Religion
In reply to the discussion: As a long-time atheist, I'm often asked if I "respect" religion. [View all]That particular issue is one of my reasons for rejecting religion in the first place. The dichotomy between the "God of Love" and the "Angry, Vengeful God" was one of my first clues that there was a problem with Judeo-Christian beliefs.
That same deity wiped out all the life on Earth, according to the same scriptures, save one family and the animals they collected. What would induce a person to worship such an entity? The more I learned, the more I realized the mythological nature of the whole thing, and the more I was able to put it aside.
Indeed, if those stories are true, then Moses and Abraham were delusional, and believed in a deity that would destroy them in an instant, if it pleased the deity. I cannot conceive of such an entity being real.
A thorough knowledge of the scriptures of a religion is often a guide to its reality or mythology.