Reply to Pete Hegseth's pastor...

Forum Index » Religion

Reply to "Pete Hegseth's pastor..."

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]we think of slavery as the odious and indefensible North Atlantic slave trade, but Abraham had slaves. I mean what was Hagar but a slave?  I can't be bothered to look them up right now, but there are numerous passages in the Bible that condone the practice of slavery.[/quote]

We think of slavery as odious and indefensible because it is. Slavery deprives a human being of free will and self determination. It treats people as property and deprives people of their humanity. Even slavers understand that slavery is dehumanizing because slavers almost never choose to enslave groups with whom they self identify -- throughout history, slavery has been practice imposed on racial and ethnic minorities deemed as less evolved and more animalistic than the ruling majority, in order to justify treating them in this way.

The fact that the Bible frequently condones slavery (or is like "well just treat your slaves nicely, please") is a good reason to be skeptical about strict, originalist interpretations of the Bible, especially the Old Testament. Which has all kinds of crazy practices, including human sacrifice, polygamy, and other things we now reject.[/quote]

+1 and don't forget that the Bible gives explicit instructions on where to buy your slaves, how to trick them into staying with you for life, and most importantly, how to beat them. 
[/quote]

In those days, slaves were needed because labor saving devices (e.g., the fan) had not yet been invented. So, of course the Bible, a human document, condoned slavery.[/quote]

Understand the difference between need and want.  Slaves were not needed, they were wanted.

There is also never an excuse or justification for it.[/quote]

I'm fine with considering the Bible to be marketing but it's kind of depressing how little the people in this thread actually know about the Bible or the basics of Western civilization beyond what they read about it in a blog post.[/quote]

Yeah, you keep saying that, but you provide no evidence of it.  It sounds like everyone here knows the Bible reasonably well.

But you keep hammering away with ad hominem if that’s all ya got.[/quote]

You say you know the Bible, but you’ve somehow missed the “what is Christianity” portion of it.

Christianity’s goal has never been perfect justice on Earth or law and order.  Criticizing it on those terms is an exercise in making irrelevant arguments.[/quote]

This is incorrect, and ridiculous as well. I criticize the bible as an immoral book.  I criticize those that use passages of it to impose what they consider moral on others. What you say is "the goal of Christianity" is both irrelevant to the topic and to me in general. That's the ridiculous part.  This entire thread is about the biblical position on slavery.

What is incorrect is your claim that people here don't know the bible.  They have demonstrated they sure do.[/quote]

I notice that religious people with deep knowledge of the Bible often criticize other people, who may also have deep knowledge of the Bible, but interpret it differently.

These days, there are also lots of atheists with deep knowledge of the Bible, because they acquired it when they were religious.[/quote]

It’s quite self-righteous and arrogant for athesists today to think they have special insights on religion and the Bible.  None of their arguments are new.   Jews have always been marginalized back to the time of Egypt.   Jesus himself was then rejected by both Gentiles and Jews.   All throughout history, there have been people who have said that Christianity isn’t true and have worked very hard to try to prove that — sometimes through violence or oppression.  There are volumes and volumes already written about this.  The entire Enlightnment movement was based on the core idea that we should leave Christianity behind.

And yet here we are living in a world where Christianity is on the rise globally, and the church bleeding has stopped in the United States.  It’s almost like there is something cosmic about the Bible after all ….

[/quote]

Oh yes, there's something so cosmic about the Bible that Christianity must be true!  /S[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics