[Cheese]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Gods aren’t really a way to ensure nothing bad will happen to you. They’re a way to find solace from the awful conditions most humans lived in for most of history.

Every half-dozen years or so, the crops would fail and famine would descend on your village, afflicting everyone with dreadful hunger and leaving suckling babies dead in their mothers’ arms. There was nothing you could do about this. Plagues would rise out of famine and kill one in four, sometimes wiping out whole villages. There was nothing you could do about this. Bandits and rampaging armies would sweep into your village, raping and slaying with impunity. There was nothing you could do about this.

Your parents and their parents and their parents and their parents suffered these calamities and there was nothing they could do about them either.

If you were fortunate, a strong and wise king might sustain a commonwealth and protect you from the worst catastrophes for 10 or 15 years. Then the only suffering you had to endure was the endless toil of trudging through ditches and #### farming rice or wheat by hand from sunup to sundown 300 days a year until your body broke down. And you couldn’t change that either.

Is it any surprise people living in that state turn to spiritual succor and the structure of ritual for meaning and security?

Beacuse following religion really helps that cause.


Suppose you hear in one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you that some worthless rabble among you have led their fellow citizens astray by encouraging them to worship foreign gods. In such cases, you must examine the facts carefully. If you find it is true and can prove that such a detestable act has occurred among you, you must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock. Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the street and burn it. Put the entire town to the torch as a burnt offering to the LORD your God. That town must remain a ruin forever; it may never be rebuilt. Keep none of the plunder that has been set apart for destruction. Then the LORD will turn from his fierce anger and be merciful to you. He will have compassion on you and make you a great nation, just as he solemnly promised your ancestors. “The LORD your God will be merciful only if you obey him and keep all the commands I am giving you today, doing what is pleasing to him.” (Deuteronomy 13:13-19 NLT)


One day a man who had an Israelite mother and an Egyptian father got into a fight with one of the Israelite men. During the fight, this son of an Israelite woman blasphemed the LORD’s name. So the man was brought to Moses for judgment. His mother’s name was Shelomith. She was the daughter of Dibri of the tribe of Dan. They put the man in custody until the LORD’s will in the matter should become clear. Then the LORD said to Moses, “Take the blasphemer outside the camp, and tell all those who heard him to lay their hands on his head. Then let the entire community stone him to death. Say to the people of Israel: Those who blaspheme God will suffer the consequences of their guilt and be punished. Anyone who blasphemes the LORD’s name must be stoned to death by the whole community of Israel. Any Israelite or foreigner among you who blasphemes the LORD’s name will surely die. (Leviticus 24:10-16 NLT)