Religion
In reply to the discussion: Christmas turned the world upside down [View all]MineralMan
(146,286 posts)False stories? Some message? What? Again, you are forgetting that the Old Testament was scripture long before we changed the calendar from B.C. to A.D. Long, long before. Did the people before that changeover see that scripture as metaphor? Really? How do you know that?
In fact, the Middle East is still in turmoil over the very stuff of the Old Testament. The disputes and wars have been going on for a few thousand years already. What's that about? What message does that convey to you?
The Israelis and their neighbors are still duking it out over the same crap that is described in the Old Testament. It's millennia old stuff. Were the Old Testament stories true? Well, probably not literally. But, similar shit did happen in that region, and is still happening. People die over which God they like best. Yes, Allah and Yahweh are the same, now, but only sort of. The Christians, of course, got the heck out of that region, and spread their religion in Europe. The Middle East was too crazy to deal with. Had that not happened, Christianity would have disappeared, along with all the other minor religions of that region.
Without a very, very long view of history, none of this makes any sense. But, with a long view, it's crystal clear. It's a territorial dispute, like it has always been. The religious aspect is just one of the ways to separate the warring factions. The tribes are still fighting each other, but there are millions of tribe members now, and they have big weapons that can kill lots more people now.
Same wars. Same disputes. Same places. Same nasty warlike gods and humans. People die. Nobody actually wins. It's a shitshow. Same as it ever was.