No. I have not read the New Testament fully either.
I’m not sure of what you want to imply by that comment. I think I have read enough of the Bible to comment on its contents for the level of knowledge used above, if that is what you doubt. I was referring specifically to the story of Noah and Sodome by “flood” and “turning people into salt” respectively.
(For the sake of completeness, I’ll still include the priest’s answer here. He gave a somewhat complicated argument, but the main idea was that the Old Testament is not accurate. In general, according to him, the bible was written taking into consideration the people of the time who would read it.)
From that, I would say that both you and priest have formed a morality that it is independent of the text and is then reflected that back on the text. Ie read one passage (my favorite would instructions to Joshua to commit genocide against the Canaanites) and say “Oh, that one needs to be read in context”, whereas read other eg “Love your neighbour” and say, “yes, that is where I derive my morality”. Ie it seems to be starting with a sense of what is moral and projecting it back onto a concept of God.
Take another step—did say the Ancient Greeks or say the Masai have a concept of morality? What formed their moral world? And as others have said, you can derive a morality from game theory for social animals via evolution (eg see work of Martin Nowak at Harvard). Or simply, that well-being of the tribe is utility function. A behaviour that would damage that well-being if EVERYONE did it, is labelled evil. A behaviour that enhances the tribal well-being if everyone did it, is labelled good.
Have you read the old testament fully?
No. I have not read the New Testament fully either.
I’m not sure of what you want to imply by that comment. I think I have read enough of the Bible to comment on its contents for the level of knowledge used above, if that is what you doubt.
I was referring specifically to the story of Noah and Sodome by “flood” and “turning people into salt” respectively.
Generally, reading the old testament is a good way to get people to start people to doubting Christianity.
I think you should not only derive your opinions from authorities (like a priest) but read the old testament yourself.
If you want to be a rationalist you can handle reading the old testament and use your own ability to reason.
(For the sake of completeness, I’ll still include the priest’s answer here. He gave a somewhat complicated argument, but the main idea was that the Old Testament is not accurate. In general, according to him, the bible was written taking into consideration the people of the time who would read it.)
From that, I would say that both you and priest have formed a morality that it is independent of the text and is then reflected that back on the text. Ie read one passage (my favorite would instructions to Joshua to commit genocide against the Canaanites) and say “Oh, that one needs to be read in context”, whereas read other eg “Love your neighbour” and say, “yes, that is where I derive my morality”. Ie it seems to be starting with a sense of what is moral and projecting it back onto a concept of God.
Take another step—did say the Ancient Greeks or say the Masai have a concept of morality? What formed their moral world? And as others have said, you can derive a morality from game theory for social animals via evolution (eg see work of Martin Nowak at Harvard). Or simply, that well-being of the tribe is utility function. A behaviour that would damage that well-being if EVERYONE did it, is labelled evil. A behaviour that enhances the tribal well-being if everyone did it, is labelled good.