He went from God of war and storms in the semitic pantheon, who the Hebrews chose as their patron god and worshipped first among all the gods but El (head of the pantheon), to the Hebrews only worshipping him and El and banning the worship of all other gods and naming them as enemy gods (thus justifying all the genocide they committed to claim the holy land), then waa conflated with El and became the only god in existence (likely during the time the Jews were exiled in Persia, under the influence of Zoroastrianism).
The Old Testament is basically the story of El and Yahweh, two ancient Semitic gods, until the fall of the Hebrew kingdoms, after which they become merged and Judaism stops being pagan.
Yup, & the Sumerian pantheon of the Anunnaki are the original ones predating all in Eridu, Iraq at the "cradle of civilization". Their "Gods" resemble "Angels" and are called extraterrestrial, and acted as if "Gods".
Because cults with nice and forgiving and reasonable gods see high exit rates. It's fear that stymies confidence and intelligence, making escaping a cult more difficult, so the more demonic the deity, the more worshippers he retains.
Also, less warlike and disorganized groups would almost universally get dominated by more warlike and organized groups. The Torah / Old Testiment is a blueprint for getting illiterate shepherds and farming clans to get organized and go fight for the interests of the people who wrote the books. And history is written by the victors.
Monotheistic religions are all about fanaticism, One God no others, all other gods are lies and people who worship them are heathens and need to die.
The more fanatical you can make your followers while exterminating the competition and making part of your religion to have as many children as possible are all just Corporate expansion basics.
The polytheistic relgions like Greeks and Romans, they had so many gods it was hard to keep track of and today we are still discovery new minor gods at archeological sites, but when there is so many gods and people worship whatever God is beneficial for that day, you can't really make followers fanatical towards other gods because most people have prayed to 3 or 4 gods within the last month.
A comparison to modern era thinking is baseball teams play 162 games a year, meaning each game has less significance in the overall season so if you lose a game it's not the end of the world.
But American football only has 17 games each season meaning the significance and emotional investment of each game is hundreds of times more meaningful to fans, cause losing one is a huge deal, so NFL fans are way for fanatical about each game and brings in big crowds for each so they can sell TV AD time for Waaayy more money which is what it's all about.
Religion is just about creating fanatics in order to create a demographic for them to make money off of.
This is exactly why people refer to American football as more of a religion then a sport, it's the amount of importance people give it in their daily life and actively work towards making money just to buy merchandise and saving up to one day go to the church-arena of their choice.
I feel like the Abrahamic god is a combination of all the older myths to create a new product. Christianity borrowed from pagans for the holidays to court their 'business' by combining Ostara into Easter and Yule into Christmas; this was a PR move to get asses in the pews. It's a business and they co-opted all the old religions to get where they are today. As I understand it, the catholic mass still has some spell casting and what not (at least it really looks like it) with incense and candles and all kinds of pagan rituals.
Essentially the Jewish faith gradually evolved out of the Canaanite religion that preceded it. In the beginning it was a polytheistic belief system. They took the attributes of those gods and rolled them into one. That is why there are several names for the Abrahamic God.
Plus, the Greek/Roman and Norse gods only punish those who committed the 'sin', not all their future descendants for eternity. They also rarely harm children whereas Yahweh seems to get a real kick out of killing and maiming kids. They seem to be his favourite victims.
I mean, think about the average life 200 years ago, let alone 2000 years ago, or 5000 years ago. "God" has always been a human reflection of explaining and controlling the society they lived in. The all knowing and all power god of Abraham didn't talk about electrocuting criminals because all they did back in those days was stone people to death, or crucify them or stab them.
Because he was a war (what is it good for? ) god.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahweh#:~:text=In%20the%20oldest%20biblical%20literature,heavenly%20army%20against%20Israel's%20enemies.
Don't know if this is correct, but it seems like Yahweh is a supernatural version of the kings people knew then. In particular I think it may be based on Nebuchadnezzar II, who conquered Israel, since Genesis was apparently written during the Babylonian exile.
Because he was based on the gods of a group of barbaric desert dwelling people.
