ext_35634 ([identity profile] iswari.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] wlotus 2008-10-20 09:44 pm (UTC)

The idea that the God Yahweh of Genesis is actually the Demiurge, a false God who created the earth and humankind because he wanted to rule over something? It goes on that Satan was actually sent by the true Creator (or came of his own volition, the stories vary) to encourage Adam and Eve to partake of the Tree of Knowledge in a bid to free them from the blind enslavement forced on them by the evil Yahweh. In this interpretation, Christ came not to offer people eternal life with Yahweh via the traditional Christian take on salvation, but to offer them freedom from Yahweh's tyranny through enlightenment.

As a Jew (who is, incidentally, far from traditional and far from uncritical of Judaism or its scriptures), I find this extremely reductionist and presumptuous. Beyond that -- as much as I agree that certain aspects of the texts are problematic -- I think the whole Old-Testament-Jewish-God-Evil/New-Testament-Christian-God-Good dichotomy is pretty offensive, has historically fueled a lot of Christian anti-Semitism and speaks to a real lack of understanding of the various and complex ways in which God is portrayed in the Hebrew scriptures.

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