Moses to Dr. Susskind, come in Dr. Susskind. Are you there? Over.

Some people have a very hard time with the Old Testament passages about the fighting in the promised land.  Starting in Numbers 32, we see the people leaving Egypt and entering the desert, waring with other peoples and taking their cities and land.  God commanded that they do these things.  So, how is this good?

Well, first, aside from the fact that we are judging God by human standards, we ask for this.  Do we not ask for an end to evil?  Do we not wish for all that is evil to be removed from the world?  Did not God send the flood to purge the world of evil hateful people?

Second, the Hebrew people were nomadic, homeless, looking for a place to live.  God had adopted them as His people.  So, He was trying to protect and guide them and be their god.  We believe that God knows all things, yes?  How do we know that the people of these lands were not evil and wicked, as the Hebrews' own ancestors were before the flood?  How do we know that they were not violent and wouldn't have attacked the Hebrews and wiped them out if they had the chance.  If God was protecting them, then He would have likely been proactive too.  

Two more outlandish beliefs exist too.  They were not God's people, the people of these lands.  The Hebrews were God's people.  What does that even mean?  Well, some believe that they may not have even been people, similar to the Niffelheim before the flood.  Don't go down that rabbit hole.

Is this reality?  What if we are living in a dream?  None of this is real and none of it really matters.  But, we have to be moral, because we are judged for it and rewarded or punished in the next world.  But, what goes on around us is a simulation of sorts.  I believe Plato said that we are in a cave chained to a wall watching the shadow cast by the fire light.

I once read that we are not in the world, that our bodies are.  We are trapped in our skulls, and only perceive the world around our bodies through the limitations of our own senses, similar to being trapped in a concrete room with TV screens or monitors displaying images and sound relayed from cameras outside the room that we are encased in.