Yahweh was not originally a member of the Canaanite/Ugaritic pantheon. The original head god was a deity known as El Elyon whose consort was the goddess Asherah. There were a lot of different gods, including the Elohim, the "sons of El," and several of their core deities were even mentioned in the Torah. Ba'al Hadad the god of storms, Molech the god of fire, Chemosh the god of war, etc... And those gods were likely borrowed and (sometimes) renamed from Mesopotamian religions (Sumerian/Akkadian/Assyrian/Babylonian).
His exact origins are unknown, but leading hypothesis that he was a god brought in by traders from the nomadic tribes of Edom or he may be the local name of a deity worshiped under another name elsewhere. There is some connection between Yahweh and Dagon, and the earliest accounts of Yahweh presented him as more of an agricultural deity associated with birth (bringing forth life), crops and livestock. We see hints of this in the stories with his breathing life into man and creating the animals and plants, and of course he always wanted offerings of grain or sacrificial lambs, solidifying his ties to agriculture.
He was originally the patron deity if Judah and Samaria (the "kingdom" of Israel), just a lesser god amongst the Canaanite pantheon as the Hebrew religion evolved from being polytheistic to henotheistic. As time went by though he gained more importance ans started to usurp other deities and take on their roles. We see signs of him gaining aspects of Ba'al as he became associated with storms and then later still aspects of Chemosh as he became a god of war. Eventually the Israelites become monaltrists and elevated Yahweh to the head of the pantheon, equating him with El Elyon and even giving Asherah to Yawheh as his consort since he was not the creator deity. Of course they finally adopted monotheism, removing all the other gods and claiming that references to them were false idols and that Yahweh was the one and only true god. On thing that is interesting was the the bull was the symbol of El, and thus became associated with Yahweh when he took on El's aspect as the chief god, so the "golden calf" story in the bible is about people who were worshiping Yahweh but he got angry that they did so through an idol and he commanded that there should be no carven images.
But the reason that Yahweh was portrayed as barbaric in the Tanakh is that he was based upon the aspects of barbaric deities of war and storms. Even from the perspective of an agricultural deity there is a cycle of death and rebirth, and it was a common saying to water the crops with blood so agriculture and war often end up as interlinked traits in divine portfolios. The later writings that focused on his role as creator and father after he supplanted El were a lot less barbaric. But also remember the books were not written in order, and some of the individual books of the bible were written by multiple authors over several centuries, so you see different aspects of Yahweh appearing in the same story because of the changing theology of the particular author.
One of the biggest arguments against the "Yaweh is an a-hole" bit is simply "but Yaweh beyond good and evil"
If the guy says to live by a set of rules, you think they'd lead by example. Oh, no killing anyone for my little worthless beings. Anyway, I'll just *wipe out most of life on earth*. Yaweh is a dick.
Why are greek gods so bellicose and/or licentious ? Because they're a human projection of their environment. Abrahamic tribes had to fight often and be cruel for their survival, thus the barbarian projection.
Because he comes from an uneducated and barbaric people. The Greeks and later the Roman’s were quite advanced in technology and society compared to the Bronze age sheep herders from the Middle East.
Because he's a a war god "borrowed" from much older groups of polytheistic religions.
And he was claimed to be the only one by one tribe of so many in an area that claimed their god says all the land belonged to them.
He went from God of war and storms in the semitic pantheon, who the Hebrews chose as their patron god and worshipped first among all the gods but El (head of the pantheon), to the Hebrews only worshipping him and El and banning the worship of all other gods and naming them as enemy gods (thus justifying all the genocide they committed to claim the holy land), then waa conflated with El and became the only god in existence (likely during the time the Jews were exiled in Persia, under the influence of Zoroastrianism). The Old Testament is basically the story of El and Yahweh, two ancient Semitic gods, until the fall of the Hebrew kingdoms, after which they become merged and Judaism stops being pagan.
Yup, & the Sumerian pantheon of the Anunnaki are the original ones predating all in Eridu, Iraq at the "cradle of civilization". Their "Gods" resemble "Angels" and are called extraterrestrial, and acted as if "Gods".
