The Old Testament

The psalmist sings that God knew us before we were born. The book
of Joshua says God ordered that everything with breath should be
destroyed in the land of Canaan. The writer of Genesis affirms
that God said creation was good, very good. But the Pentateuch
also insists on an eye for and eye, and that parental sins will
be visited on their children for several generations. In this
Science Set Free podcast, Rupert Sheldrake and Mark Vernon
explore the modern meaning of the collection of books Christians
call the Old Testament. It includes words of great beauty, on the
one hand and on the other, words apparently sanctifying acts of
great violence. Can the Old Testament be understood as an account
of the evolution of consciousness, or perhaps as a kind of
collective unconscious of the Judeo-Christian west? Is it as
simple as picking some parts out and dismissing others? What
might be made of this seminal collection of texts by those
interested in spiritual progress?