Last one for this week, I think.
I wanted to recommend Karen Armstrong's A History of God to anyone, religious or not, who professes to take the issue of God seriously. Karen was a nun for ten years before losing her faith and compiling this study of the idea of "God" in the minds of the people who believed in him at the time. I'll do a quick summary below, but basically, this book is superb.

So predictably the story of God - that is, Jevhovah, the one that the three major montheistic religions are based on - begins in ancient Israel. The pre-Semites who lived there worshipped a pantheon of gods, presided over by Ba'al and Astarte. Ba'al, meaning "master", was the god of peace, and Astarte was the goddess of the Earth. Jehovah didn't even enter the pantheon until much later. Would anyone like to take a stab at what his specialty was? The thing he was god of, I mean. Anyone? Yes, you at the back with your hand up?

That's correct, Timmy. Jehovah was the ancient Jewish god of war, because when these people came into conflict with other tribes, they fought and they needed a god to embody that fighting spirit. Compared to Ba'al and Astarte, who were basically a pair of old hippies, Jehovah was a mean, vindictive son of a bitch who demanded blood and sacrifice. Nonetheless, they co-existed for centuries and an ancient Hebrew inscription has even been found dedicating a site to "Jehovah and his wife Astarte*".

However, that was all to change with the arrival of a man called Abraham. Abraham had plans - he wanted power, and a lot of it, so he came up with a system called monotheism. He argued that the Hebrews only needed one god, the god of war, because they were constantly at war. On all sides they had enemies waiting to destroy them, and unless they put their faith in Jehovah and Jehovah alone, their enemies would triumph. Ba'al worship was penalised by death.

Even this wasn't enough to assert Jehovah's dominance though. Ba'al and Astarte worship continued (usually amongst the more rural communities) for centuries further - the OT is awash with tales of Ba'al worshippers - and it took the arrival of another of Jehovah's cheerleaders to eradicate it completely. This guy's name was Moses, and he had his soldiers slaughter everyone who didn't follow the monotheistic creed. He also committed genocide regularly, presumably to keep Jehovah happy.

I'll leave it there, so as not to spoil the ending, but it certainly came as a surprise to me to learn that the god of the Christians, Muslims and Jews began "life" as a god of war. Then again, it explains so much - he's certainly been fulfilling his job spec ever since.

* When I first read this I thought it was hilarious that the ancient Jews thought God was married. Then I compared it to what modern-day Christians believe and it suddenly became less funny.
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Tue 24 Mar 2009, 15:48, 9 replies)

I have one of her other books relating to feminism and Christianity.
Fascinating read.

Found the title - The Gospel according to women.
( girlinthehole, Tue 24 Mar 2009, 15:53, closed)

She's a brilliant writer
I'd have her on the RE syllabus and taught in every classroom if I were in charge.

[edit] Not read that, will look out for it. I imagine my mum would enjoy it.
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Tue 24 Mar 2009, 15:55, closed)

Right
Pay day next week - I shall hop onto Amazon asap.
Sounds like a bloody good read. Cheers for info.
Also, makes a whole load of sense considering how angry Yaweh is in the OT.
(tweebianmonkey Should be known as Widget, Tue 24 Mar 2009, 16:13, closed)

Very much this
Then after I've read it I'll lend it to my devoutly Catholic flatmate to see what he thinks. I'm an atheist, along with the rest of my flat, and one of our favourite games used to be to get him to say that our gay flatmate was going to hell. He's generally a nice logical guy, but he has this one major problem obscuring his common sense.
(icassu, Tue 24 Mar 2009, 16:19, closed)

I'd recommend
Alexander Waugh's book 'God', also.
(davywavy, Tue 24 Mar 2009, 16:32, closed)

*googles*
ta muchly
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Tue 24 Mar 2009, 16:35, closed)

Babylonians
also practised polydeism (or is it multideism?), with Marduk as chief God. And yes, he was the God of War. The shift to monodeism came around the same time that Nabuchadnezzar II invaded Jerusalem, and carried lots of Israelites off to Babylon - they were allowed to continue with their own religion however, and shortly after many native Babylonians adopted monodeistic beliefs: Gods and Goddesses that were previously individuals were suddenly seens as merely "aspects" of Marduk. Sin was Marduk as Moon-God, Ishtar was Marduk as Goddess of Love etc etc.
(The Empress it seems you CAN polish a turd!, Tue 24 Mar 2009, 17:28, closed)

not sticking up for it
but why would a religion give away it's dirty secrets to a novice? Could this be a load, invented on all those quiet days in just to sell a book or two. This theory has at least as much provenance as religion.
(Discreditor wants the dream to come true, Wed 25 Mar 2009, 9:52, closed)

It was after she left the nunnery that she started to research God
They don't encourage people to ask questions like that in religious institutions.

Wikipedia has a potted version of it (not as colourful as mine, but it also namechecks Armstrong) here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God#History_of_monotheism

It seems fairly obvious that the Hebrews moved from polytheistic to monotheistic over time - the OT is crammed with records of the people going off and worshipping other gods. Why would they do that in a monotheistic society? Most religious people I know just stick to the one god.

Appropriate username, btw :)
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Thu 26 Mar 2009, 1:16, closed)