A Jealous God

[Johnny Pneumatic]

Isn't being jealous one of the Seven Deadly Sins? God in the Old Testament is described as being a "jealous God" many times. The apologetic the Bible gives is that it's a "godly jealousy". What is that supposed to mean?! Humans being jealous is humanly jealousy, that must mean it's ok since it's not jealousy by itself. How is God being jealous not sin, being that jealousy is a sin?

[Ryokan]

Where does the bible say jealousy is a sin?

Aren't the Catholics the only ones who believe in the seven deadly sins?

[Atlas]

I think godly jealousy is more ok than say, godly murderousness. But it certainly isn't something that could be mistaken for virtue - in God or Man.

By the way, I don't think jealousy is one of the 7 deadly sins.
Pride is excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as Vanity.

Envy is the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation.

Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.

Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.

Anger is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. It is also known as Wrath.

Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or Covetousness.

Sloth is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work.

[ceo_esq]

There is one usage of the word jealous that is close to the meaning of envious, which could account for the confusion. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, however, the meaning of jealous in the expression jealous God is "having a love which will tolerate no unfaithfulness or defection in the beloved object."

[Johnny Pneumatic]

Originally posted by ceo_esq
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, however, the meaning of jealous in the expression jealous God is "having a love which will tolerate no unfaithfulness or defection in the beloved object."


How's this different from the following?:

A man's girlfriend has left him for another man because she no longer loves man #1, who we shall call Joe Somebody. Joe Somebody is jealous, I mean he's really Pissed Level jealous.
Joe Somebody drives in a wreakless rage over to his ex-girlfriend's new boyfriend's home. Joe gets out of his car, walks up the paved path to man #2's home, who we shall call Bob Victim. Joe takes out his sawed-off shotgun, blows the locked doorknob out of Bob's front door, walks inside Bob's house and cuts Bob's belly open with a large hunting knife. Bob, horrified grabs his chest while his liver, lungs and other organs hang out. Bob falls down and dies. Joe has what could be described as an asexual orgasm from the sight of what he's done. Joe then storms off to the bedroom where his unfaithful ex-girlfriend has been hiding in a closet since she heard the gunshot. Joe tears the closet door off it's hinges while given a hormone boost from his rage. Joe violently jerks his ex-girlfriend off the floor, smacks her hardly, and for her, very painfully, across the face. Joe then storms out of Bob's now bloody home with his whailing ex-friend slung over his shoulder.

The above quite graphic and horrible, yes? Well I'd say God killing and/or ordering the killing of Jews and others when they're only using their God-given freewill is horrible as well. If God doesn't want unfaithfulness then the freakin' moron shouldn't have given people freewill.

[Beerina]

Originally posted by Ryokan
Where does the bible say jealousy is a sin?

Aren't the Catholics the only ones who believe in the seven deadly sins?

Well, God gets to murder, so why is being jealous a problem?

He couldn't be jealous of humans. As He knows everything, He can experience sex with, and being loved by, every person He desires by simply eavesdropping mentally on the object of His desire's object of desire. Of course, this action is just theoretical -- He knows the experience already without having to eavesdrop.

Therefore it must be a jealousy of other, real, existant gods, which is, as we all know, a leftover from when he was part of the Caananite pantheon, or whatever other proto-pantheons were around then, like fighting Leviathan the sea dragon.

[Beerina]

Originally posted by Atlas
Envy is the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation.

Easy for God to say. When you are omnipotent, there is nothing to be envious about.

However, envy is the flipside of jealousy. Perhaps a jealous god is envious of something. But what? Only other gods.

Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.

Aside from eating too much, and thus exposing engineering design flaws in the human body made by Yaweh, such as heart disease, diabetes, and some cancers, there is no "sinfulness" to this any more in a modern, free, capitalist society. Freedom and protection of the business endeavors of millions of people has lead to so much cheap food that the fattest segment of society are the poor. Yet another flipside of Greed, the idea of people using up more than their fair share, thus taking some from others, turned out to be economically false.

I guess we were evil for developing this method of production, and thus slapping down God's "by the sweat of your brow shall you till the soil."


Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.

