Genocide, infanticide, slavery, mass rapes, cannibalism etc. -- exactly what makes it the Good Book?

Question

Have any of you bible-beaters ever, I dunno, actually READ it?

Answer 1

It's very perplexing, isn't it? How can some of the nicest people in the world revere one of the most abhorrent books in the world? Very strange...

Answer 2

I have read it more times than I can count.

The fact that the Bible records history accurately is one of the selling points for it's being the "Good Book." If I were going to write the story of God, I would be very tempted to leave out all the gory parts, the sins of David, the betrayal of Peter, the beating of Jesus, the condemnation of the unbelieving. I would make it so that everyone got into Heaven.

But you would not like that either,because that would mean that EVERYONE got into heaven, no matter how bad they had been, no matter whether or not they loved the Lord. Even Hitler: IN; Stalin: IN; Tojo: IN; murderers, rapists, arsonists: IN, IN, IN.

The measure of the truth of something is the degree to which it comports to reality. If the Bible was just fairy tales, like the Brothers Grimm, or Hans Christian Anderson, you would expect the outcome to be predictable? If the story is real and not fiction, what then?

John 20:30-31
30 Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;
31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

Answer 3

My thoughts exactly. My explanation is that
religious people act by instinct, not reason. In that respect they behave like insects, programmed to do think in a certain way whether it makes sense or not.

In all fairness it must be said that only in America and Africa do Christians take the Old Testament seriously. Educated Christians follow Christ and his teachings are in the New Testament.

Answer 4

All the failings and shortcomings you listed are part of the reality of human life. The Bible includes discussion of these items in order to guide generations of us through these realities, offering us advice along the way, to help successive generations of society reduce or eliminate our own shortcomings. Obviously, it hasn't been easy. The good thing is...we've made progress.

Answer 5

The best bit about the Bible is the ending . I find the very best books have a twist in the tale ( see Stephen Kings writings )

Answer 6

Genocide and Islam: Chapter 4 - Islam and the Muslim Invasions “Let it be said right away: the massacres perpetuated by Muslims in India are unparalleled in history, bigger than the Holocaust of the Jews by the Nazis; or the massacre of the Armenians by the Turks” http://www.nalanda.nitc.ac.in/resources/english/etext-project/history/gautier/chapter4.html

Ottoman Muslims systematically murder 1.5 million Armenians. It’s believed Hitler got the “genocide” idea from this “successful” Islamic genocide. http://www.armenian-genocide.org/genocide.html

"The first genocide of the 20th Century occurred when two million Armenians living in Turkey were eliminated from their historic homeland...The despotic Sultan responded to their pleas with brutal persecutions." http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/armenians.htm

Muhammad's Holocaust of Jews from their Arabian Homeland: "And he bequeathed to you their lands, their homes and their possessions, together with land you have never trodden. Allah has power over everything" http://www.americanthinker.com/2005/06/muhammad_and_the_jews.html

Answer 7

I read it every day and have done for 22 years. You may have read it but you have certainly not understood it. The bible says 'The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned.'

Answer 8

cannibalism isn't in there. and that was the old covenant, where God's temporary judgement loomed (Jesus freed the innocent from Hell to be repentant), but we've entered a time of Grace.

and the Jews didn't try to wipe other races off the face of the earth, just claim territory. what do you think wars are for? Pharoah was against God. those hittite women and peoples weren't raped; they were assimilated and raised as jewish women; Jews weren't established as a race yet.

the Good Book has the Good News.

Answer 9

We sure have. While elements of those subjects are found in Scripture, it hardly teaches to do them or to think that they are good.

On the contrary, the Bible teaches systematically to love God and love your neighbor. The Q is, have you ever read it?

Answer 10

Where is infanticide, and genocide?

And that all comes from the old testament my good friend, the ancient Hebrews lived in a time of violence, would you expect me to send you messages of Shakespeare, you would not understand what I was telling you. God had to give his people something they could understand, what is considered barbaric by contemporary standards was simply a way of life in the early biblical times.