widowvirgin

exactly, as if i was responsible or for the killing of hundreds of thousands of native americans, or millions of jews, or protestants!

Amaleq13

The god depicted in the Hebrew Bible became the god depicted in the collection of books Christians call "The New Testament" through faith regardless of any apparent discrepancies in the depictions.

widowvirgin

what do you mean by "discrepancies in the depictions?"

Magus55

Not necessarily, but I still don't think you're in a position to judge the morality or lack thereof of a war that took place 3000 years ago based on nothing more than reading a chapter in a book about it.

Magus55

Define systematic. I guess we could conclude that Harry S. Truman is guilty of genocide then?

widowvirgin

now we're back in reading class.

systematic: a definate scheme or method of procedure or classification.

pardon my stupidity, but could you refresh my mind on the truman thing please.

Magus55

I know what it means, I just wanted to see what context and definition was intended.

Truman ordered the deliberate incineration of over a hundred thousand civilian men, women, and children ( aka, the Atom bombs).

Amaleq13

Portrayals that are significantly different (ie a blood-thirsty god vs a loving god).

Kilgore Trout

Deuteronomy 20:16-18....

However, in the cities of the nations the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them - the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites - as the LORD your God has commanded you. Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God.

That's what I'd call genocide! God is telling them to kill all those people including the infants, and all because he is afraid that the Hebrews might learn to worship other gods from these people. Like the infants will teach them about the foreign gods and practices!

I love that great circular argument that christians use about god's morality. It goes something like this... The reason we know that god is perfect is because he has such great morals and is completely just. And if you think something this allegedly perfect god does is not moral, then we you are wrong because we mere humans are not qualified to judge the morals of god.



Well that's exactly what you are doing! You are ASSUMING that a war that took place 3000 years ago is moral just because it is allegedly ordered by a god that you assume is perfect without any evidence except by reading a chapter in a book about it.

Presumably, you would agree that god gave us brains so we would not fall for "false gods" among other things. Well, one of the best ways to judge the various gods to choose from is to judge their morals. If we automatically assumed every "god" had perfect morals, instead of actually using our mind, we would never know which "god" was the "true" god.

Not only does the christian god have questionable morals, but he can't even make up his mind. In the OT, he thinks it's OK to massacre whole tribes so you can avoid turning to other gods. Then in the NT you are supposed to "love your enemies."

Kilgore Trout

Truman didn't order the killing of ALL the Japanese. God ordered the killing of ALL the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. And we were being attacked by the Japanese, so they were a real threat to our lives. The Hebrews were the ones who were attacking the other tribes. Not because there was a threat to their lives, but because god didn't want the Hebrews to follow their ways. He must have made a great impression on the Hebrews if he's that scared of them following other gods.

I guess it would never occur to you that just about every time some country or tribe attacks another country or tribe, they use the excuse that god is on their side, and the other guys are scum that god hates. That's probably what the Japanese did in WWII and it's what the Muslim terrorists do, but when it's in the bible, that's somehow OK.