Again, easy for God to say. He can eavesdrop infinitely well on every last sensation of every perverse act that ever happened, if He wanted to, which He doesn't have to since He knows and can review with infinite detail all that has happened, or even every sex act that ever could happen.


Anger is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. It is also known as Wrath.

As opposed to an angry god who helps ancient Jews annihilate nearby villages and cities. Although, I suppose, killing off all the women, children, and babies was a rather anger-less, cold-blooded thing to do.

Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or Covetousness.

Like an infinitely pretty feminist disclaiming beauty in the workforce, Yaweh has it all, and will never not have whatever He needs, or wants.


Sloth is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work. [/B]

Eh, I won't even get into this one, given God's been sitting on his infinitely fat @$$ for quite some time, aside from when he refuses to do miracles because skeptics are looking.

[AmateurScientist]

Envy requires two persons. Jealousy requires three or more.

OT God was jealous of his people worshipping other gods before Him.

AS

[ceo_esq]

Originally posted by SkepticJ
How's this different from the following?:How is what different?
Originally posted by SkepticJ
The above quite graphic and horrible, yes? Well I'd say God killing and/or ordering the killing of Jews and others when they're only using their God-given freewill is horrible as well.Do you have some specific narrative in mind for purposes of comparison to your story?

Most people would judge that that retribution is more horrible when carried out against people not acting of their own free will.
Originally posted by SkepticJ
If God doesn't want unfaithfulness then the freakin' moron shouldn't have given people freewill. What do faithfulness and unfaithfulness even signify if you remove free will from the equation?

[Atlas]

One thing I like about skeptics is there ability to discuss and argue about these things they hold to be imaginary. God, sin, heaven and hell.

You guys would argue about the smell and color of the poop from an Invisible Pink Unicorn. (No doubt with photos - must show evidence.)

Sin is a magic term for "destructive" - isn't it? The 7 deadlies are all self-destructive when lived to the extreme. Murder is not self destructive but is life destroying. All sin leads to destruction - Hell - even if it doesn't destroy you here.

[TragicMonkey]

Originally posted by Atlas
Sin is a magic term for "destructive" - isn't it? The 7 deadlies are all self-destructive when lived to the extreme.

Some of the Greeks would argue that everything is destructive when taken in excess, even virtues.

If destructiveness is what makes sin sinful, then even virtues could then be sins in the right circumstances.

[Johnny Pneumatic]

Originally posted by ceo_esq
How is what different?
Do you have some specific narrative in mind for purposes of comparison to your story?

Most people would judge that that retribution is more horrible when carried out against people not acting of their own free will.

What do faithfulness and unfaithfulness even signify if you remove free will from the equation?


How is God's "godly jealousy" any different than Joe Somebody's?
Joe Somebody's girlfriend, lets call her Amy Freewill, was doing what she wanted to. Amy was going with who she loved, or at least loved more. How's this any different than the Jews going with other gods instead of Yahweh when they want to?
The Jews weren't getting what they wanted at home, so they went sleeping around.

More horrible, sure I suppose. What's your point?


Nothing, and so what? You seem to be failing to see my point. If you don't want something(the beloved object) to do anything other than what you want(what the God of the Bible is said to want in many places) you're a idiot if you create it with the capacity to disobey. If you want a robot but you create a human you have only yourself to blame when they're unfaithful.

[pgwenthold]

Originally posted by Atlas
One thing I like about skeptics is there ability to discuss and argue about these things they hold to be imaginary. God, sin, heaven and hell.


You should be around when I get together with my Wizard of Oz fan friends. Or check out a Harry Potter chatroom (or thread here, for that matter).

People like to discuss fictional stories all the time.

[Beerina]

Originally posted by Atlas
One thing I like about skeptics is there ability to discuss and argue about these things they hold to be imaginary. God, sin, heaven and hell.
...

Sin is a magic term for "destructive" - isn't it? The 7 deadlies are all self-destructive when lived to the extreme. Murder is not self destructive but is life destroying. All sin leads to destruction - Hell - even if it doesn't destroy you here.

No one denies this. It's the clownish context as a commandment from On High that is idiotic. (Assuming that's even true.)