It’s probably because they still have a large number of nukes. It’s not just about GDP, but about military power as well. In fact, they still have more nukes than we do:
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People have been doing horrible shit in the name of god’s will at least since Abraham thought it a good idea to slaughter his own beloved son.
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His views are more scatological.
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I always hated that story; why would an omnipotent, ‘all-knowing’ being ever need any “proof” of his worshipper’s devotion and obedience?
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Right. But I’m referring to people actively attempting to bring about the Rapture and the Apocalypse today. The ones so sure they are on the “winning” side in that scenario, and are happy to do their part to make it happen.
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I’m just going to spitball here, but my guess is that God is an all-knowing idiot.
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Because He’s insecure? A “jealous” God?
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Much of the bible *proves beyond shadow of a doubt that God is not all-knowing.
*(as much as it proves anything)
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No argument there. Allow me to put in a plug for Karen Armstrong’s book A History of God and its follow up The Battle For God. As an atheist, wait, as a human, I find these invaluable.
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Or just an asshole projection of mankind’s worst traits.
Many of the descriptions of ‘god’ in the bible sound way too damn human and fallible to be logically applied to a supposed higher power.
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GDP is a poor measure. Its inventor said it was a poor measure and nobody listened to him. Russia’s power is in its ability to make stuff happen. It has an enormous army and the ability to deploy that army to accomplish tasks. The large military exercises some years back had two million troops tearing across the landscape. They can also build stuff really quite effectively.
However, whatever you think of their ability to project all sorts of force, eventually there is the matter of nuclear weapons. They have really quite a monstrous stock of those and, thus, the ability to end human civilization should they have a fancy to. Just like America, in fact. Their thermonukes are Sakharov designs, yours Teller–Ulam, but the end result is much the same.
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Climate change is enough of a threat on it’s own that anybody in power who would merely ignore it is an unqualified threat. These people want to bring back coal.
Hardly hyperbole.
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Russia managed to entrench itself at the seat of power when it was still a superpower. Now it has nuclear capabilities and maintains instability in it’s corner of the world which gives it enough leverage to matter.
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“Prove you love me!”
Yeah, that kind of relationship is generally going to end badly…
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So who is the most dangerous organisation in history? International bankers?
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It’s second only to the story of ‘Job’ as my most hated biblical tale; the petty, small-minded and cruel ‘god’ described in those stories isn’t one that’s worth worshipping, IMO.
It’s no wonder that I started to break away from the church, not long after reading the bible from cover to cover as a teen.
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I’m with you in sentiment there, I only studied the Gospels in any depth at school.
So much petty and narcissistic behaviour in the Old Testament; “I am petulant, worship me or die” isn’t really something I could get on board with, and the New is mostly one story from multiple viewpoints and we all know how reliable that is.
I like the Norse stories, not that I follow any religion, at least they’re honest in their attitudes to their Gods. They’re imperfect, treat these stories as morality tales not literal truths.
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Why would a perfect being ever need anything?
It’s almost as if stories about gods and magic don’t make a lot of sense.
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I used to be pentecostal (don’t judge me); they practically spoonfed that crap to my youth group…
An even better point.
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