One common objection I’ve seen posited against Christianity was the actions of God during the Old Testament, such as the wars waged against other peoples in the name of God, destroying the world with a flood, and the killing the firstborn of all Egyptians. I’ve done my best to try and avoid hostile arguments online but sometimes one of these arguments happens across my path. There is one video that I do have on hand of such a criticism. I’ve talked with others in private about it and tried not to let it bother me but found myself still feeling the weight of some of its claims. I’m going to include it here but be warned: it is very stupid (it uses Barbie dolls to mock the Old Testament Yahweh and, judging by the crosses on the Mattel logo at the end, Christianity by extension) but does raise serious questions about how God allows bad things to happen to good people and why would God attack the non-believers:
I like the problem of evil as it is entirely a problem for the atheists, those that have eaten one apple too many If you are into youtube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL98EC8B73CDBC76C5 might give you a different viewpoint of it.
The plagues and disasters that came upon mankind one look at from the point of view that ones God shows one. Humans have long looked at death as a judgement because they saw it as an adversary to life. It is odd that they believe in God eradicating nearly the entire human population in the flood but think evolution is incompatible with God as most species have died. Just look at death as a home calling instead and it will change your mind.
The death of children has been a plague to humankind forever and only been solved by modern medicine. The OT is actually in part a transmission of behaviours that allowed better survival by ritualising hygiene rules that distinguished the jews from their neighbouring tribes. To declare pigs unclean was a wise decision in times were you could not prevent their worms to get you etc. The meaning of the passover - or what happened there that prevented the death of the jewish community but killed the egyptian children will only be understood in hindsight long time ago but clearly they saw their survival as the consequence of the protecting nature of their God. Its a bit like looking at evolution from the point of “survival of the fittest” or the revenge against the unfit
As it says in the bible, in creating good God also creates evil, and if you deny the existence of God because it hurts your ego if things are created or create themselves, you are still faced with good and evil but you lack the metaphysical comprehension that allows you to overcome evil. Only the overinflated ego would think that because God - no bad things should happen to his followers. Its the same level of “bright” thinking revealed by anti-vaxers “if you are vaccinated you should not get infected”. The vaccination does not prevent infection, but it alters the outcome as you not dying from the disease as your immune system can fight the disease faster and more efficient. Its a bit like thinking that if you put on a seatbelt would stop you from having accidents
Watch the infantile thinking revealed in Marshall Brain’s video https://youtu.be/zDHJ4ztnldQ?si=RsGUhrl0lsEkk2To who raises the same question, why would bad things happen to good people. He sounds like he still thinks God ought to be Santa - and because he doesn’t get his presents Santa does not exist. Wonder if he ever grew out of it but his name might be his curse and hi book “How God works” is testament to his failure of critical thinking that he brags about doing so much of. His claim “why doesn’t God heal amputees” implies that healing means to have the body you wish for. If you watched Harrys Heroes on their expeditions you wonder who needs healing here, or Nick Vujicic etc.
The problem of evil is an old one and so far, there is no simple answer to it. Suffering is like fever in the sense that many differing mechanisms can cause suffering.
What we call ‘evil’ is partly subjective. For example, predators eat prey and I do not see evil in it. Some think of death as evil but I see death as a natural part of the current life because reproduction without death leads to suffering. If we want to have new life, we have to accept that older life ends at some point.
If we have free will (as I do), that means necessarily a possibility to make decisions that lead to suffering. When we humans make wrong decisions, other persons may suffer.
For some reason, God decided to give us free will and that decision necessarily included the possibility of ‘evil’ decisions that cause suffering.
In a comparable way, our planet formed through the processes of an active, dynamic universe. The cost of the life-enabling processes is that a person who is ‘in the wrong place in the wrong time’ may be injured or killed by the natural processes. That causes suffering but I would not call the processes ‘evil’.
These are just some viewpoints to a multifaceted problem.
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SkovandOfMitaze
(Intellectually Atheist Emotionally Christian )
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While I did not watch the video the claim is very common. Many highlight how evil and bloodthirsty Yahweh was in the tanakh and his very different from Jesus he seems. It’s a legitimate argument.
A god that kills babies with an angel of death and who drowns them with a flood and who demands animals to he slaughtered and gave their blood and ashes sprinkled around is a horrifi mix god. It’s worse to when considering some believes this god needed his son killed for forgiveness and casts those not saved into eternal conscious torment.
Thus may or may not help you. But this is how I look at it and why I’m not bothered.
The first is that I think those stories are mostly fiction. It’s ancient myths. It’s accomondationism. I suggest looking into accomondationism. We know there was never a global flood or all of humanity driven down to that 8 or so people.
There is also evidence that perhaps Yahweh and El were two different gods from two different tribes that got merged together. That maybe Yahweh was worshipped by Kenites or maybe Jethro from Egyptian influence. They then combined with the Jews.
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If you are into youtube