Very clear moral anomalies in the Bible...?

Question

With regard to the Bible and, in particular, to the subject of abortion and respect for children and the unborn, how do Christians reconcile the fact that all human life is held as being sacred when the same Bible lists case after case of incidents wherein hundreds and often thousands have been slaughtered in mass killings which were commanded by ‘God’ as ‘righteous’ punishments for their various alleged ‘sins’.

Remembering the fact that thousands of definitely innocent men, women and children were caught in these massacres, how can the Church claim any sort of moral authority whatsoever given the record of their ‘God’ in his bloodthirsty and cruel dealings with His ‘created’ humankind?

Answer 1

Dont expect too many answers from christians.They dont like it when you highlight points like this to them.

Answer 2

You are talking mainly about the OT God who drowned most of humanity in a flood, nuked Sodom and Gomorrah, and ordered the destruction of all Canaanites so the newcomer Israelites could move in to the Promised Land. It isn't spelled out that the diverse Canaanites had some filthy rituals of idol worship, and if these things WERE made clear, the Bible would be slammed for pornography. Keep in mind that history is written by the victors. Even so, You make a good point.

However, if You want Christians to squirm, try asking about the Inquisition and witch-burning, things that have been done in the Common Era. The Church had no authority over the incidents in the Old Testament.

I have always held that no one dies before his time. If Sirius is serious, i guess i'll have to do something horrible or else i'll be doomed to immortality.

"It is appointed to each man once to die...."

I agree with You, but no earthly authority can tell God what's right and what's wrong.

Answer 3

Bible Anomalies

Answer 4

I think you are make a mistake in attempting to collate the bible and then compare it to abortions. Are you trying to justify abortions? Don’t take the bible so literal. It is just a guide on how to get along in the world and a way to find a higher power then ourselves. It is clear that you believe GOD to be a blood thirsty villain of sorts. That is just not the case. Death as a punishment is not the same as death after conception. If you believe that abortions are a good thing then I think you need to talk to a few women that have gotten them. They usually have a long term fits of depression stemmed around their decision to kill their baby. There are plenty of women that have trouble carrying a baby to full term and they have trouble dealing with it. So to make a decision to have an abortion and to carry that out is a tough thing to do.

There is more to this issue then justification. There is more to it then religious implications. There are circumstances in which a procedure of this nature would be necessary, but using it as a form of birth control is just plain wrong. You don’t need to attempt to discredit God or the bible to see that.

The great tragedy of this whole topic is that the world has tried to make it a black or white issue. There are so many angles to this topic that we tend to forget about the victims. Young women and their babies have to deal with this in ways in which we never will. There is no justification that strands to any reason for getting an abortion as a form of birth control. There is too much damage done to allow that to be legal. As a man and a responsible father I would like for the father to be involved in the decision as well. This is more the just a woman’s issue.

Answer 5

The Bible,especially the Old Testament and the NT Book of Revelation,has to be interpreted and applied in the context of Mosaic/Apostolic Oral Tradition ,out of which the Bible developed and in which the Bible is situated, tireless and demanding Reason/Natural Law and the authoritative Church.

The immoral, murderous and cruel passages of the Bible are interpeted as typology( forshadowings) of Christ's spiritual battle with sin and evil and our own struggle to live moral,kind,charitable,and virtuous spiritual and active lives. These are the "allegorical' interpretations that St Paul refers to in Romans(Sarah/Hagar or Law/Grace) which are spiritual and moral interpetations.

When the "wicked passages' are divorced from the above, they can be used to justify the bloodiest murder and genocides when appealing to the evils visited upon the Canaanites( who were also doing the same and also human sacrifice of babies to which practice abortion is a chilling modern parallel) and others by the Israelites

Christians are not opposed to stem cell reasearch but to killing embryonic humans for the purpose of experimentation.

Embryoinic stem cell killing has not produced anything positive in the area of moving to cures of anything but adult(such as from cord blood) stem cell research which does not kill anyone or destroy any human life has produced much progress.

