Toto

What I can't believe is that there are people who spend their professional lives on questions like this. Problem of Evil

Free Indeed

If I look at the shocking acts that God did in the Bible, the global flood, wiping out whole races of people, yes I believe it.

WilliamFearless

That and 10 days of fasting and prayer afterward did it for me.

rizdek

Isn't that the truth. I have talked to several people (adults) who say they are christians and who claim to believe the bible is god's word yet they have not read the bible through, cover to cover, so to speak. When I was a teenager, I did it. Yes, it was shocking. What's even more amazing are the people who have (or must have) actually read it, yet still believe it and still produce the sanitized versions of stories and glean out the really sadistic and weird stuff it has god doing when generating literature used in sunday schools, bible studies, tracts, daily devotionals and sermons. To think the many preachers who stands before a congregation probably know about these things, yet never mentions them in their sermons. I guess job security is pretty important too.

I realize this thread was speaking of the bible in general, but here's a tidbit I happened across. Isn't BibleGateway great?

I think a really neat "odd" scripture is Luke 16 1-9. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/...6;&version=31;
A little parable from the lips of jesus himself. Basically it seems to be saying that being dishonest with "earthly possessions" is admirable and will get you eternal reward.

DCHindley

Over at our semi-rural area Roman Catholic church, one of the instructors of the catechism was telling parents that their yung'uns (maybe 4-5th grade) would be learning about "concubines," which he assured them were like "child-raising helpers for the mothers".

I gotta get me one of them thar "conk-u-bines" ...

DCH

Blackclaw

But I take it that, despite the genocide, infanticide, and slavery, you still give the bible god your full support? Is what the god of the old testament good and holy simply because he decides what is good and holy? Why then do we have the capacity to understand what cruelty is? And why then is the old testament god so cruel?

To me, the old testament is a collection of tall tales that were created in the same thread as the stories of Hercules and Odyessus. Furthermore many of the tales told in the old testament were meant to justify the cruel acts of tribal leaders. Afterall, if you have god's blessing, slaughtering another tribe of humans for their land isn't immoral, it's good, cause god says so.

alya73

I've read the whole bible too and it is shocking... shockingly boring.

2-J

I think there's a book there somewhere. 'Shocked By 'Shocked By The Bible''

Angela

Atheists complain about the killing of babies in the Bible, yet most of them are pro-choice.

Liberals refuse to do anything about anything no matter how wrong or perverted it is. Abortion is O.k., Homosexuality is O.k., promiscuity is O.k., and so on and so forth.

All this, under the disguise of "freedom and democracy."

Joel

And if fetus = baby you would have a point.

Abortion - not ok, but sometimes necessary and always the choice of the woman. Homosexuality - not personally, but I don't give a damn what other people do in the bedroom as long as they are consenting adults. Promiscuity - hell, we learned that one from the bible. Except I've never had an army officer killed so I could screw his wife. I guess King David does it better than me.

But, for things that are actually wrong, we do oppose them. Unfortunately, the items you listed are only wrong in the eyes of the deity of a group of bronze-age goatherders and his adoring fans.