A Softening of the Last Post

The New Testament is not perfect, but it's a huge improvement over the viciousness of the Old Testament. It's really so different that it raises the question of how this could really be the same God.

My actual favorite part of the Bible is Ecclesiastes. Read the King James version; the language is terrific. "For every thing, there is a season..." comes from Ecclesiastes. One of my favorite parts is here, from Ecclesiastes 9:


9
¶ Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity: for that is thy portion in this life, and in thy labor which thou takest under the sun.
10
Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.
11
¶ I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

As a devout atheist, I have reread Ecclesiastes several times. It just has some great passages in it.