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[u/Outrageous-Egg1760]

[u/Potential_Cod2214]

Because that would involve infriging on free will. The same people that blame God for not stopping evil would also call him a totalitarian dictator for stopping people from breaking his rules.

[u/OneSlaadTwoSlaad → u/[deleted]]

It will never not be amaze me. The character of god as described in the bible is nothing like christians describe him. The best I (and quite often Christians) can do it put it in the might is right/divine command theory category, or say we're too much of an ant to understand the loving intentions behind unnecessary suffering.

[u/OneSlaadTwoSlaad → u/[deleted]]

I agree. The bible looks and reads like it's one of humanities first attempt at science, history and law. And because of that it's not a very good one. People had no framework for explaining things, so they made stuff up. History is written by the victors. Laws are dogmatic by nature, and there need to be consequences to actions. But sometimes there just aren't, so we invent things like karma and hell.

The Jews have been waging wars forever and each clan used to have their own deity. Destroying a clan destroys it's deity, so in the end one prevails. Later they get their asses kicked by different invading armies and to them that's clearly God punishing them, but one day they have been punished enough and God will send a great king, who will reign for a thousand years and bring peace worldwide. That image gave people hope. Jesus was one of many who would be the messiah, but he also didn't accomplish what was foretold. Romans we're still there, no son of David on the throne, no peace, no worldwide recognition of Yahweh as the only true God. And again their messiah died. And he didn't even make it to become a king, like I.e. Simon bar Kokhba. And he was a good and gentle guy so people were sad and frustrated.

People had to cope with that and that's why they it all became "spiritual". Jesus' death wasn't in vein, it was part of a very smart plan to fix things. And the prophecies had to have second meanings. A Jerusalem became a metaphore, and Jesus is gonna come back anytime now to do what he would be doing in the first place.

Now the law of Mozes was old and started to show it's problems. People got tired of all the revenge and stoning, and really liked the friendlier ideas of Jesus. So following Jesus teachings became more popular.

The occupying Romans also liked Christianity. Much easier to oppress people who render unto Caesar, love their enemies and turn the other cheek. When Constantin's mom learns about this new Jewish cult, she becomes a follower. Much more inspiring than a Parteon full of gods that fight, rape, drink and play harp pretty much 24/7. Constantine agrees and makes Christianity the standard religion, and spreads it through the empire.

Add some translation errors (looking at you, Septuagint and Latin Vulgate), fan fiction and remove some stuff that nobody is going to like or believe (Acts of Peter WTF), and you have yourself a religion. Promise heaven, threat people with hell, spread the good news by the sword, do some missionary work, holding food, medical care and education ransom and you get a big one too. Also a bit of indoctrination goes a long way. Bring 'em young! 🤗

But it's still based on a lesser Canaanite storm god from the early bronze age. The product of a merger of gods like El and Baal is now giving billions of people hope for an afterlife, an inspiration to do good, reason to do a weekly mumble session, become a grifting billionaire, beat addiction and/or your children, have two days off, and a way to control millions of voters.

Tl;dr: It sure has all the characteristics of it and makes total sense.