Editor's Blog1 min ago
God's Right To Kill ?
82 Answers
I was talking to a group of theists and I asked them how they could justify the killing of thousands of innocent new born babies in Sodom and Gommorrah.
Their answer was God's laws are never to be broken. Their parents had sinned and the punishment was meted out to them and their descendants.
God gives us life and therefore has the right to take it away as he wishes. His justice is not to be compared with our sense of justice.
They quoted how he commanded the man who picked up sticks on God's sabbath to be stoned to death. It was an appropriate sentence because the man was deliberately defying God and there is no greater crime.
What say you ?
Their answer was God's laws are never to be broken. Their parents had sinned and the punishment was meted out to them and their descendants.
God gives us life and therefore has the right to take it away as he wishes. His justice is not to be compared with our sense of justice.
They quoted how he commanded the man who picked up sticks on God's sabbath to be stoned to death. It was an appropriate sentence because the man was deliberately defying God and there is no greater crime.
What say you ?
Answers
^^Irresponsi
14:46 Mon 11th Nov 2013
"...because the man was deliberately defying God and there is no greater crime."
I'd say that whoever killed the man just didn't like him for one reason, or maybe the man wasn't very powerful so killing him wouldn't have any consequences.
Whatever the reason it was another man that ordered the stoning, not God.
I'd say that whoever killed the man just didn't like him for one reason, or maybe the man wasn't very powerful so killing him wouldn't have any consequences.
Whatever the reason it was another man that ordered the stoning, not God.
modeller - “... Their parents had sinned and the punishment was meted out to them and their descendants...”
And in that quote lies one of the true horrors of religion and of the Christian religion in particular. The notion that a long dead individual's “crime” can be and shall be attributed to those living in the present (who weren't even alive when the original “crime” was committed and therefore cannot be retrospectively guilty of it) is stain on humanity.
It's actually one of the most obvious reasons why the notion of God is so transparently human in origin. The very idea of inter-generational punishment is barbaric, illogical, reeks of slavery and is unbefitting of the concept of an all-powerful, benevolent God. Yet it is precisely this aberration upon which the Christian religion is founded – the imbecilic notion that the whole of mankind is guilty of the 'sin' that Adam committed...
And in that quote lies one of the true horrors of religion and of the Christian religion in particular. The notion that a long dead individual's “crime” can be and shall be attributed to those living in the present (who weren't even alive when the original “crime” was committed and therefore cannot be retrospectively guilty of it) is stain on humanity.
It's actually one of the most obvious reasons why the notion of God is so transparently human in origin. The very idea of inter-generational punishment is barbaric, illogical, reeks of slavery and is unbefitting of the concept of an all-powerful, benevolent God. Yet it is precisely this aberration upon which the Christian religion is founded – the imbecilic notion that the whole of mankind is guilty of the 'sin' that Adam committed...
Sandy - this thread isn't about man exercising his will badly, it's about awful crimes attributed to God.
A better question would how the recent storm in the Philippines (seeing as unlike most of the bible we actually know it happened) fits into a benevolent and loving God's plan. Personally I find it rather sick to think that there are people around who are willing to tell the people of the Philippines that they have just experienced divine love. And then the legions of apologists will say that this is fine because it offers 'comfort'. It makes my skin crawl.
Anyway, I once put the question of why God slowly murders David's baby in the OT to a street preacher in my home town. I was given a highly confused ramble about how we mustn't judge past societies by our own standards and that God was operating in the context of that judicial system. I asked him how this fitted with God being a) morally perfect and b) eternal and was treated to exactly the same rant again. I asked the same question, got the same rant, and went around in this circle about 3 times before giving up.
A better question would how the recent storm in the Philippines (seeing as unlike most of the bible we actually know it happened) fits into a benevolent and loving God's plan. Personally I find it rather sick to think that there are people around who are willing to tell the people of the Philippines that they have just experienced divine love. And then the legions of apologists will say that this is fine because it offers 'comfort'. It makes my skin crawl.
Anyway, I once put the question of why God slowly murders David's baby in the OT to a street preacher in my home town. I was given a highly confused ramble about how we mustn't judge past societies by our own standards and that God was operating in the context of that judicial system. I asked him how this fitted with God being a) morally perfect and b) eternal and was treated to exactly the same rant again. I asked the same question, got the same rant, and went around in this circle about 3 times before giving up.
