I've been working for some time now on a book I would like to write on the primitive morality of the Abrahamic god. To that end, I was scribbling away at my notes this evening, and a thought ocurred to me.

According to Jewish mythology (as I understand it), one needs only be basically a good person in order to get a 'happy ending' afterlife. One need not even be Jewish; only being a decent person is sufficient. Christianity, on the other hand, says that being a good person is not sufficient; you must be a member of their particular religion, and that everybody else is deserving of the maximum possible agony as punishment for being ''not us''.

Now it occurs to me: Christianity seems to have a more primitive, tribal, adversarial, us-vs.-them morality than their parent religion on this topic.

This seems a little odd to me. I wonder if Judaism has simply become more morally sophisticated in the 2000 years since Christianity schismed off, and that at that time they were both just as xenophobic and brutish... or if the early christians were sort of a moral throwback to a more brutish and hateful time. Neither would surprise me, but I don't want to assume.

I feel like I want to talk to historians and maybe rabbis on this topic, but in the mean time, do any of you have any insights on the issue?

It just seems to me that the christian mythology, where it differs from Jewish mythology, is less forgiving, more harsh and cruel. Am I nuts for expecting that as new 'mainstream' religions emerge, they ought to be more morally sophisticated than their predecessors? It seems peculiar to me.

cross-posted to atheistofftopic

My friend and ally frickenmuck and I have created a new Livejournal community, and many of you are invited to join. We call it atheistofftopic . 

This community has arisen as a response to the variety of posts in the various atheist livejournal communities which have rightly been criticized as being off-topic for the community, but which were nevertheless enjoyed by some number of people within the community.

There, in this community, such posts are not just allowed, they are indeed encouraged. If you have something you want to chat with your fellow atheists about wirhout necessarily wanting or needing to tie it into the topic of atheism, go wild.

Speaking from my own personal experience, the overwhelming preponderance of my friends are atheists. Not because I seek out atheists to hang out with, but because the types of people I enjoy the company of tend to be atheists. Most of the time, we don't talk about atheism, we just talk about stuff. And we enjoy doing so due to shared sensibilities and tastes. This community provides a venue for the same sort of social interaction.

Obviously, this community is a bit of an experiment: nobody can say what type of discussions we're going to see here. I, for one, am eager to find out. 

I know a lot of the people who have friended me are atheists, but have no particular interest in the established atheist communities, because discussing the topic does not interest them. To them I say: This community is (probably) for you!