How Does Dawkins Interpret God

Old Testament and the life of Jesus Christ, New Testament, to give examples of the oppression

“Not only did slaves believe that they would be chosen by the Lord, there is evidence that many of them felt their owners would be denied salvation” (34). Levine claimed that the slaves uses their beliefs and religion as a “means of escape and opposition” because it gave them a “serious alternative to the societal system created by southern slaveholders” (54.)

3. The Lord threatens the Egyptian people that he will smite or whip there fist-born child until they are dead unless they free the Israelites. The Israelites represent the hebrew slaves.

Ignorance also befalls on the oppressors. Douglas sheds light on how slave owners prayed to Christ, went to church every Sunday and yet mistreated people to the upmost degree and punished them for reading. Southerners often justified slavery by saying they were bringing Christianity to slaves. Christianity is a religion based on love and compassion for your fellow man. Since the Europeans did not believe the Africans were worthy to be in the same human category as them they dehumanized them relating them to animals. Although the bible says “we must never treat any part of God's creation with contempt. When we do, we are indirectly treating our Creator with contempt.” If they did not believe slaves were worthy to be treated as God’s creation then why did they push their religion on them? The answer is to keep them controlled and confused. Europeans stripped Africans of their traditions starting with their name, this in some degree made Africans like blank canvases ready to be painted anew. Christianity gave slaves hope that one day their situation will change if they prayed hard enough and abide by Christ words. It also gave them a brand new vision of what God should look like. White is good, Black is bad. In the Christian bible they saw Jesus as a white man so in turn they could have related the goodness of Christ to the “goodness” of their masters. Some slaves even argued about whose master was more kind. I guess this is what

The doctrine of God in black theology must be of the God who is participating in the liberation of the oppressed of the land. This hermeneutical principle arises out of the first. Because God has been revealed in the history of oppressed Israel and decisively in the Oppressed One, Jesus Christ. It is impossible to say anything about God without seeing him as being involved in the contemporary liberation of all oppressed people.

The Civil War was a period in American history that brought pain and suffering; nothing good came of the war. The Civil War did help abolish slavery, but what was freedom without rights? They had no home, or land. After the war, the south became living hell for African Americans. The whites did not know how to deal with living around free blacks, neither did the black knew how to be free. White southerners always looked for ways to maintain superiority of the African Americans. Any chance they got to put restrictions on the blacks they did;Just so they can have someone to work the fields. Such suffering could not help but raise disturbing questions about god's benevolence and agency” (174). For a god who is holy how can he allow such suffering? Isn‘t he a good god? Why is he allowing his people to suffer? Even the soldiers questioned whether god was real or not since both sides believed in his power but he still let many soldiers die and the South still lost. With religion it made “both dying and mourning easier”

While black power focuses on the political, social, and economic condition of black people, Black Theology sees black identity from a theological context. Much of black liberation theology’s foundation comes from God's deliverance of Israel from oppression under the Egyptians. According to James Cone, “the consistent theme in Israelite prophecy is Yahweh's concern for "the lack of social, economic, and political justice for those who are poor and unwanted in the society."# The dominate view of Black Liberation theologists is “God in action, delivering the oppressed because of His righteousness. He is to be seen, not in the transcendent way of Greek philosophy, but immanent, among His people." God is "immanent”” because he is present in many historical moments that focus on liberation of the poor. Its derives it beliefs from the fact that in the bible, God often enters human affairs and takes the side of the oppressed, that god is heavily worshipped where human beings experience humiliation and suffering. Because of these beliefs, blacks adopted a gospel relevant to the uplifting of blacks and ending black struggle under white oppression.# Black theology places both our past and present actions toward black liberation in a theological context, eliminating all false Gods and creating value structures according to the God of black freedom.

