> From: Robert J. Chassell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Perhaps people on the list can help: is the following a fair > description of the nature of the Jewish/Christian God, and how it is > different from the nature of the Moslem God? > > And if so, are the fundamental political implications as described? > Are more Moslems likely to believe in false conspiracies because of > these beliefs than US Christians or Jews? > > An article in Asia Times Online > > http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/EJ28Aa02.html > > says > > ... the Jewish God enjoys only a qualified sort of omnipotence. His > sympathy with mankind, his creation, compels him to suffer along > with his creatures. He cannot help but hear the cry of innocent > blood, the complaint of the widow and orphan, the mistreated > stranger and the oppressed slave (Professor James Kugel of Harvard > makes his hoary argument in _The God of Old_). He is the God of the > town meeting, of the popular assembly, of the democrats. With good > reason, Friedrich Nietzsche labelled the Jewish deity a God of > slaves. He permits the likes of Abraham and Moses to give him a > hard time over such things as the destruction of Sodom, or > exterminating the sinners among the Israelites. > > Is this a fair characterization. Is Nietzsche correct? The article > goes on to say:
The god of the 'Old Testament' is a god of hate and fear. He savours the smell of burning flesh from human and animal sacrifices, and requires both. He has his followers commit some of the most heinous acts of genocide, murder, pillaging, rape. He condones slavery and murder, most especially for thought crimes. He kills children for their fathers 'sins', He kills entire extended families for the sins of one person, he kills entire cities and tribes for the sin of single individual. > > .... The Christian God even came to earth and allowed himself to be > crucified. He loves the poor and weak. Indeed, weakness ineluctably > draws forth his love. Jewish and Christian theologians speak of > "divine humility". > > To what extent is this statement false? Who among Christians and Jews > says `my God is bigger than your God'? Is the notion of "divine > humility" widespread, or is it understood to be purely a matter of > hypocrisy? How does the US differ from Germany and France? The 'god' of the new testament is an elitist, a demagogue, and a hypocrite. People come to him for help but he turns them away because they weren't the right race, people come to him enmass but he turns them away because they weren't elite enough. Only the elite of the elite deserve to saved by this 'god', everyone else deserves to die. He condemns people just like himself, for doing the same things he does. He came to divide people, to cause divisions, to create disunity. > > Not so Allah, the beneficent, the merciful. "For Islam, the notion > that man's failings more powerfully awake God's love than man's merits > is an absurd, indeed an impossible thought. Allah has pity upon human > weaknesses, but the idea that he loves weakness more than strength is > a form of divine humility that is foreign to the God of Mohammed," > wrote the Jewish theologian Franz Rosenzweig. > > Is this true? Or is this a misleading characterization of Sunni or > Shia theology? > > Here comes the political implications: > > _Imitatio dei_ may explain why Americans and Muslims seek quite > different attributes in their political leaders. More important > than strength and intelligence in the character of an American > presidential candidate is humility. Whatever one thinks of > President George W Bush, he cultivates the same sort of folksy > image that served former president Jimmy Carter so well. In this > regard one thinks of Bill Clinton, who hid his intellectual > arrogance so effectively, or Ronald Reagan, who cloaked his > ideological fervor in self-deprecating humor. > > More than anything else, Americans want their leaders to listen to > them. A president had better be a better listener than a talker. That > is what Americans expect from their God, after all, and all the more > so from a president who is a mere human. > > The sort of leader who evoked adulation in the Arab world, eg, a Gamal > Abdel Nasser, produces only revulsion among Americans. .... > > Is the theological-political connection right? Is it fair to say that > many people do wish to behave with the same qualities as their God? > If so, and if the qualities are as stated, does this predefine the > attributes that Americans seek in their presidents, on the one hand, > and that Eqyptians and others seek in their leaders, on the other? > > To what extent are people living in France and Germany different, > although nominally or actually Christian? > > To what extent are the divisions among Jews, Christians, and Moslems > important; or is this something that conjoins Protestants of all types > with Catholics, so long as they are American, and separates them from > their co-religionists in France and Germany, and separates them from > Moslems who are as far apart themselves as Protestants and Catholics > were during the European religious wars? They all preach the same thing: only elites who think the right things deserve good things and go to heaven, everyone else commits thought crimes and is evil. _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
