Is it right to mock Yahweh?

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marco
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Is it right to mock Yahweh?

Post #1

Post by marco »

Obviously Yahweh is painted as a powerful sky lord, capable of causing catastrophic rainstorms and making all manner of manna for men he has rescued from bad Pharaoh. Some people actually believe that a powerful being appeared to somebody who may have been Malcolm Moses and not only donated rocks with writing on them, but showed his hind quarters as he raced through the sky.

So we can smirk. But is mockery or satire a useful instrument for having a folly dismissed? Why should we earnestly try to unmask Yahweh as a fraud or fiction? Is there the remotest of remote possibilities we are maligning an actual being, capable of turning us into pillars of butter or some such thing? Is there a smidgen of truth in Greek tales of Arachne, made into a spider for her presumption or Marsyas, whipped to death for his challenge to the god, Apollo? Do we mock Yahweh at our own peril?

Is mockery of Yahweh good or bad? Does it serve any useful purpose?

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Re: Is it right to mock Yahweh?

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Post by marco »

[Replying to post 1 by marco]

I know that some readers of the Bible quickly pass over the pages where Yahweh acts savagely, preferring to see them as false insertions, traducing a good and merciful God. But that is to believe there is a magnificence, a splendour, a beauty beyond biblical pages. There might be, but all we have is what is written for us in the OT, tales of a being who wants infants slaughtered and demands a father murder his son.

If indeed this is a travesty, we should expect correction. Maybe mockery is the real Yahweh's way of putting the record straight.

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Post #3

Post by marco »

JJ50 wrote:

The Biblical god is evil, if it exists, and deserves to be mocked.
While this is a legitimate sentiment, JJ50, may I respectfully suggest you offer reasons behind this powerful statement?

Why would we mock evil?

I concur with what you say, but on this forum we want more than a one-liner, however penetrating the thought that it contains. Go well.

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Post #4

Post by JJ50 »

[Replying to post 4 by marco]

Evil entities or people should be on the receiving end of mockery and vilification, for obvious reasons. If they are treated as having any credibility it encourages them to up their evil game, imo.

There is a world leader who is a danger to the planet. His sycophants lick his rear end giving him the impression he is the best thing that has ever happened to his country, when in my opinion he is the worst! :shock: He certainly deserves all decent people to tell him exactly what they think of him.

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Post #5

Post by Willum »

I rather think that it was written into the Bible.
Proof for those selected to know it was false all along.
It is a Greek literary trick, doubling meanings in text.

Yahweh showing Moses his ass... hindquarters. Only the devote would take it seriously.
The Flood, a Greek comedy, was written wholly into the Bible, and only someone devote and naive would think it was real...
Jesus given aphrodisiacs and money, his demi-god brother, Tiberius’ favorite things. Not really what you should give a child, of God.

So, is it right to mock Yahweh? The authors did.
It is clearly depends who you are.

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Re: Is it right to mock Yahweh?

Post #6

Post by Divine Insight »

marco wrote: But is mockery or satire a useful instrument for having a folly dismissed?
I believe so. After all, if people are taking an ancient religion seriously pointing out why it is necessarily absurd might be the only way to get them to realize that it can't possibly be true.
marco wrote: Why should we earnestly try to unmask Yahweh as a fraud or fiction?
Because it clearly is fiction and taking it seriously actually results in a lot of bad things. People end up using this horrible fictional God to belittle other people for no good reason. In fact, in today's world they use this fictional God to belittle science and important advances in medical care such as research on stem cells, etc.
marco wrote: Is there the remotest of remote possibilities we are maligning an actual being, capable of turning us into pillars of butter or some such thing? Is there a smidgen of truth in Greek tales of Arachne, made into a spider for her presumption or Marsyas, whipped to death for his challenge to the god, Apollo?
No there is no possibility that it could be true. Not only this but in truth we aren't mocking any God. What we are actually doing is pointing out the absurdities in an obviously fictional religion.
marco wrote: Do we mock Yahweh at our own peril?
No, because we aren't actually mocking any God. If there exists a decent righteous and loving God he would know that what we are actually arguing against is ignorance and evil.

Let's not forget that if the God really did have an unstable personality and threw temper tantrums when he becomes upset he would be far beneath most mortal humans in terms of character.

So the idea that we should fear an immature unstable lunatic God is ridiculous.
marco wrote: Is mockery of Yahweh good or bad? Does it serve any useful purpose?
The fallacy of the Biblical religions must be exposed. Keep in mind, Yahweh isn't just the foundation of Christianity, but it's also the foundation of Judaism and Islam. And all of these religions represent the epitome of religious bigotry. They are even used to put each other down, never mind putting down all other people who do not share their faith in their religious dogma.

These religions are all a danger to the world, including Christianity. The sooner people wake up to the fallacy of these religions the better.

They don't even need to become atheists, or secularists. There are actually quite many other religions they can choose from that are far better. Buddhism comes to mind immediately. There are many others as well: Taoism, Jainism, etc.

Let's face it, the Biblical religions are some of the worst religions mankind has ever invented. They are basically nothing more than political institutions that hate on each other in the name of their jealous God who hates everyone who doesn't believe in him precisely as one of these Biblical sects demand.

It's not just Judaism, Christianity and Islam that hate each other, but each of these main factions even hate their own diverse collections of individual sects and denomination.

All these Biblical religions do is create is create division in the name of their Gods.

Look at how much the Christians hate each other in the name of their Christ. And if you don't believe me just tune in to some religious radio or TV stations and you'll see the preachers reviling and condemning what they perceive to be false demoninations. Or even other entire religions. They can't hate each other enough if Christ's name.

This nonsense has to stop if humanity is to ever become a global community that isn't hating on each other in the name of this ancient fictional Biblical God.

So yeah, not only is it right to mock the Biblical God, it's actually imperative that we destroy the credibility of these ancient myths entirely. But it's not an easy thing to do. People seem to really be addicted to using the Biblical God to justify hating on others.
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Post #7

Post by bjs »

Mockery is the surest way to avoid having to think critically. If we can mock a person or idea that we disagree with then we can be confident that we will never understand the idea or how a person actually came to believe it.

If mockery is good or bad depends on what our goals are.
Understand that you might believe. Believe that you might understand. –Augustine of Hippo

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Post #8

Post by Willum »

[Replying to post 8 by bjs]

Not true, former Christians started out with respect, mockery is a state of maturity after leaving the belief.

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Post #9

Post by bjs »

[Replying to Willum]

No form of maturity leads to mocking. Mockery is the territory solely of the immature, or of those who wish to set maturity aside for a moment to avoid the burden of thought that comes with it.

(To be clear, that is not a value judgment. One need not be mature to be a good and effective person, and everyone needs a little immaturity every once in a while. We just can’t be both mockers and mature at the same time.)
Understand that you might believe. Believe that you might understand. –Augustine of Hippo

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Post #10

Post by marco »

bjs wrote: Mockery is the surest way to avoid having to think critically. If we can mock a person or idea that we disagree with then we can be confident that we will never understand the idea or how a person actually came to believe it.

If mockery is good or bad depends on what our goals are.
If a film is mocked then it is seen as poor. Life of Brian was cleverly designed; I am sure the intelligent producers thought critically about what they were doing.

If something comes with a note that it is to be taken seriously, and turns out to be rubbish, then no amount of "studying" will make it a work of art.

Mockery doesn't always change things. The Turner Art Prize is mocked, rightly so, but mockery seems to strengthen it, just as the giant Antaeus was strengthened every time he fell to the ground.

Satire is mocking a folly till it goes away. That, I think, is the reason for mocking the biblical portrayal of Jehovah.

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