When he established Israel, he demanded that instead of taking advantage of the defenseless, they must take care of them, love them, and provide for them. This care is an execution of justice and is central to all in relationship with God. In the 1960’s, Southern whites took advantage of southern blacks, and perpetrated systemic racism that kept them “in their place.” Christians are called to step up when these forms of injustice take place, however, due to the tendency of covenant-holders to abandon the will of the Lord for the ways of society and cultural norms, they abandoned this ideal for inaction, and even discrimination and hatred. This is an unsustainable dichotomy, to claim to abide by a doctrine that requires love, and living a life of closed hearts and even pure hatred toward an entire people group, that, in many cases, was a majority of the population in which one lived. For those who fail to trade in the ways of the world, stepping up to a revolution like Kings in the name of Christ would be nearly impossible. One cannot embrace their culture while abiding by the law of God, or, as Jesus said, they will become a servant of two masters. That’s the church that King dealt with, one who served their culture rather than the Kingdom of the

The African-American accepted their new found identity; embracing the religious implications. The African-American began to celebrate and worship the God of their masters; accepting their relegated status of slave and their masters elevated states of superior. Raboteau, author of “Slave Religion” concludes the experience of the slave was “both institutional and non institutional, visible and invisible.” The institution of religion presented one truth; however the before mentioned dormant consciousness of the African-American presented another truth. This was an invisible truth because it was not observable by the masses but practiced separately, in which the oneness of mind could be shared and expressed. The slave preacher could not speak openly about the God of equality; yet faint whispers of equality, freedom, and justice could be heard in the midst of a “negro” gathering. Negro preachers often could not read the words in which they spoke; but they had a “remarkable memory.” They could reiterate with their own interpretations Scriptural references and they were relevant and applicable to their current situation. This was not just a white God, but it was our God. Sojourner Truth writes of how her mother would tell them “there is a God, who hears and see you.” Our

In his book God Behaving Badly David Lamb examines difficult texts in the Old Testament and tries to answer the hard questions that arise from those readings. In my own examination of Lamb’s God Behaving Badly I will look at a few of the- questions and difficult texts that I found most interesting. Specifically, I will examine Lamb’s response to God 's anger, apparent lack of concern for race and genocide, and violence in the Old Testament, and I will offer my own response.

James H. Cone’s God of the Oppressed is his examination of the origin, development, and significance of black theology as it relates to how he and the black Christian community view God. For Cone, in an America seemingly dominated by white theology and the white Christian community’s views of God, it is imperative to acknowledge and attentively listen to the voices of the theologies of other races and what God means to them, especially that of the black community. Cone asserts without hesitation that the God that is referred to in the Bible and black religion is a Deliver of those held captive by the bondage of oppression. Cone not only asserts this viewpoint of God as the Freer of oppressed people, but he validates this assertion through the use of Scripture, the black experience, history, and tradition. Overall, the central theme of this book is that a plethora of factors continually shape and construct a people’s theology and how that theology is significant in regards to how they see God, the world, and themselves.

Eck clearly communicates to the reader that God is not revealed in only one way, but God is revealed in many different ways. She helps the reader understand what she means by using her encounters with other of the Hindu faith to explain her reasoning. Eck does tell the reader she is a Methodist and believes in one God, her encounters merely helped strengthen her faith. By using the Hindu faith to communicate to the reader why God is viewed in a variety of ways, Eck is helping the reader look at God from a different perspective. Her take on presenting the idea of pluralism in the Hindu faith helps the reader grasp the monotheistic ideas of faiths outside of Christianity. She uses the many face of God in Hinduism. Hindus believe that God can

1.communication of knowledge to man by a divine or supernatural agency/ how god reveals himself to us

Some of the arguments that God would not command destructions of the Canaanites or any other nation because it would portray God as an immoral God. It would portray God as cruel, unmerciful, ruthless, unloving, unforgiving and unjust which is the opposite of what Christians believe and preach to the lost. Christians today tell unsaved people that

and in justice.  Therefore he does not question the will of the gods in letting