If you were God, what kind of God would you be?

i thought we were already gods? Isnt that what A&E wanted, to become more like God. And isnt that what eating of the tree made them? More like God!We are self governed and independent, we make our own rules and live by our own standards. You only need to look at the state of our world and societies and you can clearly see the types of gods we have become.

yes, it is a lie.

you may have seen the discussion in the fundamentalist thread where this 'supposed' raping of women was commanded by Godthe fact is its not the case at allrape is clearly forbidden in the bible, in fact it holds the same punishment as a murderer which shows that God in no way permitted it.Read the account of Judges chpt 20 where a civil war broke out because a woman was raped and when the nation heard about it they took action against the isrealite men involved ..."take action by going against Gib′eah of Benjamin, in view of all the disgraceful folly that they did in Israel. 11Thus all the men of Israel were gathered against the city as one man, as allies."The mosaic law was clear that a rapist was to be put to deathDeut 22:25"If... the man grabbed hold of her and lay down with her, the man who lay down with her must also die by himself...because just as when a man rises up against his fellowman and indeed murders him, even a soul, so it is with this case"For anyone to say that God commanded men/soldiers to rape women is nothing but slander... perhaps this is why christians are not bothering with the question being posed. I wont be making any reply's to this post either because its been done to death in the other thread.

and of course rape is wrong, its as wrong as murder and i'd like to see our laws tightened up in regard to it, unfortunately they are very laxGod had a death penalty because he considers it a vile act...Jesus loved and respected women because God loves and respects womenalthough i dont care for my own opinion, but when ppl start sprouting around that God commanded it and condones it, then i do feel the need to speak up. He doesnt condone it or command period and i feel sorry for anyone who believes this is the case.

You may not realize that only girls who were virgins were considered for marriage by Isrealite men. In the case of a girl being raped by either someone she knew or a stranger, then that girl would be given a life sentence.
The fact is that in this case it is the man who is given the life sentence because not only must he marry her and under no circumstances divorce her all his life, he must also make a large payment to her father. If the man had little money this would likely turn him into a slave until the amount was paid. He may have committed a vile act, but he had to spend the rest of his life making it up to her.So the greater punishment fell on the man. The girl was spared the humiliation of being an outcast in her community and the father was paid compensation for the loss of his daughter.Im not saying this is something we would practice in our society, but in their society it was a necessary evil for it protected the girl from further humiliation and harm and made the man responsible for his actions.

this one has been done to death and i really dont want to go over it again....but I will just point out that the woman was given time to mourn the loss of the family, she was provided food and shelter and clothing, and right at the outset the stipulation was that the solder was to make her his wifethis wasnt about violence and sexual gratificationit was about becoming a husband to the captive woman...and once they became man and wife, then she was entitled to all the rights of law as any other isrealite woman.

the expressed view in Deut is that"do nothing to the girl, she did nothing wrong. This is similar to the case of a man who comes across his neighbor out in the country and murders him"Men will never understand how a woman feels when she has been raped, but it seems that God did understand. he likened rape to murder. I dont know if anyone else puts murder and rape into the same category, but i know our legal system certainly does not.I believe that most societies, including the west, had no laws against marital rape because it was quite legal to do. Its only been in more recent years that marital rape has been considered a illegal.So you argument that God does not show love for women is not quite right.
I agree with you that many of those verses show that the husband/father was being considered, but why shouldnt they be? If your fiance is raped, why shouldnt your rights be viewed as violated? For all intentes and purposes, they have been. The womans husband has been violated because the man and his wife are 'one flesh'its like saying if you hit my child, you hit me....besides, im sure that if your wife/gf/daughter is raped, you would feel a degree of pain and violation just as she does.

well that account doesnt say anything about rape in the sense of the word that we are speaking ofthey made the women into their wiveswomen in those times were subjected to men, they never had a choice with whom they married so if someone chose to make a woman his wife, she accepted that...it seems to be the culture. Some middle eastern cultures are still like that today.

no, i know this because it is still a part of many cultures today. Africa, south asia and in some areas of the middle east for instance. wrong again on that count. the hebrews already had an established culture before God gave them his laws. The various cultures of mankind are the creation of their own...its called 'independence'if you want to know what culture God would give humans, look at Christianity because that is the culture of God.

