Reply to Reza Aslan: Sam Harris and "New Atheists" aren't new, aren't even atheists

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]God was unhappy with David for basically stealing Uriah the Hittite's wife, Bathsheba, by sending him into battle and a certain death.  Then when David took Bathsheba as his wife, and they had a child together, the Lord displayed his displeasure by killing the child.  See 2 Samuel 12-14. This is child sacrifice -- Truly, the Lord moves in mysterious ways. (and of course he had long before killed all the first born children in Egypt.0  Child sacrifice is bad except when the Lord does it I guess.[/quote]

While David's son died as a result of David's sin (see 2 Sam 11 and 12:1-25 for the full story), the effects ended there; he would not be punished for his father's sin in the afterlife (Ezek 18:19-20). 2 Samuel 12:14 implies that the death of David's son was meant to be a lesson to others who were disobeying God. When word got around that David had committed adultery and murder, some Israelites would probably have said to themselves, "If the king can do those things and not face any consequences, why can't I?" People in other nations who heard of it wouldn't see it as reason to follow Israel's God, but if they heard of the consequences they would know that God saw and dealt with David's sin. It's possible that his son's death also ensured that David's repentance was permanent, for he would always remember his son and the effects of his adultery.

Child sacrifice is the ritualistic killing of children in order to please or appease a deity. God was not pleased to take David’s child. God does a lot of “uncomfortable” things that simply must be done in a world of sin. But the fact is that God never intended for us to be comfortable with sin and its outfall (which includes its punishment). We should be bothered by the effects of sin. Mature Christians understand this, but it doesn’t make living in a fallen world any easier. At the same time, we recognize that, even when we come to understand God better and accept some of His “harsher” actions, there is no relief from the visceral response we get when a child dies. Everyone should be hurt and appalled at the death of a child. God’s intention in taking the infant in death was to punish David. After a brief illness, the child was gathered up into the arms of God—as all innocents are.

God is not a nodding elderly grandfather who ignores our sin and rubber stamps our “goodness.” He’s the grandfather who loves you enough to tell you when you are wrong and isn’t going to shield you from consequences just because He loves you and cares about you. He wants you to do better. He still loves and cares for His Creations. [/quote]

^ All well and good, but why punish an innocent child for the actions of his father?  There had to be others ways to punish David for his actions without taking the life of an innocent child. That's just mean.  Anyway, I do appreciate the time you take to address these questions. [/quote]

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