The Bible

A lot of the Bible repeats itself over and over. "Mr. Kung hath spoken thus. And thus has Mr. Kung spoken. Upon a myriad of subjects the noted Mr. Kung has prophesized. And many listened as he spoke. And the things he spoke were many. And these then are the things that Mr. Kung spoke:"

Am I right or am I right?



God may have been speaking of your average, run-of-the-mill lawyer in terms of the court of heaven. We call them Shylocks. He calls them Satan. I guess.



I haven't read that book lately. But that seems as good of a summing-up as could be. My older brother sees God in terms of running an ant farm. Didn't we all have those as kids? Of course, my older brother (who did not turn out to be a psychopath, we can be glad) would sometimes mix some red ants in with the black ants just to see them battle, so I do understand his analogy. That clearly seems to capture much of recorded history. God looks on from above and allows evil to run amok...for purposes we can only imagine.



"If God lived on earth, people would break his windows" is a common saying and apparently an old Jewish proverb. Israel means "One who struggles with god."



Oh, the whole Jobs affair seems quite capricious. What we might say in defense or to provide context is that this is a human story trying to come to terms with why evil exists and why good people so often are victims of it. If this was directly from God, it would seem he was having an off-day. Even so, it's a strange story.

The Rabbis of the Talmud struggled over this passage also. Their answer is not anymore enlighting.  or a typical shrug, and some day we will have a better answer.

Islam: The morals are tribe-relative. Whatever helps the tribe.

I suppose like many brought up in a Protestant denomination, I read parts of the Pentateuch as a child and yute. Yet I never read all five books in any detail.

For whatever reason, I recently decided to read the Torah from beginning to end. Over the last few nights, I have done so before going to bed.

I must say that I did not get a good feeling from the experience. Perhaps the biggest question which came to mind was, "Why did God even bother?"

From the first man forward, the species is rotten. Eve and Adam can't resist disobeying God who they know personally. Cain can't but murder his brother out of envy. Abraham is a pimp for Sarah, Isaac is not much better. Jacob is a bum taking advantage of Esau's hunger and exhaustion to "buy" his birthright for a pot of stew. And Rebecca and Jacob are lying criminals for deceiving Isaac into giving Esau's blessing to Jacob.

Israel's sons bind their own brother and and throw him in a well. Most want to kill him out of jealousy, but he is found first and sold as a slave to Egypt. After some four hundred years in Egypt, during most of which they were slaves, God sends Moses to rescue them from Pharaoh and bondage. Not days removed from Egypt, the Israelites begin to bitch and complain. They continue to do this for the whole time they are in the desert, despite them actually hearing God speak to them, provide for them and warn them to mend their ways.

What a sorry bunch of scoundrels. What a stubborn group of ingrates. What a dim mob. Again, the question arises, "Why bother?"

Interestingly, there was not a Jew among them. They were the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Judaism comes later.

You get the feeling that large parts of the Bible are for sincere, perhaps even advanced, seekers. And then there are things that God mixed in from the now lost "Word of God for Dummies" edition. As if men needed to be told not to wear women's clothing, and vice versa.





Ditto. And don't pick your nose in public. Cover your mouth when you cough. Look both ways before crossing the street. Men have a penis. Women have a vagina.

Given that we can't generally trust sources regarding history that is occurring right now, I think it's difficult to parse these ancient stories other than by using them as a Rorschach inkblot test. They might simply tell us what we want to see.

It's interesting as well (from what little I've read) that Islam doesn't seem to try to hide it's outright bloodthirsty and evil ways. What we can probably read into this is that what was good for the tribe (or faction) was all that mattered. This may have also been the dynamic regarding ancient Israelites.

We might conclude that the Israelites were better than the tribes they displaced. But who knows? "God" can be the justification for so many things, just as we see the nuts who use "saving the planet" to justify almost anything.

But in the Big Picture, at least from the commentary I've read from Prager about the Torah and such, the purpose of Judaism (even if many Jews today are too politicized to know this) is to universalize standards of conduct outside the tribe. Law is law. No more "what's good for the tribe is the only measure." And there is but one God, not a god for every Tom, Dick, and Harry tribe. And certainly not a mere "water" god or "sun" god, etc.

Well, what we have today may be one God, but in thousands of various boutique denominations and factions, some of which (the Pope, and large swaths of Catholicism) are more Communist than Christian.

So, as far am I'm concerned, start building your Ark. My outlook is that we are in the same situation as Christian religious groups throughout the ages. Many came to America to escape the corruption of Europe. Where do we go now to escape the corruption of America?

So, in some sense, like those early religious communities, we need to somehow wall ourselves off from the wicked world. Maybe the Amish will be the last man standing. But I think I better understand those communities. I mean, look at the Olympics. A man is beating up women and winning the gold medal for his efforts. They are swimming in the polluted Seine and calling shit Shinola. They are blaspheming Christianity while showing what heathen cowards they are by not only leaving Islam untouched but importing them into their country like rats aboard a sinking ship.

It's a sick culture and people, right and left, are normalizing the sickness. Fight it, sure. But at the same time, I think one has to be sure to wall oneself off from it. Did I watch one minute of the Olympics? Of course not. Only a fool would give their attention to that cultural pestilence.