>>19256080This point of view is peak midwit and reeks of a high school aged person.
Consider the history of religion for a moment.
You have a society where you want to encourage people to act in common interest, but your population consists of illiterate and uneducated farmers.
These uneducated people will have a wide range of innate ability, ranging from retarded to have the potential for genius.
You tell stories giving them concrete examples of people who acted in the way you want to encourage and they got good results. You give examples of people who acted in the way you don't want them to and they got bad results.
These stories are made to be fantastical both through the natural telephone game over time that happens with oral histories and to help cement these stories into the minds of the listeners. Remember, some of the people we're trying to influence here are retarded.
Within these stories there can be overarching themes and underlying meanings. These are not aimed at the retarded, they're aimed at the other end of the spectrum. The retards hear the stories and say "Sky man will kill me if I steal", the smart people hear them and say "If we act morally and favor choices which help the youth we form a more cohesive society"
Filter these stories over a thousand years, adopting the local myths of conquered and integrated cultures and you end up with a pretty wide range of stories mashed together. Get them written down and you get a book.
For most of the history of christianity it wasn't even shared in the local languages. The priests spoke latin and interpreted the bible into sermons which were appropriate for their own church at the right time. The followers didn't read the book and take it literally.
Circling back, you're sitting here thousands of years later looking at that book and not understanding its meaning. You're looking at it like the retards of the past because you're the retard of the present.
Congrats.
