Does the Christian god promote cannibalism?

Question

Isaiah 9: 20
And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm

Answer 1

You have taken that scripture out of context and I suspect but that you have even misquoted what you typed as well.

Christians are

NOT

cannibals.

Answer 2

I'd like to address a couple of issues:

First, Isaiah is also part of the Jewish Bible, yet you aren't accusing the Jews of cannibalism. So, that must mean it's politically incorrect to bash them, but okay to bash Christians. That's okay, I've had worse mentioned about my faith. Besides, for cannibalism, you could've chosen a verse from John, where Jesus said His flesh and blood were real food and drink. Ah, well. Missed opportunity.

Second, the quote you took entirely out of its context is about the judgment of God upon Judah. They were disobedient, and fell into all kinds of wickedness that the Lord detests. Because of the Lord's judgment, an army from the north (prophesied elsewhere) would come and lay siege to Jerusalem. While under siege, people run out of food and water. When the food runs out, some desperate people will eat their own family members. (Which God also prophesied would happen.)

Here's the preceding passage along with the one you quoted:

"Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire: no man shall spare his brother. And he shall snatch on the right hand, and be hungry; and he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied: they shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm." (Isaiah 9:19-20)

It is only when people become desperate, and are starving that this occurs. It is hardly promoting cannibalism. That's the nice thing about the Bible. It records everything. Not just the good, fluffy stuff, but the bad and the ugly about human nature.

Answer 3

Isa 9:20 -
And he shall snatch - Hebrew, ‘He shall cut off.’ Many have supposed that this refers to a state of famine; but others regard it as descriptive of a state of faction extending throughout the whole community, dissolving the most tender ties, arid producing a dissolution of all the bonds of life. The context Isa_9:19, Isa_9:21 shows, that the latter is meant; though it is not improbable that it would be attended with famine. When it is said that he ‘would cut off his right hand,’ it denotes a condition of internal anarchy and strife.
And be hungry - And not be satisfied. Such would be his rage, and his desire of blood, that he would be insatiable. The retarder of those on one side of him would not appease his insatiable wrath. His desire of carnage would be so great that it would be like unappeased hunger.
And he shall eat - The idea here is that of contending factions excited by fury, rage, envy, hatred, contending in mingled strife, and spreading death with insatiable desire everywhere around them.
They shall eat - Not literally; but “shall destroy.” To eat the flesh of anyone, denotes to seek one’s life, and is descriptive of blood-thirsty enemies; Psa_27:2 : ‘When the wicked, even mine enemies and foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell;’ Job_19:22 :
Why do ye persecute me as God,
And are not satisfied with my flesh?
Compare Deu_7:16; Jer_10:25; Jer_30:15; Jer_50:17; Hos_7:7; see Ovid’s Metam. 8, 867:
Ipse suos artus lacero divellere morsu
Coepit; et infelix minuendo corpus alebat.
The flesh of his own arm - The Chaldee renders this, ‘Each one shall devour the substance of his neighbor.’ Lowth proposes to read it, ‘The flesh of his neighbor.’ but without sufficient authority. The expression denotes a state of dreadful faction - where the ties of most intimate relationship would be disregarded, represented, here by the appalling figure of a man’s appetite being so rabid that he would seize upon and devour his own flesh. So, in this state of faction and discord, the rage would be so great that people would destroy those who were, as it were, their own flesh, that is, their nearest kindred and friends.

Don't you ever weary of asking foolish questions?

Answer 4

Yes it does! it promotes rape and slavery too

http://www.evilbible.com

there have been known cases of christian cannibals. Jeff dahmer is a great example. the chainsaw massacre was also christian incident.

Beijing Swings shows stills of Zhu Yu, the artist, eating what appears to be a stillborn infant. There is one shot of him washing the baby before he eats it and then three of him biting into the body. Zhu Yu admits he was sick afterwards.

“What will be seen is very disturbing, but we will be making sure viewers are told what to expect,” said Jess Search, the Channel 4 executive in charge of the broadcaster’s forthcoming season of programmes about China. “There will be a very strong warning.”

She justified the programme by saying China is “at a moment of change socially and culturally. We wanted a portrait of a young and modern China”.

Zhu explains his stunt by claiming: “Our subconscious tells us that eating babies is not right. But it is not prohibited. No religion forbids cannibalism. Nor can I find any law which prevents us from eating people. So I took advantage of the space between morality and the law and based my work on it.”

Zhu, who claims to be a Christian, says his religion has a major impact on his art. “Jesus is always related to blood, death and wounds and this is reflected in my art.”

http://www.prisonplanet.com/news_alert_123002_general.html

Answer 5

Flame on.

Many of the inhabitants of the Galilee region were carried away in 734 B.C. but Samaria held out until 721 B.C. These lines seem to belong to the 13 years in between, when the people who were left still persevered in their defiance of both God and the Assyrians. It is a poem of four stanzas, warning Samaria of what was in store for them.

Answer 6

You have found a verse of the Bible that appears to promote cannibalism. You then form a question around it. Why don't you instead give a real life version of cannibalism today that resulted from the reading of such a verse? Can't do it? I thought so.

Answer 7

You need to read from Verse 18. God is not promoting cannibalism in the contrary he is saying that people will be so bad that they will do things like the ones you cited. You shouldn't just pick a verse, start reading from the begining.

Answer 8

Once again, a fine example of out of context for the purpose of poking fun.
Try reading the whole thing, it was the results of a judgement on a city. They used to starve the inhabitants of a city before they conquered them.

Answer 9

Completely symbolic -- it's like reading Animal Farm and thinking the author intended to make the case for talking animals.

Answer 10

No some of the passages in the Bible does not mean to speak about things literally. Besides God detest such deeds... He even punished those people who sacrificed their children to other "gods".

Answer 11

You may as well say religion supports Canonballism. When Jesus sent the pigs off the cliff in Mark's gospel maybe they all did little piggy canonballs into the sea.