/lit/ - Literature

Post Bible verses that hit hard.

“Why is light given to those in misery, and life to the bitter of soul, to those who long for death that does not come, who search for it more than for hidden treasure, who are filled with gladness and rejoice when they reach the grave?"

Job ch3 v20-22

Post depressing books.

>>20102802
Personally I'm a Young Earth creationist but I think the creationist argument on this issue has been embarrassingly bad. Kent Hovind style pseudoscientists gave the creationist movement a bad name by trying to prove more than what is needed for our position to be acceptable. In fact, it is possible -- indeed very easy -- to express the young earth position in such a way that it is impervious to scientific criticisms:

The scientist calculates the age of the earth based on empirical observations that he makes about the world as it currently is. He finds signs of the earth's age and says that because it has these signs of being old, it must therefore be old. But we can simply retort by saying that God made the earth in such a way that it APPEARS old, but actually isn't, just as he made Adam as an adult and not a baby.

Someone who encountered Adam after he was first created would perhaps assume that he is old simply because he has the signs of age (adult frame, beard, etc), but in fact he would only have existed for a few seconds. That person would be relying under the false assumption that Adam came about in the same way as everyone else: that he was a baby, grew up, had a childhood, and eventually matured to an adult age.

Similarly, a scientists looks at the earth's signs of maturity and assumes it must have had a "childhood". But if God created the earth 8,000 years ago, EXACTLY HOW IT WAS 8,000 YEARS AGO, then the scientist working under these same assumptions would conclude that the earth is billions of years old, even though it isn't.

All this does is prove the limits of human reason as per the underdetermination of data. No scientific criticism can refute this position. Young Earth is just as scientifically palatable as old earth. We must trust in Christ, not in man's wisdom.

>>20078566
>God doesn't turn your life into shit on purpose.

Because its purpose is to evoke the question of "Why does God let good people suffer?" which, for an atheist, is the ultimate moral argument used against God.
An atheist's or midwit's interpretation:
>"God is bad because he lets good people suffer even though he is omnipotent! What an asshole!"
A level-headed, non-surface level interpretation:
>"You can be a good, loyal, and pious man whether you have a good life or a miserable one, and this is an ultimate test of one's character. Job passed that test."
The interpretation of the book of Job is the ultimate filter.

>lives perfectly pious and sinless life
>God allows Devil to single him out to torture him him as a "test"
>loses possessions
>loses health
>loses children
>remains pious and refuses to curse or condemn God
>proves himself to God
>God provides no reason for subjecting him to eternal suffering

I understand the motif that "good thing happen to bad people" but what's the point of this story? Job was singled out by God and he still doesn't get any proper answer.

>>18711633
hiob in anime bible

>>18696325

Did Job deserve it?

Why?

>>13443423
Me as well. I was a Buddhist and underwent a number of religious experiences that I closed my eyes to because I assumed it was all just a product of overanalysis and delusion. I had to be brought to the edge of death to understand. I'm still on the path of understanding, and have found the most solace and understanding in the God of the Bible.

I did just finish reading the Old Testament for the first time only an hour or so ago, so perhaps that. Ezekiel, Daniel, Ecclesiastes, Job, and Nehemiah in particular.

What do you guys think of the book of Job?

I just finished reading Job for the first time and was surprised by its conclusion that justice -- or at least human justice -- is not a part of God's cosmic plan, in complete contrast to all of the prophets who seem to posit that a very human form of justice is God's primary focus. Does this contradict the prophets? Does it imply some kind of deism, or is it only implying that humans aren't capable of understanding the justice God exacts?