Answer 6

i agree with you. Alot of christians argue against atheism by asking the question: where do you get your morals from? Obviously they do not get their morals from the bible. There are several examples of how the christian morals have changed after society has decided said practices are immoral. And rather than being the leader in the change created, they are usually the last reluctant converts who only convert when they have no other choice.
Take slavery for example, the churches were the last institution to give up slavery long after the public and even their own parishoners had decided it was immoral. The bible supports slavery and in fact has been commanded by god in many verses and yet this very practice, after it became immoral by society standards is now immoral for christians. meanwhile the passages in the bible that advocate slavery remain.
Evidently christians do not get their morals from the bible as they claim, morals is something we learn when we realize consequences that we want to avoid.

As to your question, i saw a debate between rev al sharpton and christopher hitchens where this very question was repeatedly brought up and al sharpton refused to answer it on the basis that people interpret god however they like.

That statement would stand if not for the fact that the rev views the bible as the word of god and not as interpretations of man.

Answer 7

If you disregard the bible then what moral authority tells you that hypocrisy is wrong??...but to answer your question...History, not just the Bible, tells us that the Canaanites were an extremely promiscuous group of people, not just with other people but with animals as well...they were a disease rampant people, if God not "take care" of these people, then we would have people on here saying, why could God not take care of His own people?? Did he not know that people in this area had disease? What kind of God would let his choosen people live in death and disease?? I could just see those questions on here, if God had not authorized the killing of certain people. After all, notice that he only said this of certain people, he did not say kill everyone anhilliate everything of all people, in fact, if you read the torah, you will see that God told his people not to harm certain groups of people.

Answer 8

This is a fine example of the "God did it" get out of jail free card. It reminds me of the "do as I say, not as I do" mantra my father had when I was growing up. He could do anything wrong he wished because he was paying the bills, but I was subject to an unrealistic and an inconsistent moral standard because I was powerless and subject to his will.

Authority does not determine what sort of actions are allowed. This is a fine example of the kind of moral relativism many fundamentalists so often show disdain for.

Answer 9

You don't believe in the religion, you don't believe in the God, yet you use the very book you so disdain to prove your argument? how can you accept an answer to a question when that answer is based on a belief that you've already discounted from the beginning? You cannot quote from something which you do not believe to exist in the first place. if you question a gods motives, then does that mean you believe that specific god exists albeit with questionable values and motives? If you don't believe in the existence of a God, then whose motives, or "bloodthirstiness" are you questioning? How can you when from your point of view, that God does not exist? The paradox of an atheist. Questioning the values of someone or something that supposedly does not exist is simply illogical.

Answer 10

Sirus, we all deserve death, which is why we all die: its the curse God has placed in this world for rejecting him and placing self on the throne aka sin.

But look at these things from an eternal perspective: we're all going to die, and if we remain at emnity with God our souls will be sent to hell. But if we trust in Christ and the peace he made for his by his death on the cross and resurrection life, we will be saved.

There was a blind guy that met Jesus. The disciples wondered who's fault it was that he was blind: himself or his parents. Jesus said "This has happened that the power of God might be displayed in his life".

As a sinner who has repented and trusted in Christ, I am also living proof of the power of God in this world today, and the fact that theres hope for us all for a brilliant eternity free from sin, suffering and death.

Answer 11

Basically you must read it more. Remember he created human mankind with the gift of FREE WILL! The right to chose!
He also states that we as humans will reap what we sow!!!!
Not might or we could....We WILL reap!

Even when the earth was saturated with sin..he still searched for anyone that might be making the right choices..Noah, Lot and his family!
God destroyed entire cities because they were so wicked.
He is a jealous, powerful, but forgiving GOD!

If God was only supposed to be loving and caring, and no one had to except and pay for their sins, than what example would that set for us as his people?
Even our society as humans beings we are aware that killing someone has its cost, even unto execution! I wouldn't expect less from the GOD of all things!