Its curious that the ethics that you use to condemn the God of the Bible are derived so much from the Bible itself. In order to scold God you have at least subconsciously stood upon His book.
An incorrect assumption on your part. My ethical system is utilitarian in nature primarily, with an overtone of autonomy.
It's moral to take actions which help the most people, however it's immoral if those actions (no matter how many people they help) violate the autonomous rights of another.
The fact that there is conjunction in areas between my morality and the Bible is incidental, as those same areas are shared by nearly all cultures on Earth. Largely due to the fact that you can not have a working society in which people act against the group from within the group.
You would have to explain to me why each and every instance of people with "a different religion" was not handled in the same way, because it was not.
Why weren't the Philistines not exterminated when they stole the ark of the covenant ? They only got sores on their bodies and figured out that they needed to return the ark to Israel.
Daniel in Babylon, learned all the wisdom that the Babylonians taught. He just continued with his three friends to believe in Yahweh. We don't see as severe an extermination in that case.
If God acted differently on occasion then there should be some reason for this. One case was to Him WORSE then another case.
This is the easiest to explain.
The books of the Bible are written at different times by different people each of whom had a different political agenda.
Each of them makes the character of "God" say or do whatever is expedient for their narrative/moral/agenda.
The stories are not historical accounts of the actions of a real invisible wizard. They are a means by which a ruling class can control an uneducated populous through threats and coercion.
Asking why the character of "God" behaves one way or another in different books of the Bible is like asking why James Bond sometimes had a Scottish accent and sometimes didn't in different films. Different Actors.
[qs] I would prefer the exact quote you refer to rather then your rewording.[qs/]
You don't know it? I thought you were arguing from an authoritative standpoint on the Bible.
Suppose you hear in one of the towns the LORD your God is giving you that some worthless rabble among you have led their fellow citizens astray by encouraging them to worship foreign gods. In such cases, you must examine the facts carefully. If you find it is true and can prove that such a detestable act has occurred among you, you must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock. Then you must pile all the plunder in the middle of the street and burn it. Put the entire town to the torch as a burnt offering to the LORD your God. That town must remain a ruin forever; it may never be rebuilt. Keep none of the plunder that has been set apart for destruction. Then the LORD will turn from his fierce anger and be merciful to you. He will have compassion on you and make you a great nation, just as he solemnly promised your ancestors. "The LORD your God will be merciful only if you obey him and keep all the commands I am giving you today, doing what is pleasing to him." (Deuteronomy 13:13-19 NLT)
Are you pro-life or pro-choice ?
Waaay off topic. I'll cover it in a different post so we can put that issue to rest.
Nuggin:
A God which is at time extremely severe is not a merciful God.
This is not logical to me. Even a judge of the world has a great array of remedies he or she may enact to deal with an offense.
Can you name a human judge who, when deciding a punishment, ordered the murder of a man's infant children for a crime the man committed?
"God" does that in both Genesis and Exodus - and that's just off the top of my head.
In Lev and Deut, etc - "God" inspires the authors to write down laws which call for the same thing.
This is not a rational, moral response by a merciful being.
The way I read that story is that pharoah was hard hearted to begin with. God wanted to display His glorious miracles and dramatically deliver the Jews. So God hardened pharoah more to get him to stand against such devastating calamities.
That's EXACTLY what I said. God MAKES the Pharaoh do something, then punishes him for doing what god MAKES him do.
And, if you think that plagues of Egypt are MORE glorious and MORE miraculous than, say, changing all the Jews into doves and allowing them to fly away - you are exactly what I'm talking about when I say that Fundamentalist Christians are evil people.
There's nothing glorious about the plagues. They are the actions of a weak and petty "god". Certainly no one can argue that a deity who would use such tactics is in any way merciful.
Unless you, Nuggin, have a higher morality then Jesus Christ, I suspect your condemnation of God may be ill-informed and in error.
Given that I actually exist and you are comparing me to a fictional character, it's not exactly a fair comparison is it?
I fully understand that YOU believe that this fictional character is real. My niece believes that harry Potter is real.
There are obvious differences in your priorities and God's. Whereas you are concerned with efficiency as the most important thing, God has some other priority in mind.
And I think as always that is to make His people one with Him from the inside out - a union and a blending.
Reading the Bible as it actually is: A mythology created by the Jews to inspire their tribe to fight against neighboring nations - this makes sense.
However, if you believe as you claim to believe that God is the creator of ALL men, not just the Jews. Then this statement is ridiculous. He's killing HIS people to save HIS people.
Again - a merciful God with an INFINITE NUMBER of options would NEVER choose to murder innocent children. Period.
you have one instance being dealt with at one tme by God.
So your claim is that God acts differently in different books of the Bible because he has a radical personality disorder? Because he doesn't know all things?
The fact of the matter is this: Religions change over time because the cultures they serve change over time.
The problem here is that you are arguing that the ENTIRE Bible is an account of an unchanging, moral deity -AND- that it is inspired by an unerring hand to represent the actual actions.
That position is indefensible given what actually occurs within the narrative of the Bible.
It could be regarded as a repayment on a national level. Afterall the policy from Pharoah was to kill all the male babies of the Hebrews. And that was without ANY warning.
At least God's judgments were on a graduating scale and were preceeded by warnings.
So your position is that it is okay to murder the innocent children of people who can not effect a change in the political structure of Egypt so long as you first torture them.
Wow. Your morality is shockingly depraved even for a Fundamentalist Christian. I'm amazed you have the audacity to pretend you represent anything even approximating "good".
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