Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Hypocrisy and Contradiction

It seems that their is a fair amount of hypocrisy and self-contradiction within most religious texts (the result of many seperate psalms, or stories, or smaller texts being merged into one). This has been a main point of criticism by atheists of many major religions. While hypocrisy does not invalidate a text (as it is up to the reader to determine what is currently applicable and useful in their lives), its presence is worth acknowledging, and it is certainly present in the The Book of Psalms. 
There are two large themes which continue to clash with each other in my mind. First of all, there is the constant request for/reaffirmation of god's destruction of the believer's enemies. These enemies are often described as hateful, unjust, deceitful, etc. and for this reason they must be defeated by god. Almost as frequently, however, the believer admits to crimes which, while unspecific, are described as incredibly heavy, dreaded (Psalm 38) and great (Psalm 25). Why then, is the believer right to ask for complete forgiveness for his sins while his enemies are toppled? In many of the psalms it seems as if the believer has earned the hatred of his enemies through the crimes he has committed- though often enemies are described as bearing false witness to the true extent of the crime (27:12 and 31:19). This hypocrisy may be explained by the believer's faith itself as a justification for better treatment- he asks forgiveness and therefore recieves it.
I discovered another issue of contradiction in Psalm 33:5 "The Lord's kindness fills the earth". This seems a strange thing to say juxtaposed with the many psalms which declare the nation of his followers as the only place which he truly values- and describe the lord as a being whose wrath can be sparked in an instant (Psalm 2). When we look at psalms like psalm 18, we see god as an incredibly war-like and wrathful figure. How then can his kindness "fill the earth?" this seems to me a difficult contradiction to explain satisfactorily.

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