I was pointing out how the stories present the god of the Bible from a straightforward reading...Stories about the noachian flood (and those stories that followed)...
First, the Noachin Deluge is the newer myth. It was composed after the Babylonian Exile, around 538 BCE, and was added to the Torah during the Persian Era. We know this because it has the editorial earmarks of Gilgamesh tablet 11. The other stories came before, they did not follow. In fact, some scholars are in agreement that the redactors of the Torah might be making fun of the Atrahasis (another older Mesoptamian flood legend) and the Gilgamesh story by showing that Yahweh hangs up his weapon at the end and won't be like the heathen gods in the other stories by his limiting his power via covenant-making, a new element not found in the other flood myths.
These are not the qualities we were taught to understand that he [God] had, nor are they the qualities that many who worship this god insist he has, or represents. Growing up, I was taught to approach these stories in a certain way, which is very different from how they read if you just... you know... read them.
As a Jew I can attest that we do not teach anywhere in our Scriptures that "God is love," like it does in 1 John chapter 4:8 & 16.
Is God just? Is God merciful? Is God omnipresent? Omniscient? In Judaism, God is often not even considered an entity let alone a deity. Humans created deities. Many Jews are atheists, agnostics or don't put belief in God central in their religious lives. (It sounds weird to Christians who measure religion by what "God" is, but yeah.) One's view of God can change from one day to the next.
The word "Israel" means "he who wrestles with God." Our nation and people is called "Israel" and not "Abraham" because we wrestle with the God-issue. We don't obey or believe blindly.
As for reading these stories, we Jews know how to read them. We understand that the first 11 chapters are filled with mythology and legends. And Genesis is part of the Mosaic Law, not the Mosaic History. It's a book teaching Jews how to perform the Law. It's stories having a bearing on how to perform the Law: the first chapter of Genesis about why it's important to observe the Sabbath, the second chapter about our need to observe the commandments, the third about what happens when you break a commandment and so on, etc. It's not really about history. It the Torah. It teaches you lessons to be a good Jew. It wasn't written to be read literally or outside the idea that it wasn't the Torah or wasn't the Mosaic Law.
I was there for a few years with my JW aunt in the Kingdom Hall and listened to how people were taught that this meant this and that meant that. So? What if you were taught that Star Wars was a real story all your life when you were raised as a Mormon? And then you grew up and learned it wasn't? Are you going to hate Luke Skywalker? Or George Lucas?
It's fiction. You had a wrong view of it. Others taught you that wrong view. There was a correct view, but you never learned it. The more you refuse to learn that there is a possible correct view, that it is fiction, the more you will just sit being angry.
You anger isn't wrong. It's just misdirected. There are people who you should be angry at.
A myth and a mythological god are not to blame, especially when the story had a completely different context than you thought it did.
(I mean, God is not even named "Jehovah." That name means nothing to us Jews. That should tell you something right there. You can't even read the story straightfoward either. It's in Hebrew. We can, and we do. You folks argue over whether or not you have a good or correct translation, and can't ever be sure if you have a correct one. We don't need a translation. That should also tell you something.)
Be mad if you want to. But I would direct my anger at the right people and do something constructive with it instead of being mad at, for example "Luke Skywalker" and "Darth Vader." They were never real to being with. And being mad at them all day ain't gonna make them "realler"
