Sapphy: I would appreciate you cutting out the snark.
Don't hate the poster, Sapphy, hate the board. When people advance the shallowest possible argument and then circle around and congratulate themselves on how smart they are for getting past all that bible nonsense, well, that's really stupid. And, of course, it also is full of contempt. So, I respond in a similar way.
For the second time in as many months, I find myself in substantial agreement with NewChapter. It is as shocking to me as it is to her. There are differences, of course, but our views are much closer than what other viewpoints seem to be.
Knowsnothing, I think the OT is inspired. But that term has a different meaning thatn what JWs think. The OT stories are important and special because they are a) extraordinarily good and b) because they are Jewish. That they are Jewish is important simply because God is a Jew (to put the matter bluntly). That makes the stories of his people important to Christians.
The quality of the stories is grasped through the larger themes. Foe example: The Jewish creation myth has man being formed from God's own breath and in his own image. This is interesting because so many other stories insist that men are made from dragon blood or something. Those other stories also seem true in some way, but the Jewish approach leads us to a different place, doesn't it?
Add to that insights like the idea that God's name is simply I AM. What a concept: that God is both knowable and also transcendent at the same time. How unique and insightful that is.
What about the giant arc of Jewish history? That the Patriarchs abandon the cities to live in tents, in a state near anarchy. That the Egyptian state is seen as oppressive and rejected in favor of a return to anarchy (the Judges period). That the Juges / warlords are not good at keeping outsiders from attacking the Jews and can't really keep the Jews from their own terrible acts. That the solution is, ultimately, a return to kingship with decidedly mixed results.
It doesn't matter that there are two different guys who get credit for killing Goliath, viewed in this way. Neither does it matter that, say, Jeptha sacrificed his own daughter -- that's the point: people are constantly subject to the same sorts of desires, insecurities, and temptations no matter which god they follow. What do you learn from David except that even devoted followers of YHWH are subject to precisely the same sorts of things that afflict everyone in power?
What about morality? Well, look, what you find there is extraordinary moral clarity in the 10 Commandments. But what sort of a law is it that winds up saying, "Look, guys, just don't covet anybody else's stuff, ok?" A weird one, for sure. But that gets to the problem pretty well, doesn't it? But now what? How do you enforce that law?
Etc.
The, of course, you have this preposterous claim that the eschatological figure winds up getting murdered and raised, and that this fixes everything. That's where it gets interesting.