Thursday, January 30, 2014

The ultimate in religious arrogance

There are all kinds of examples of arrogance in religion, from thinking a god is working on its behalf to thinking its religion is superior to others.

But the original arrogance is what has me spouting off this post today. What is the original arrogance? I'll use the Judeo-Christian religion, though my premise works with any religion, really. If you were to read the bible, and I highly recommend it if you need something to push you into atheism, you would figure out pretty quickly that its god has Chosen People.

In Judaism, the Jews are the Chosen People, chosen to be in a covenant with god. "For you are a holy people to YHWH your God, and God has chosen you to be his treasured people from all the nations that are on the face of the earth." -- Deuteronomy 14:2

Christians believe Jews were the Chosen People, too, but because the Jews rejected Jesus as the Messiah, Christians received a special status (Romans 11:11-24), a doctrine known as supersessionism.

How arrogant do you have to be to know there are millions of people scattered all over the planet, but the "creator of everything" says your race is the one he favors the most, that you are his Chosen People?

Aren't we all "God's children?" Would a loving parent really produce a bunch of kids, single one out as his favorite and shun/destroy the rest? This is how you absolutely know the bible was written by men, and written of their own volition, not with any god's guiding hand. Of course, everything else in the bible only reinforces this, but the initial idea that the Jews were "chosen" is just an attempt at pure manipulation of the masses and rule-making to fit their repulsive desires.

And, if Jesus was the actual son of the Jewish god, (or in some Christian sects, he was god himself) then how come he couldn't convince the Jews he was the Messiah? After all, Yahweh chose them, so how come these Chosen People can't recognize their own god or god's son? He was able to convince them he was Yahweh, the creator, once upon a time. It's not like he would have to screw with their free will. Why did he lose his ability to be believable?

And that segues into the Christian arrogance, proclaiming they were smart enough to recognize and believe in Jesus as the Messiah, thus earning them special dispensation (another man-made selfish rule).

As for the rest of the world, how can we be tasked with making the correct "choice" when we have zero evidence to use as proof? We are, after all, only human. If I believed there were a higher power, I would put the blame squarely back on the deity for there being such divisions in religion. But, it's clear, there is no Chosen People, only people. Some day everyone will see the bible for what it is, a fairy tale written by misogynists who wanted to rape women, own slaves and kill people who weren't like them. They weren't chosen, they were self-appointed.

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