Religion
In reply to the discussion: Christmas turned the world upside down [View all]AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)But lets set that aside.
I'm not sure you fully grok the entirety of the message of exodus.
One, it invents and demonizes a villain; The Pharaoh, and the people of Egypt. Literally no better than the demonization of Jews via the crucifixion story, which two thousand years later a pope just finally came forward and explicitly said 'no harm no foul' over Judas's betrayal as 'the only possible outcome'. These demonizations have real power and real consequences, real harm.
Two, it attempts to distort actual history. What began as a secular settler movement in the late 19th century has become a (via Exodus and the return to Israel in the bible) as the title deeds of Zionism. There is a continued religious fervor to the settlements and continued expansion of Israel, and the displacement of the Palestinians, and it is sourced to explicit biblical claims of the peoples and region in question. It has very real consequences for the people who live there, geopolitics throughout the middle east, and the world.
Three, if you want out of bondage, you're going to have to do it yourself. No slavery system in recorded human history has ended by way of supernatural intervention. Plenty have ended in blood. Some have ended by economic reality. Zero have ended by divine intervention.
I don't interpret the bible literally. I'm along for the ride, a victim of a very large percentage of people who do take it literally, and the message being taken by them isn't the happy positive 'deliverance from bondage' thing referenced in that article. It's exasperating to see people try to cherry pick the 'positive' or the 'good' when so much actual pain and destruction is coming from the overarching story.