Arguing Through a 'Messy' Bible - David Plotz

Complete video at: http://fora.tv/2009/03/07/David_Plotz_-_The_Bible_Disturbing_Hilarious_Inspiring

Slate editor David Plotz discusses his struggles to understand the often cruel actions of God as described by the Hebrew Bible. "Again and again, I found myself in the odd position of rooting against God - which was very disturbing," says Plotz.

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Like many Jews and Christians, David Plotz, editor of Slate Magazine, long assumed he knew what was in the Bible. He read parts of it as a child in Hebrew school, then at-tended a Christian high school where he studied the Old and New Testaments.

Many of the highlights stuck with him--Adam and Eve, Cain versus Abel, Jacob versus Esau, Jonah versus whale, forty days and nights, ten plagues and commandments, twelve tribes and apostles, Red Sea walked under, Galilee walked on, bush into fire, rock into water, water into wine. And, of course, he absorbed from all around him other bits of the Bible--from stories he heard in churches and synagogues, in movies and on television, from his parents and teachers.

But it wasn't until he picked up a Bible at a cousin's bat mitzvah--and became engrossed and horrified by a lesser-known story in Genesis--that he couldn't put it down. - Politics and Prose Bookstore

David Plotz is Slate's editor. He is the author of Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible. In 1992, Plotz graduated from Harvard. Prior to his work at Slate, he worked as a paralegal for the Department of Justice, which he disliked, switching to journalism. Thereafter, he served as a writer and editor for the Washington City Paper. He joined Slate when it launched in 1996.

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[Genkakuzai]

@Rockster969 No, as a matter of fact I'm more humanistic than my comment reflects. You see, I find it extremely ignorant for people to discredit God or a Goddess for that matter simply because of Bible Verses or anything else. My point is, there is more to life than mere flesh and this short while on Earth.

[Rockster969]

@Genkakuzai So you wish for bad things to happen to athiests in order for them to accept your disgusting and immoral buy-bull?

Applications in the buy-bull?

Go on, I'm all eyes? Maybe a goat herder rape kit?

[mutch311]

t pas drole

[kalimul]

@thunderpants10

Thanks you for bringing that issue up. Voldemort....that motherfucker.

[caveatemp]

So we either believe there is no God of the Bible and there are hideous evils in the world or we believe in God and the fall and the evils we are the catalyst for. What's the problem brainiac?

[Genkakuzai]

@PossessDismiss You can ascribe whatever you want to whoever you want. I never said anything about Yahuah or Christianity being the absolute truth. However, I do believe the Bible has many useful purposes. Whether that stems from the source, creator, etc. I do no know. Like anyone else, I know nothing. Only what culture, society, etc. has given me. Thus, I make do with what I am handed knowing it has stemmed from the beginning him/herself. Contradictory I am, indeed.

[andymission]

Mother Creator knows you.

[PossessDismiss]

@Genkakuzai Couldn't we ascribe the miracle to Allah, Krishna, Zeus, or Diana? A miracle wouldn't prove Christianity to be true nor would a transcendent experience. Christianity isn't the only religion to claim their God(s) does such things, not the first either. I haven't heard a persuasive argument for why such life altering experiences should be attributed to one religion and not another, or to any religion for that matter.

[Genkakuzai]

@Hufflewaffle I like your style sonny, depth indeed... depth indeed. However, I'm still a firm in faith... Even if I'm just a product of societal values and cultural norms... Muwhahahahaaaa!