

Here he basically accuses God of destroying a beautiful and desperate world to produce the light show at the Christ's birth time on Earth.

I don't see much reverence in this, just a recognition of power, like that a powerful villain might have.

[knolan]

He’s not accusing god of anything, he’s pointing out that what one primitive civilisation saw as a sign from some supernatural being was a cosmic event with local consequences for another civilisation. He also shows how those beliefs, which in part survive from that early civilisation, are dissonant with our understanding of the universe.

It’s like a child’s belief that heaven sits on the clouds flying in a aeroplane for the first time.

[pantalaimon]

How can he accuse one who does not exist?

The story merely describes a cosmic catastrophe, that some people in a primitive tribe that had not discovered science yet would interpret as a sign of god, much like lightning. And the irony that this event that became so central to this religion was in fact a stellar cataclysm that had nothing to do with earth.

[boxed]

Have you read the Bible? It's full of stuff like this. The story of the children who teased a priest so God sent a bear to kill them is a good example.

[krapp]

Also God letting Satan ruin Job's life (a canonically righteous man) over a bet on whether God was as awesome as He claimed. When God shows up in the last act to rebuke Job's friends for complaining about His - again, canonically unjust treatment of Job, His reply is an extended monologue about how awesome He is.

... although to be fair, Job 38 is one of the most epic parts of the Bible, hands down. When YHWH goes in, He goes in.

Also God hardening Pharoah's heart when he already wanted to let the Israelites go, in order to complete the plagues and flex on Egypt and its gods. Said plagues ended, remember, with the first Passover event and the murder of every firstborn child and animal in Egypt.

And Sodom and Gomorrah, particularly the part where God and Abraham haggle over the lower bound of righteous people it takes to avoid genocide. This is apparently at least ten.

... speaking of which, that time God commands Ezekiel to lie on his side and eat bread baked over human shit for over a year. Ezekiel objects, because the latter would be against God's own law (while the former is just sadistic torture,) and God says fine, he can use cow shit instead, just get on with it.

And the Tower of Babel. God sees that humanity united and speaking a single language is capable of anything as they try to build a tower that reaches the heavens, so He curses humanity with multiple languages to confuse them and impede human progress. This was a particular dick move on God's part, and we're probably lucky Heaven was moved somewhere less easily accessible before we learned how to build skyscrapers or go into space.

And Jesus cursing a fig tree for not bearing fruit out of season. Not as much death and suffering as in the other cases but still petty AF for a guy who can literally create food from nothing.

[cjameskeller]

Job is more of a story about motives, and uses the "wager" (which one could see as an abbreviated account of the rebellion of the devil) as a background for the main question: Is it possible for a man to submit to God & truth, for their own sake, rather than because he expects success/reward? The answer we are given is yes, it is possible, even when times are hard, and that it is often not the victim's fault when times are hard. These moral questions were the primary subject of the book.

The hardening of Pharaoh's heart is described both ways, as God doing it and as Pharaoh doing it. The idea seems to be emphasizing agency, rather than the reverse: God took some actions to free the Hebrews. Pharaoh responded to these with (varying degrees of) opposition, anger, and pride. God's actions were the proximate cause, sure, but Pharaoh was not a puppet.

For Sodom, the dialogue ends at 10 because, as with Noah, we then get down to the number of the last remaining righteous (or less-bad) family, and they are commanded to leave. The indication (made explicit elsewhere in the Bible) is that God would not destroy even one righteous along with the wicked, when it's a direct action. In the Gospels, Jesus then answers another charge related to this, when he says that things like a building collapse or other random accident can and does happen to both good and bad alike.

Ezekiel and the other prophets had it rough.

Babel is about pride and evil culture, not about feats of engineering.

The fig tree was a metaphor for Israel: "All leaf, and no fruit". Not a good day for that plant, but... It's a plant.

[boxed]

The story of Job is much more illuminating when you read it and PAY ATTENTION to the fact that God murders his wife and children.

His wife and children. MURDERS.

Then at the end he gets a NEW wife and NEW children.

The brazen horror of this is just ignored by the faithful.

[arunix]

I had to look that one up. To be fair, the text says that the two bears attacked 42 boys after Elisha cursed the boys, and doesn't mention if the attack was fatal.

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/k/kjv/kjv-idx?type=DIV1&byte=...

(2 Kings 2, 24)

[johnhenry]

Not sure if this is a joke, or if you are defending God's actions?

[b112]

All I see is someone trying to ensure accuracy.

Are you conflating accuracy with defending? Do you believe a wrong, should result in an alteration of truth, to make it look worse?

[johnhenry]

Straightforward answers to your questions: No. No.

But, I believe you have missed the point.

It's problematic to send a bear to attack someone -- particularly if you are the all-powerful, all-knowing creator of the universe with other methods at your disposal. Whether or not the victim dies is besides the point.