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Originally Posted by Rob Instigator
The Old Testament is a proxy for every single religious tome in existence.
They are all full of shit with tiny nuggets of wisdom that you have to sift through like looking for heroin balloons in feces. and those tiny nuggets of wisdom are seldom, if ever, the parts that believers choose to espouse.
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Perhaps nobody ever explained what the Old Testament is about to you. That is why the Catholic Church fought for over a thousand years to NOT translate the Bible into vernaculars, because simply put, the Scriptures are an esoteric, mystical, and confusing anthology of thousands of years of poetry, collected wisdom, and parables. Its also an epic song book.
What is the moral of the Old Testament? That life is difficult, its not supposed to be easy, it wasn't created this way. Human beings have free-will, and we use this extensively to make bad decisions and mistakes which negatively effect the entire world. THIS IS NEWTON'S FIRST LAW, THAT EVERY ACTION HAS AN EQUAL AND OPPOSITE REACTION. In life, there are no take-backs, no do-overs. If you make a decision, good or bad, you HAVE TO EMBRACE THE NATURALLY OCCURRING CONSEQUENCES. This is existentialism 101. These collected stories we call "The Bible" are really just fables to reiterate and explain this process, they document the consequences of people in history's decisions, to inspire us to be careful and accountable with ALL of our own decisions. As my Father-Confessor always reminds me, "EVERY SINGLE MOMENT IN THIS LIFE COUNTS."
We learn from the example of the "heroes" as well as common people of the Old Testament that same wisdom that we are supposed to gather from the example of our grandparents, that life can kick you in the balls, but you have to keep readjusting and doing your best. In the Bible, we read of thousands of people, and get a glimpse of their daily struggles. What is the moral? They survived, thriving even, more or less. When the Gospel of Matthew opens up the New Testament as a geneology of Jesus Christ, we are supposed to understand that we are being reminded that it took all those generations of people working together in continuity, building our present shaped from the past, into the future. Abraham was the father of Isaac, who was the father of Jacob.... etc etc
We are SUPPOSED to learn from this that Abraham busted his ass for over a hundred years so that his son Isaac could live. Isaac busted his ass for over a hundred years so that Jacob could live.. All this culminates with Our Lady the Virgin Mary, who is their genealogical daughter. The moral?
Life is hard, but if you apply yourself, you can survive and in fact be multiplied. We are all the product of our mathematical ancestors, their labors are the only reason we are blessed to exist. The Old Testament documents their struggles, their labors, and their accomplishments. God is involved to inspire and motivate. The "fearful God" is meant to remind us that if God created the world, the world and our lives exist on God's terms. We have to readjust our own intentions and desires around reality. Maybe nobody ever explained this to you, but in the Scriptures while God is a living entity, he is also a personification of the limits of reality. God symbolizes the fact the ALL humans have to yield, submit, and accept certain realities which are completely outside of our power. Pride fools humans into believing we can be independent, we can succeed on our own, we can force our will onto the Universe. That is simply not true, we exist and live on life's terms, and the religious person believes God underlies these realities. EVEN IF YOU ARE A BITTER ATHEIST, THIS MORAL REMAINS THE SAME. There are aspects of life out of your control, we call them God, you can call them whatever you'd like, but regardless you have to deal with reality, period.