Biblical atrocities... ????

quote:

---

God isn't in the dock, as lewis said... he is God, his actions are just and holy and require no apology from me or any other christian.

---

Yeah, at least as just as Idi Amin eating his political opponents' livers while they're forced to watch...
Genocidal atrocities are still exactly that, no matter who commits them or at whose orders. I take a little comfort, at least, in knowing that a large part of the conquests and probably all of the death tolls reported in Joshua, etc, are fictional.

quote:

---

you write the above as if you care, as if you have some standard against which you are measuring the supposed atrocities found in the bible... do you? where does it come from? or is it mere preference on your part?

---

I do care! I have to live in this world, as do my children and grandchild. Thing just plain go more pleasantly if folks aren't munching on other folks' livers! Any animal that lives in a "society" has rules to regulate that society, at least at the local level: a pack of wolves treat each other with "courtesy", mutually care for the pups, and share the work and defense of the pack. A pride of lions babysit each others' cubs and hunt cooperatively. Even bluejays will quickly learn to cooperate with each other when a future, shared reward is larger than an immediate, selfish one.
These examples, admittedly, draw the line at the family or "tribal" unit. I like to think that we as humans have enough cognitive ability to extend our "tribes" a little beyond the family, and learn that cooperation makes life more pleasant for all of us (though we have done a pretty crappy job, historically, of learning that lesson.)Mammy Yokum of the comic strip "Lil' Abner" really stated it very well: "Good is better than evil because it's nicer."

quote:

---

We know from recent history that it is impossible to make drastic changes to culture/systems in a short span of time. Any such attempts seem to be too much of a shock to a society/culture, and generally don't work.

---

So ending slavery in the US South by instant decree, or introducing the automobile to replace the horse, are things that didn't work?I think Karl has it nailed: much of the OT is the chronicle of a violent, (at least wannabe violent) brutal, Bronze Age tribe trying to assert their dominance over several almost identical tribes by whatever means possible, using the stories of their particular deity to justify whatever they did. All these little tribes kept slaves and treated women poorly: they just used differently-named gods to justify their actions.