Rape is the forced & violent sexual penetration of an unwilling victim.yet, in the case of a captive woman, she was cared for physically, she was not immediately made a wife of the man, she was given a month to grieve for her family and once the man married her she became an isrealite woman with the same rights as everyone else.does this really sound like a violent act of rape? if this happened in our day and age I would agree with you...force anyone to have sex and it is rape.But women were subject to men in ancient times, they were all forced to marry...captive women or free women...and they accepted that as a normal everyday part of life. If a woman was married she was safe and would be provided for. Isrealite women were especially protected by the mosaic law becuase the law gave them special consideration. The law stated that men must cherish and love their wives, provide for them, given them children etc I do not believe that God condoned the act of rape either...the mosaic law outlaws rape and in some circumstances the man was to be put some death.

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Deuteronomy 22:25If, however, it is in the field that the man found the girl who was engaged, and the man grabbed hold of her and lay down with her, the man who lay down with her must also die by himself, 26and to the girl you must do nothing. The girl has no sin deserving of death, because just as when a man rises up against his fellowman and indeed murders him, even a soul, so it is with this case

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Some here have applied 'rape' as we know it, to the account about making captive women wives. That is not rape and cannot be called an act of rape.On many occasions, the isrealites did act badly, but that is not because God told them to. Its because the isrealites were sinful people just like the rest of us...sometime they did get it wrong and they were often punished severly for their errors. God never condoned bad behavior from them and this is why time and again they were defeated by invading armies and taken into captivity on several occasions. Absolutely, i agree with you. The gods of the pagan nations were blood thirsty and sexual deviates and there is nothing admirable about gods like that. But you can be assured that the God of the bible, jehovah, is in no way like any of those gods.

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Writing in the book Religion and Sexism, doctor of theology Phyllis Bird states:
Israel’s laws differ most notably from other known law codes in their unusual severity in the field of sexual transgression ... Israel’s view of the proper place of sex and the harsh penalties laid upon sexual offenders presumably reflect a deliberate antithesis to the practices of the surrounding peoples (specifically Canaanites) ... Sexual offenses are religious offenses in Israel. They are not private matters but matters of vital concern to the whole community.

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Such strict laws certainly disprove any claim that God is immoral and does not care for women.

the standard for christianity is set forth in the New Testamenti've never read anything in there about wars, torture and touching alter boysOnce again, we cannot blame God for the conduct of people.

so if channel 10 reports on an incident of a murder, they become a murderer...or if they report on something similarly disturbing, channel 10 should be charged with the crime?the bible is a history book...it is not a cataloger of all the things 'God' did. Its a book about things the people themselves did. That account continues with the war that broke out because of what that group of men did. The bible is written so that we can learn from their mistakes. If you cant look at that account as a lesson, then you are looking at it the wrong way. What that account does show is that the law in Isreal was that rape was a crime and when this woman was raped and killed, her husband sent a peice of her body to all the tribes of Isreal to show them what had happened and thats when all the tribes came to declare war on the men who committed the crime.so if your intention was to prove that the bible condones rape, then that account shows the opposite.

Hi percy,im holding up alright, thanks for the concernI have a pretty thick skin and contrary to popular opinion, i do understand where everyone is coming from. I agree with them totally that rape is morally wrong, however I dont agree with them that the account about the captive women is referring to rape.Im also taking into consideration the culture of the times when reading the accounts which they are failing to do. It was perfectly acceptable in those days for girls to be given away, even sold, into marriage. Even the kings purchased queens to make aliances with surrounding nations...it was the culture and mentality of the people and even the women seemed to accept it as normal.I dont know how anyone can judge them by our standard of today...its like abusing our grandfathers for going into the vietnam...we cant change the past, only learn from it.

this 'horrendous attitude' had everything to do with morality...sexual intercourse before marriage was considered immoral, not only by the people, but by God also.Of course, widows who were not virgins could remarry because it wasnt about being a virgin... if a girl was not a virgin and was not raped, then she must have committed immorality and therefore she would have been subject to the death penalty.Now to us this seems absurd because our morals are much looser, but they had very high morals. Virginity was highly valued, it was an honor to a girl to be a virgin.I fail to understand why you keep calling me a liar. I've quoted the scriptures for all to see...it is in the bible, i didnt make it up. Either prove me wrong scripturally, or stop with the school girl antics. 'liar liar pants on fire' became old for me in grade 5.

ah, so now you get the point about circumstances not all being black and whitegood.