Jesus vs God

[Tate Modern]

I was rewatching Way of the Master vs The Rational Response Squad and I noticed that through all of the 'blasphemy' (Kelly calling the god of the Old Testament a meglomaniac etc) none of the audience booed them, and instead there was a lot of clapping.

And yet, when the question of whether Jesus existed or not arose, there were several outcries and an enormous "oooh" swept over the room. Why is this? Surely the almighty God who created everything is worth a tad more than his son? Who is more important to Christianity? (Lets set aside the fact that they are supposed to be sort of the same person...or...something)

I find their reaction quite interesting as it begs the question; who is the true 'god' of Christianity? God, or Jesus?

What are your opinions about this?

[spblat]

If I were a Christian who had read the Bible and been brought up to accept it as fact (which I was not), I might be confused and perhaps embarrassed by the God of the Old Testament. My nine year old can see that he's a twisted dude... "aggressive" was the term he used when we picked a passage at random this evening.

Jesus, to most people, conjures images of love and compassion, forgiveness, peace, tolerance. To the extent that people pick and choose the bits of the Bible they embrace, I think it's fair to expect that most modern Christians eschew the OT and emphasize the importance of Jesus in their lives.

[DallasHeathen]

"aggressive" was the term he used when we picked a passage at random this evening.

You're an atheist who reads Bible passages to your nine year old?

About the Old Testament God vs. the New Testament one, I've heard it said that it's like God stopped drinking sometime between them.

[Tate Modern]

About the Old Testament God vs. the New Testament one, I've heard it said that it's like God stopped drinking sometime between them.

Haha! I like that analogy. That or he switched to pot.

[coloradoatheist]

I know I haven't been around for a bit (working on my Master's and took a break from a bunch of stuff for a while), but wanted to chime in on this one.

My experience has been that quite often the "faithful" use the excuse that Jesus made the Old Testament irrelevant as the way to differentiate between the example Tate mentions. I have family members who do that and conveniently forget(?) that the ten commandments come from the Old Testament. Anyhow, I've never been able to figure out this unhealthy fetish that people have with religion.

on another note, I find no issue with spblat reading the bible to his 9 year old, I've done the same with mine primarily because he has asked my why I basically think my fundamental Christian brother is highly delusional and disconnected with reality.

All it took was the story of Noah's Ark to get him to ask, "Where did they put all the animal crap?"

So, while I don't make a habit of it, I use it to show him how delusional people who believe it to be flawless really are.

Later,
Scott

[spblat]

"aggressive" was the term he used when we picked a passage at random this evening.

You're an atheist who reads Bible passages to your nine year old?

Only the once so far, and it was a defensive measure. This past week he took a friend up on an invitation to go to some kind of bible thing. Lots of arts and crafts and games, some OT stories (Moses and the Red Sea was one, and something about a guy who cons a starving family into giving him the last of their food), treats for memorizing slogans and a free "saved by God's power" hard hat. So I gave him my Gideon KJV Bible and we read genesis and a couple other bits. I couldn't resist laying 2 Kings 2:23 on him while I was at it.

He lost interest in the bible camp thing, and I was a little creeped out by what I perceive to be tried-and-true methods for sucking in new believers, but I'm glad I let him do it.