@Crazycatfan2 lol, we also think there is a sort of ledger i guess (though no divine punishment, more of a fate book, i guess) because on new years we say “a good final sealing [of what is written for you]” like we think that on rosh hashana it is written what will happen for the next year
the answer is obviously that many people are good and do the right thing without divine threats or commands but the question is interesting for me because my (believing) mother has always told me that christians interpret a far stricter prohibition on lying than the torah creates
@Crazycatfan2 yikes, that’s hard, i’m sorry :( admittedly even within protestantism american protestantism is its whole own beast because of all the other cultures that are wrapped up in it and the separation
@Crazycatfan2 it’s interesting to me that you note the idea of g-d as ever watchful though because one of my irl best friends is eastern orthodox and she has told me before that growing up in the orthodox church there was this sense of g-d always watching that was different than most us prots
@Crazycatfan2 and, conversely, i am apt to overemphasize the importance of biblical text because i am surrounded by protestants who make an ordeal of the actual text whether or not they actually read it
essentially, the bible broadly suggests that lying is wrong where the falsehood hurts someone or is a self-serving betrayal of trust but there are contexts where it is not inherently bad and it doesn't have this categorical evil quality that it takes on in christian thought
in her view, "thou shalt not bear false witness" refers to falsely testifying i.e. incriminating someone you know is innocent, and not merely any lying (similarly leviticus prohibits "false dealing" as in trying to cheat someone, not lying), and abraham lies to protect himself
i don’t think philosemitism is an utterly useless term because there are particular dynamics to it but on the whole it is just orientalism as it happened to jews and i do not entirely trust the division of these concepts
it would be like if you tried to make sex positivity icons out of women who went on trial for fornicating when these women also believed extramarital sex was sinful and evil and were typically in extreme distress to have been accused of it
the way people talk about historical witchcraft is generally goofy of course but also fundamentally it is what happens when you don't understand that historical people did in fact believe their religions