worldling

For those who missed it:
I've been searching for a decent analogy for the crucifixion story for years, and this is pretty close to perfect. Great work, Amaranth!

Inevitably there is something missing - in this case the concept of original sin, and the fact the the landlord knew before he even let the duplexes that his tennants would break the rules. I remain convinced that it is impossible to construct an analogy that does full justice to the lunacy at the heart of Xianity.

Here's one I came up with a couple of years ago:

A father builds a beautiful house for his children to live and play in. It has everything they could need, and sits in the middle of a glorious garden. Unfortunately, the whole estate is circled by a motor-racing track. The father instals the children in the house and tells them they can do what they want, but they must never stray out of the garden and onto the race track. Otherwise he will have to punish them. With death.

Then he goes away, jumps into his Ferrarri, and proceeds to drive around the track at high speed. The children play for a while in the garden, and of course, stray on to the race track. Before long, their father looms into view in his Ferrarri, tavelling right at them at 140mph. Then, at the last second, he swerves out of the track and crashes into a tree, killing himself and wrecking his car.

Then he gets out of the car, and tells them that he crashed the car and died so that they could live. That's how much he loved them. If they accepted that he just did a really loving thing, they could go on living forever. But if they didn't, he would lock them in the torture chamber beneath the house for the rest of eternity.


It's not as good as Amaranth's, but it does convey something of the madness of this deity Xians imagine they have a personal relationship with...

Ispikes

In relation to this I have a question.
God is supposed to be omnipotent yet limits his omnipotence because of free will (problem of evil).
What then is the difference between that and an impotent God then?

Biff the unclean

Inevitably there is something missing - in this case the concept of original sin, and the fact the the landlord knew before he even let the duplexes that his tennants would break the rules.
How about if you add racism to the story. The landlord rents to (pick race of your choice) knowing full well that that sort of people would surely break the rules.
What are we talking about here if not the ultimate racism? Prejudice against the human race. "Oh that lot, they were born bad. A bunch of shiftless no good trouble making fruit eaters."