Posted by fschmidt on
URL: https://coalpha.arkian.net/Choosing-a-Church-tp5806523p6293009.html

I was reasonably happy with Greek Orthodox Christianity until I read the Bible.  I read the Bible in order starting at the beginning of the Old Testament.  I loved the Old Testament.  The Old Testament is basically the story of Israel through the fall of Israel to Babylon.  It presents the complete life-cycle of a culture.  The Jews left Egypt with a slave mentality which is unsuitable for founding a country.  So they wondered in the desert for 40 years by which time a new generation had grown up that was self-directed enough to found a country.  This new generation founded Israel.  This Israel was very co-alpha, having only judges and religious leaders and no kings.  During this period, very good moral laws were developed.  As Israel became more settled and grew, it eventually had kings as its neighbors did.  It is an advantage in wars to have one strong commander.  So now Israel grew into a significant power by combining high morality with string kings.  But then the morality began to decline.  This long slow decline resulted in Israel gradually losing power until it was finally completely conquered by Babylon.  The end of the Old Testament is a reflection by those Jews who weren't killed on Jewish history and the fall to Babylon.  The Old Testament covers the cycle of a culture almost exactly as I see it, explaining how moral decline is what causes culture to fail.  The miracle is that the Jews in Babylon understood all this and wrote it down in the Old Testament.

The Old Testament is surprisingly free of mythology.  I interpreted God simply as:

        God = Wisdom + Morality

This simple view is enough to explain almost everything relating to God in the Old Testament.  When God speaks, I take it as the voice of wisdom and morality speaking.  There are very few examples of God doing supernatural things.

The New Testament starts several hundred years after the Old Testament left off.  By then, the Pharisees dominated Judaism.  These are the predecessors of today's Rabbinic Judaism.  The Pharisees were power hungry bureaucrats who badly distorted the Old Testament.  Jesus revolted against this, but instead of returning to the core of the Old Testament, Jesus gave his own alternate interpretation.  Since I love the Old Testament, I am equally against both Jesus and the Pharisees.

Today we have three major religions all based on the Old Testament.  But all three claim to have the right interpretation of the Old Testament which they claim to be divinely inspired and therefore unquestionable.  Christianity has the New Testament, Islam has the Quran, and Rabbinic Judaism has the Talmud.  (The Talmud was written by many rabbis, all of whom were supposed to be divinely inspired.)  In my view, all the positive attributes of all these religions come from the Old Testament, and all these religions add with their additional books are bad rules and intolerance.

So I was thrilled to find the perfect religion for me, which is Karaite Judaism.  This is purely based on the Old Testament and says that it is up to each individual to study it and interpret it for himself.  I encourage you to google "Karaite Judaism" and learn more.

Back in the real world, Karaite Judaism is a tiny religion.  So how can one make this work practically?  Since Karaite Judaism is a form of Judaism and is therefore accepted by Rabbinic Judaism, I think the best approach is to join an Orthodox Jewish synagogue but to consider oneself a Karaite Jew.  I will try this here in El Paso and see how it works out.