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The Center for Holy Wars
Sep. 5th, 2004 07:27 pmToday was a short and boring day at work. After work, I went grocery shopping, buying mostly frozen food. I probably eat too much of that stuff, but it's easy to prepare, and relatively cheap. I should probably learn to cook at some point, though, so I can vary my diet a little more. Anyway, while waiting for my frozen pizza to heat up, I practiced the guitar. I'm back to working on syncopated chord strumming, which isn't that easy for me.
Also today, I read the Biblical book of Joshua. Wow, what a violent book. God commands the Israelites to commit genocide, and loot and burn cities. What's even more disturbing is that people today still use God as an excuse to make unprovoked war on others, and as an excuse for all kinds of atrocities. If God really, truly hates a certain group of people, why doesn't He use His omnipotent powers to destroy them Himself, instead of letting others do His dirty work? That's not even mentioning the fact that BOTH sides often think God is supporting them. And why would a loving god dislike people based on their ethnicity, anyway? I'm sure you've heard all of those arguments before. They're nothing original on my part, but I don't know that I've ever seen satisfactory answers from the holy warmongers.
As I'm sure I've said before, I'm pretty much opposed to war in general. Perhaps there are some situations where it's unavoidable. I don't really know. A lot of wars seem to be fought out of either greed (and quite often the greed of someone who doesn't participate in the war himself) or ignorance, though.
Also today, I read the Biblical book of Joshua. Wow, what a violent book. God commands the Israelites to commit genocide, and loot and burn cities. What's even more disturbing is that people today still use God as an excuse to make unprovoked war on others, and as an excuse for all kinds of atrocities. If God really, truly hates a certain group of people, why doesn't He use His omnipotent powers to destroy them Himself, instead of letting others do His dirty work? That's not even mentioning the fact that BOTH sides often think God is supporting them. And why would a loving god dislike people based on their ethnicity, anyway? I'm sure you've heard all of those arguments before. They're nothing original on my part, but I don't know that I've ever seen satisfactory answers from the holy warmongers.
As I'm sure I've said before, I'm pretty much opposed to war in general. Perhaps there are some situations where it's unavoidable. I don't really know. A lot of wars seem to be fought out of either greed (and quite often the greed of someone who doesn't participate in the war himself) or ignorance, though.
