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I am religious and believe in free will

71 (27.7%)

I am religious and do not believe in free will

10 (3.9%)

I am not religious and believe in free will

114 (44.5%)

I am not religious and do not believe in free will

61 (23.8%)

Total Members Voted: 251

[Teneb]

I still like the idea that it's cold iron and OT God is a demon or fey.
Okay that's a joke.  But I seriously do think he acts like one would expect Satan to act.  Like a lot of ancient people believed.

No, it's just that GOD FUEL CANNOT MELT IRON BEAMS CHARIOTS

God's wrath can't melt iron chariots.

Iron Chariots OP, pls nerf.

I do wonder if the chariots were actual chariots though, or if that was just an analogy/excuse for the real reason they were defeated.

[Calidovi]

I still like the idea that it's cold iron and OT God is a demon or fey.
Okay that's a joke.  But I seriously do think he acts like one would expect Satan to act.  Like a lot of ancient people believed.

No, it's just that GOD FUEL CANNOT MELT IRON BEAMS CHARIOTS

God's wrath can't melt iron chariots.

Iron Chariots OP, pls nerf.

I do wonder if the chariots were actual chariots though, or if that was just an analogy/excuse for the real reason they were defeated.

I take it analogously, as later on YHWH was able to help Barak and Deborah get rid of a bunch of soldiers with iron chariots. Of course, there will be those that argue endlessly of how the bible is completely literal, so take that as you will.

[Helgoland]

I dunno, the only real biblical literalists here are the hard atheists, aren't they?

[Graknorke]

There's plenty of people who say they think the Bible is literally true, but I doubt there's many if any who actually do.

[UXLZ]

Because anyone who actually thought the Bible was literally true would actually follow it to the letter.

[TD1]

Well...more to the point, they know the bible is literal, but they don't look into it all that much, and tend to ignore anything that contradicts their particular interpretation.

Not talking about Bay12 in particular, just a general (and possibly false) assertion.

[scrdest]

I dunno, the only real biblical literalists here are the hard atheists, aren't they?

Nope.

[Helgoland]

Who(m?) did I miss?

[Calidovi]

I'd like to retract my earlier statement, as I can't possibly know who the satirists and who the actual believers.

On a slightly detached note, though, I thought it's slightly interesting that many 'holy decrees' are just put forth to stop the common ignoramus from killing themselves. Take, for example, the ban on eating anything with a 'split hoof'. Back then, pigs were filthy creatures that lived in muck, ate muck, and made a lot of muck. Eating them without modern sanitary tools could have easily been a death wish. As for the other examples in the passage, hyraxes and camels, they probably had a reason of their own. I am not knowledgable enough to explain that much.

[Graknorke]

Pigs are actually quite clean if you leave them to their own devices. They do get a lot of human-transmissible diseases though, just as a consequence of how similar we are.

[Rolan7]

Yeah a lot of the laws I can just imagine God facepalming as he says them.  "Is... is that shellfish?  You're in a desert, the ocean was days ago, just no.  Stop."

[Calidovi]

Pigs are actually quite clean if you leave them to their own devices. They do get a lot of human-transmissible diseases though, just as a consequence of how similar we are.

It's true that they're clean. But how would that average man at that time know that? Pigs appeared loathsome at best, and the many sicknesses of people at that time probably led to a fear among the more knowledgable that 'the pigs did this'. Or maybe God's prophets just assumed that the consumption of pigs, camels and hyraxes caused every problem of the iron-aged world.

[Helgoland]

IIRC the reason for pigs not being kosher was the above-average susceptibility of pork to trichinella worms in the middle eastern climate.

[Calidovi]

IIRC the reason for pigs not being kosher was the above-average susceptibility of pork to trichinella worms in the middle eastern climate.

That makes a lot of sense, but of course it's easier to conclude that pigs are simply heathen creatures.

[Adragis]

Well, dogs were more trouble than pigs.