Theology | Idolatry
Religions are not monolithic, even the most extreme cults cannot TOTALLY control what’s going on in the adherents’ minds. I was in a relatively benign “christian” one for 25 years. There were always these … doubts… especially about certain passages in the Old Testament, where God tells someone to go perform a genocide on a neighboring nation. (1 Samuel 15 is only one example)
Is that a loving God? Our ministry had some rather LAME rhetoric that supposedly justified it. Lame, and yet, my fawning over “experts” — my revering “experts” as I did at thirty, made me a sucker. I had never touched a “Bible,” THEY had spent a lifetime pouring through its pages. “Their rhetoric MUST be right, and yet…”
Question: DO YOU KNOW ENOUGH ABOUT THE BIBLE (and its derivative “holy books”) to SEE the fallible humanity in it—notwithstanding self-exculpatory language where it shames you for doubting? (e.g. “There is a way which seemeth right unto a MAN, but the ends thereof are the waysof death” in Proverbs) Common sense be damned, in other words.
The point of this essay is that you do not need to accept the words of religious “experts” as to the meaning of religioius writings. You do not need to feel guilty if a quiet voice is saying,”this is NOT righteous, a LOVING GOD would NOT tell me to do this.”
I’ve often written and “tweeted,” that the BIBLE has much ancient wisdom and practical advice. It deserves respect, as such. But being of human origin — no more than simple respect.
In the 10 Commandments it prohibits idolatry — making images of God.
Idols can be made of words, as well as stone.