Quote:
Originally Posted by Kyuusai
Well, I wouldn't say that was so any more than it is today. The Bible documents a lot of grand events that were, according to scripture, unmistakably witnessed by humans as acts of God, but they were still things that He had a vested interest in, that weren't witnessed widely outside the groups directly involved... and it was still by proxy.
When it's Biblically stated that God did something, it's not really implied that He acted directly but instead that He orchestrated it using means that wouldn't break His self-propelled design. He delegated, so to speak. I'd liken it to some one saying that Donald Trump built a hotel: It's not that Mr. Trump physically did it himself--he had other people do it for him--but we generally only credit him unless we have reason to specify the intermediaries.
This is really getting pretty deep into it (despite the glossed-over explanations I'm giving), but it's an important distinction when discussing some of the things mentioned here.
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He parted the Red Sea, sent plagues, the deluge, and talked directly to a number of people, when he didn't send angels. All of that is a lot more hands-on than now.
Now, basically, whether God exists or not makes no practical difference. The Sun will rise and fall at predictable times, catastrophes will be natural phenomenons, and so on. Back then? If the OT is to be believed, God could reach out and stop the Sun, and disasters were God's way of showing his temper.