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I say this because God's plans for everyone are different. In the book of Job, Job's children. livestock, and all of his possessions were taken away. Satan took these as a spiritual test. After that, Satan gave him painful skin sores. Job was very faitthful and remained faithful, despite what he had gone through and what his friends told him. His wife said: "Curse God and die!", but he told her that she sounded like a fool. (God gave Job a spiritual test.) A lot of homeless or poor people do not believe, so they may not have set themselves up for success in this life, or they were confused during their childhood about what they wanted to do with their lives. It is up to people who care not to only help them financially, and mentally, but spiritually. We are all related, and we are all equal one way or another.

For example Exodus 12:12 seems to say that Egyptian Gods actually do exist, and Yahweh is going to beat them up

What's fun is I still like those stories

If derivative art weren't interesting, I wouldn't be able to enjoy anything, so thank goodness.

But yeah, on the topic of religion, the more educated a person is, the more they realize it's something humans made up... this isn't to say spirituality or the supernatural definitely don't exist, just that the traditions and doctrines and power structures that crop up around them are man made, and obviously so.

Yeah, I can tell you're young... for starters, dying of old age is not peaceful. It's the slowest way to die. You slowly fall apart over decades. Not only do you slowly lose yourself mentally and physically, but all your friends die, all your family dies, even your culture dies. As you get older, and watch others age, you realize this. "Getting old isn't for the faint of heart."

Don't mind me. I'm just imagining this kid choking himself and as he passes out, thinking "ah yes, the sweet warmth of Jesus."

lol

(There's a way to choke yourself and pass out without dying, and some kids do it as a fad, which is dangerous, so don't do that)

But yeah, it made me laugh.

Yeah, this type of examination leads to a lot of interesting conclusions...

Change the names of the characters and tell the same story... who is the bad guy? In the Old Testament it's usually God who is doing evil... but in the bronze age the way you made your God stand out among other Gods was the power to destroy.

There are various places where the Bible mentions Yahweh is stronger than the other Gods, and specifically the Egyptian gods.

For example Exodus 12:12 seems to say that Egyptian Gods actually do exist, and Yahweh is going to beat them up

I suppose one way the world is changing...

I've told the story before, that when I was new to chess, a guy at the chess club lent me a VHS tape of a GM giving some beginner-level instruction. And it was an hour long! I was really grateful for that. These days you have access to seemingly endless hours of GM commentary.

Similarly, when I was a kid, when your family and friends believe in religion, you have no reason to question that. These days kids can come online and discover that many different ideas exist, and that, how to put it, "reasonable people will disagree."

If you want your kid to stay religious you really shouldn't let them post online heh. Mythology can only survive as truth in the vacuum of ideas and education, to be blunt.

I mean, yeah, if we're talking about a character in a screenplay, that's probably how it would happen. They would be scared at first, and then accept it, fade to black, roll credits.

Sure, a modern interpretation is that they were only idols. When it was written though Yahweh was only a regional god and so it was important that he flexed on other regional gods.

Your characterization of him as being young and naive fits pretty well with how he was written in the Old Testament (God wasn't all knowing or all powerful in those stories). For example when God "comes down to see what's going on" ... the character of Yahweh is written in a way that he's beyond human, but not omniscient, all powerful etc.

Sure, that's a good question.

It always boiled down to "I acknowledge that the points you're brining up are reasonable, but I choose to see it this way [insert how they see it] and I choose to keep my faith"

For example when pointing out a place in the Bible where there is a seeming contradiction, uneducated religious folk would pretend it doesn't exist, but the educated ones would say "yeah, but I choose believe that God is multifaceted and beyond human understanding. Even though there seem to be contradictions, this is how God is revealing his Truth to us. It's important to mediate on this scripture to find those truths. This is what I choose to believe."

Similarly when pointing out how Christianity looks exactly like a man made religion (when considering the history) they would say "yes, what you say is true, but I believe this is how God has chosen to communicate to us."

That's how those interactions went, which from my point of view was respectable, but wasn't enough for me, so I didn't believe anymore.

Since a young age, I've liked abstract ideas. I used to write my own philosophy stuff... and it was as bad and silly as you'd imagine from any 14 year old lol

But yeah, I enjoy thinking about things. Eventually I started thinking about religion and spirituality. One thing that sparked it was education and not living with my parents anymore. As an elective I took a philosophy class and also a history of religion class.

One of the religious people I talked to was a nun who played chess haha

But she really didn't like chess, she much preferred playing cards, which was annoying to me heh. But I visited her a few times. Like I said, people who'd gone to seminary school (whatever their religion or denomination) gave me answers that impressed me.

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Of course this was all very much a hobby... I should be careful to point out I haven't studied any of this in depth. It was just something I was interested in for a brief time as a young adult.

The answers I got weren't good enough, so I stopped believing. It was emotionally uncomfortable at first, but intellectually honest. That's how I'd describe it.

lol, I actually have a story about this.

I saw this, maybe 4 year old? Sitting in the middle of a crowd. No one was within 10 feet of him. He was crying. Apparently separated from his parent somehow.

Instinctually of course I'd want to go over to him, but socially I have to realize, I'm a male adult, and that's not acceptable. A female adult could go help him, but if I get there 5 seconds before the parent that could be bad. So I just sat there and watched. If something bad happened I'd help, but he was just crying. Eventually a parent came and picked him up.

I think of the story in terms of gender inequality. It was hurtful to sit there and watch a kid cry, but because I'm male I felt like I wasn't allowed to help.

You seem like a pretty mature kid. If that's due to religion then that's pretty cool, good for you.