Direct your eye inward, and you will find
a thousand regions in your mind yet undiscovered.
Henry David Thoreau
The Book of Job
One of the more...preached (for lack of a better word)...books of the Bible is the Book of Job. It is a favorite among the fundementalists. This book always bothered me on so many levels, that I thought I would share them. Pretty nice of me, Huh? After reading this (yes, I have read the Bible...I was Catholic once ya know)I would always come away thinking this god is a sadist. I mean, come on! This story reads like a how-to book of sadism and masichism. Here is this Job person, minding his own business, lovely wife, great kids, loved in his community, worships his god (who seems pretty ungrateful to me) and is the all around "Mr. Nice Guy". Now, God is wandering around (doing random entrapment check-ups on his followers) when he happens upon this Satan fella. Satan looks at God and makes the observance that Job wouldn't like god so well if god didn't give Job all the "good stuff" like wife, kids, friends, prosperity, yadda yadda yadda. God goes "Oh Yeah?" and decides to make a bet with Satan. What I wanna know is...what the heck is god doing making a bet with Satan?!? That is a humongous sin in the church (heck, look at what god did to Lot's home..not to mention wife..for gambeling!) and you would think god would know better. Funny how the preachers leave this out of their arguments about placing the occasional bet on the Super Bowl... Why didn't god tell Satan to take a hike? Go back to Hell? Send him there with his tail between his legs? Why didn't he tell Satan that Job was a special kinda guy, who worshiped in faith and deserved what he had? Anyway, what does god do? Kills the wife and kids (nice god, huh? love 'em while they're young..)destroys his home and lively-hood, makes the people hate him, and gives him all kinds of creepy diseases and deformities to boot. Some god. Nice guy. Now, here's the kicker...If Job refuses to still love god, Job goes to hell for all eternity, and if he decides to stick with god, it will keep up until god says "enough" and/or decides to do it again (you never know, maybe Satan would like to try again). So here is Job, homeless, family dead, and deformed and he still praises god (who really does not deserve it). God wins the bet, Satan goes to hell, and Job gets a new family (I love how women and children are pawns and property. To be killed or removed at whim) and becomes fit as a fiddle. This book is used to show the power of faith, that all will become good with god or some junk. Even though it was that god person who caused the damage in the first place. What I see is that this god is a sadist, Job is a masichist, and I have better things to do than worship an ungrateful god who tortures and kills innocents to get his jollies.
To flip through the pages of my BOS faster...
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Brightest of Blessings