The Book of Job

ok. first off, i'm not a christian. i have however read the bible and understand it mostly but i tend to disagree with alot of it. i have a question for the christians out there. what on earth is the purpose of the book of job? basically, to me, what the bible is saying in the book of job is that god can fuck you over and there's nothing you can do about it and you should shut your mouth because he's god and he's always right.

to those who haven't read job, let me give you a recap. satan makes a bet with god that if god fucks with job long enough, then he will lose his faith in him. So god makes life awful for job. i.e., he does the whole plague thing, destroys all his property, kills his family and whatnot. job, bieng the mortal that he is, and on the verge of insanity loses his faith in god. god then appears to job and tells him basically to quit his bitching and that he shouldn't question god because god is always right. end of story.

now maybe its just me, but this seems really fucked up that someones god would do this to them. and whats more, it seems fucked up that people accept this.

maybe i'm wrong on some points, but basically i think i got the jist of it. please correct me if i'm wrong.

Well firstly, Job(pbuh) never lost his faith in God, but remained steadfast. His wife told him to curse God and die, and he told her how it was. Job(pbuh) recognized that all comes from God, and God can take it away. And God did it to prove to Satan that His true followers never lose faith no matter the circumstance. That is the purpose of the Book Of Job(pbuh)...to show that God is with the faithful and steadfast.

[Spirit of '22]

Not to mention, if you really are close to God, things like women, physical health, and a house are not very high on your list of priorities. Although, I would hate and curse and combat god if he KILLED my family, but only because I would want my family to live, not because I couldnt bear being seperated from them. If he exiled them or something, so what?

[ArmsMerchant]

Star, you are pretty much right on.

The deity portrayed in that fable is arbitrary, petty, and cruel. It is nothing like the loving god with whom I sometimes converse.

My god has no such control issues, neither judges nor punishes, does not forgive because there is nothing to be forgiven, not being capable of taking offense.

[Dark_Magneto]

quote:Originally posted by P|Rawk:

If I remember correctly didn't Job get all of the things he lost and additional things also? THis shows that even If it seems like God is not there or going aginst you that if you remain faithful you will b rewarded.

I don't recall any of his family rising from the dead.



[This message has been edited by Dark_Magneto (edited 09-27-2003).]

[Dark_Magneto]

I was just pointing that out because you said that Job got back everything he lost (and then some).

He didn't get his family back and there's no greater, equal, or substitute for that.

Logically, a perfect, omnipotent, entirely good being would have nothing to prove to Satan. But the god of the old testament isn't a perfect, omnipotent, entirely good being. He's a mental construct created by a population of people living in the Middle East, and he acts according to how they feel he should act (eg. as a superman). That's why the god described in the Old Testament acts like such a continually bigoted asshole.

The god you are thinking of is a mental construct of an entirely different era. You're thinking of the modern mental construct of god as an omnipotent, completely good, all-knowing entity. The two can't mesh without the modern construct of god being contradicted (because if god is infallible, why would god have turned from a bigot to the wonderful guy everyone imagines him as now?).

Pretty simple, eh?

[Fuck]

Well said Recidivist.

[Spirit of '22]

He didn't get his family back and there's no greater, equal, or substitute for that.

I would trade my family for a lot of things.

Why would god make a bet with the devil in the first place?

Maybe he got bored with creation, and decided to make it a little more interesting by gambling on it.

Hey, it worked for horse racing, so why not?