Reply #4: Armstrong tries hard to paint "authentic" religion as moderate.... [View All]

[eallen]

Now, there's nothing wrong with reading the Old Testament as allegory. That is now traditional in both Judaism and Christianity. But one has to ask: why would the ancient Israelites write down scriptures recording genocide ordered by their god, ordering draconian law, and based on pagan notions of blood sacrifice? Did they believe as Armstrong believed? I doubt it. Armstrong looks at that history and says, "well, we'll lift the good parts out of it, and focus on the direction and some of the theological ideas, the ones that aren't too outlandish." The fundamentalists look at that history and say, "we'll retroactively justify it and weave it into a baroque structure of different covenants." Neither is true to the what the ancient Israelites believed. Neither course is rational. They are just different ways of practicing religion.

If I had my druthers, I would rather my neighbors and fellow citizens were moderates like Armstrong. Of course!

But I don't think their arguments hold any more water than the fundamentalists. However much more pleasant it is to have them next door.