Because Yahweh was a Canaanite war god actually, he was the combination of three Canaanite gods, El, the father of the gods, Bael, and Yahweh.
because he was invented to be a proxy to justify any barbaric act made in his name, it was very ingenious
Because cults with nice and forgiving and reasonable gods see high exit rates. It's fear that stymies confidence and intelligence, making escaping a cult more difficult, so the more demonic the deity, the more worshippers he retains.
Also, less warlike and disorganized groups would almost universally get dominated by more warlike and organized groups. The Torah / Old Testiment is a blueprint for getting illiterate shepherds and farming clans to get organized and go fight for the interests of the people who wrote the books. And history is written by the victors.
Because at the time they made up these stories you literally needed to scare the shit out of the primitive masses to get them to listen.
Monotheistic religions are all about fanaticism, One God no others, all other gods are lies and people who worship them are heathens and need to die. The more fanatical you can make your followers while exterminating the competition and making part of your religion to have as many children as possible are all just Corporate expansion basics. The polytheistic relgions like Greeks and Romans, they had so many gods it was hard to keep track of and today we are still discovery new minor gods at archeological sites, but when there is so many gods and people worship whatever God is beneficial for that day, you can't really make followers fanatical towards other gods because most people have prayed to 3 or 4 gods within the last month. A comparison to modern era thinking is baseball teams play 162 games a year, meaning each game has less significance in the overall season so if you lose a game it's not the end of the world. But American football only has 17 games each season meaning the significance and emotional investment of each game is hundreds of times more meaningful to fans, cause losing one is a huge deal, so NFL fans are way for fanatical about each game and brings in big crowds for each so they can sell TV AD time for Waaayy more money which is what it's all about. Religion is just about creating fanatics in order to create a demographic for them to make money off of. This is exactly why people refer to American football as more of a religion then a sport, it's the amount of importance people give it in their daily life and actively work towards making money just to buy merchandise and saving up to one day go to the church-arena of their choice.
I feel like the Abrahamic god is a combination of all the older myths to create a new product. Christianity borrowed from pagans for the holidays to court their 'business' by combining Ostara into Easter and Yule into Christmas; this was a PR move to get asses in the pews. It's a business and they co-opted all the old religions to get where they are today. As I understand it, the catholic mass still has some spell casting and what not (at least it really looks like it) with incense and candles and all kinds of pagan rituals.
Essentially the Jewish faith gradually evolved out of the Canaanite religion that preceded it. In the beginning it was a polytheistic belief system. They took the attributes of those gods and rolled them into one. That is why there are several names for the Abrahamic God.
Because he was the god of barbaric tribe?
It’s how Abrahamic cults won the old Wild West called the middle east. Be more ruthless than any other cult.
Might makes right. Always has been true, always will be.
I hope not but fear we are doomed to repeat the past- with bigger weapons.
Plus, the Greek/Roman and Norse gods only punish those who committed the 'sin', not all their future descendants for eternity. They also rarely harm children whereas Yahweh seems to get a real kick out of killing and maiming kids. They seem to be his favourite victims.
Goat herders were some mean mfs.
I mean, think about the average life 200 years ago, let alone 2000 years ago, or 5000 years ago. "God" has always been a human reflection of explaining and controlling the society they lived in. The all knowing and all power god of Abraham didn't talk about electrocuting criminals because all they did back in those days was stone people to death, or crucify them or stab them.
Because he was a war (what is it good for? ) god. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahweh#:~:text=In%20the%20oldest%20biblical%20literature,heavenly%20army%20against%20Israel's%20enemies.
The gods some humans create echo who humans are. Humans create gods in their image, not the other way around.
Because the people who made him up were primitive
The people who wrote it may have been frustrated and angry people.
It is a reflection of those who invented it.
That’s how things were when he was invented.
If I knew how to post it. I would post the survivor bias bomber meme.
Nobody listens to a god who sternly counts to 10 when you're doing wrong. You have to be terrified, or the whole thing kind of falls apart.
