Love me or else (Where is it now?)

by David Turell , Sunday, December 16, 2012, 00:09 (4362 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: I don't view Judaism as a failure. And as Talmudic scholars reinterpreted the OT as allegory, the nastiness of the OT God takes on a different hue. He is basically teaching ethics and morality and explaining the meaning of life.
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> dhw: I was brought up as a Liberal Jew, and hated every minute of the attempted indoctrination. In those days, we were not taught that the OT was an allegory, but frankly I can't see any allegorical ethics, morality or philosophy,-I believe I put the debate betweeen Rabbi Lord Sacks and Dawkins on here. Sacks explains my point.-- > DAVID: Our OT god doesn't threaten us if we don't love him.
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> dhw:"Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name. Ye shall not go after other gods...(For the Lord thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the Lord thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth" (Deut. 6, 13-15 ... and elsewhere in this non-allegorical masterpiece of terror.) It's good to hear that the Talmudic scholars are trying to change God's image,-Your quote is correct, I admit. But I had never seen it. But I did know Deut. 6, 4-9 where only love is mnetioned, and I do have them on the door posts of the house, barn and pool house, two of the three are cowboy mezuzahs.-> 
> DAVID: "But what we are looking at are the human mistakes in trying to create religions."
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> dhw: I agree, but we can't do anything else. You have created your own religion, but you are still reading God's intentions into his works, just as other believers do, and when your wife says that "Jesus didn't ask for churches, he asked just to follow his example", where does she get such information from, if not from the man-made accounts she has read?-She follows man-made interpretations. She follows Jesus, but no religion made about him. I have my own relationship with God, but I don't consider it love, perhaps respect is the proper term. As for His intentions, they seem fairly apparent to me. But then I come from a position of proof beyond a reasonable doubt.