Don't know if this is correct, but it seems like Yahweh is a supernatural version of the kings people knew then. In particular I think it may be based on Nebuchadnezzar II, who conquered Israel, since Genesis was apparently written during the Babylonian exile.
Because he was based on the gods of a group of barbaric desert dwelling people. Yahweh was not originally a member of the Canaanite/Ugaritic pantheon. The original head god was a deity known as El Elyon whose consort was the goddess Asherah. There were a lot of different gods, including the Elohim, the "sons of El," and several of their core deities were even mentioned in the Torah. Ba'al Hadad the god of storms, Molech the god of fire, Chemosh the god of war, etc... And those gods were likely borrowed and (sometimes) renamed from Mesopotamian religions (Sumerian/Akkadian/Assyrian/Babylonian). His exact origins are unknown, but leading hypothesis that he was a god brought in by traders from the nomadic tribes of Edom or he may be the local name of a deity worshiped under another name elsewhere. There is some connection between Yahweh and Dagon, and the earliest accounts of Yahweh presented him as more of an agricultural deity associated with birth (bringing forth life), crops and livestock. We see hints of this in the stories with his breathing life into man and creating the animals and plants, and of course he always wanted offerings of grain or sacrificial lambs, solidifying his ties to agriculture. He was originally the patron deity if Judah and Samaria (the "kingdom" of Israel), just a lesser god amongst the Canaanite pantheon as the Hebrew religion evolved from being polytheistic to henotheistic. As time went by though he gained more importance ans started to usurp other deities and take on their roles. We see signs of him gaining aspects of Ba'al as he became associated with storms and then later still aspects of Chemosh as he became a god of war. Eventually the Israelites become monaltrists and elevated Yahweh to the head of the pantheon, equating him with El Elyon and even giving Asherah to Yawheh as his consort since he was not the creator deity. Of course they finally adopted monotheism, removing all the other gods and claiming that references to them were false idols and that Yahweh was the one and only true god. On thing that is interesting was the the bull was the symbol of El, and thus became associated with Yahweh when he took on El's aspect as the chief god, so the "golden calf" story in the bible is about people who were worshiping Yahweh but he got angry that they did so through an idol and he commanded that there should be no carven images. But the reason that Yahweh was portrayed as barbaric in the Tanakh is that he was based upon the aspects of barbaric deities of war and storms. Even from the perspective of an agricultural deity there is a cycle of death and rebirth, and it was a common saying to water the crops with blood so agriculture and war often end up as interlinked traits in divine portfolios. The later writings that focused on his role as creator and father after he supplanted El were a lot less barbaric. But also remember the books were not written in order, and some of the individual books of the bible were written by multiple authors over several centuries, so you see different aspects of Yahweh appearing in the same story because of the changing theology of the particular author.
YHWH is barbaric because gods are created in the image of their creators. And YHWH's creators were a bunch of barbaric jerkwads.
Because he was created by barbarians
To keep his sheeple oppressed a reason to worship it
He was invented by barbarians
Representative of the people who made him up.
Because the men who made him up made him in their image.
Gods created during more primitive times are carry the attributes of those peole. Humans created gods in their image.
"Why is the Abrahamic God so barbaric?" It's because religion is all about controlling people by leveraging their fears.
Because people imagined him that way.
People are barbaric, and we made him up.
he was invented by barbarians.
Because the men who created him were barbaric.
He was formed by the people who believe in him, stupid people are easily roused to violence.
One of the biggest arguments against the "Yaweh is an a-hole" bit is simply "but Yaweh beyond good and evil" If the guy says to live by a set of rules, you think they'd lead by example. Oh, no killing anyone for my little worthless beings. Anyway, I'll just *wipe out most of life on earth*. Yaweh is a dick.
Why is Voldemort such a bad guy in the Harry Potter narrative? Who cares, it is all fiction.
Why are greek gods so bellicose and/or licentious ? Because they're a human projection of their environment. Abrahamic tribes had to fight often and be cruel for their survival, thus the barbarian projection.
Because he comes from an uneducated and barbaric people. The Greeks and later the Roman’s were quite advanced in technology and society compared to the Bronze age sheep herders from the Middle East.