It's Not Genocide, It's Justice!

Sorry, Cthulhu, I've read the Bible. You're really no scarier than the Christian's "loving" god.

(Today is still Girl Genius Day. Find out what you're missing!)

In response to the argument that God is a moral monster (I don't have to prove this, the Bible does that for me), Paul Copan argues that sometimes genocide is justice. And also not genocide. Also. Too.

The evangelical scholar argues in his book that the killing of the Canaanites was not a racially motivated act. Rather, he writes, it was theologically and morally motivated via divine mandate to bring corporate capital punishment to a people whose religious practices encouraged incest, bestiality, adultery, and other deviant acts. He also references several texts that show the Canaanite population was far from being annihilated.

Let's look at the Bible. I find it very odd that Copan references other texts to prove that the Canaanite population was not annihilated, in that the Bible, you know, the approved word of God, does say exactly that.

The Canaanite Genocide starts in Deuteronomy 7, after God sends the Israelites out of Egypt, to the land of "milk and honey"- land already occupied by a number of different peoples.

When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you— ² and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally.^" Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy.

I'm sorry, how else does one interpret "destroy them totally"? Seems pretty clear to me. God, rather than giving the Israelites unoccupied land, demands instead that they completely destroy seven entire nations' worth of people- men, women, children, everything.

How is that moral? How is that not genocide?

As to the "deviant acts" excuse, other than worshipping other gods, the Bible doesn't really get into exactly what the Canaanites were doing. Not that even widespread bestiality would justify slaughtering everyone, including newborns not engaging in bestiality. That's not justice. That's genocide.

How is that moral?

What about The Flood? Remember, God told Noah that if he found 10 righteous men, there would be no flood. But Noah only looked in one city. All of the earth, and all of the peoples on it (remember, The Flood was supposedly world wide), Noah looks in one city for righteous men. That's like me going to the grocery store, looking at one tiny section of one shelf, finding no honey and then declaring that no store anywhere has honey. And then burning down every grocery store in the world.

[Edit: I'm thinking of the wrong Bible story. Meh. It's all genocide, all the time and babies died, so you know, not moral. I do appreciate it being pointed out, though.]

How is that moral?

How is dashing the heads of infants against rocks moral? How is raping female captives moral? How is killing everyone for the sins of the few moral?

How could you call God anything but a monster?

Children: The Harbingers of Immorality

gay, marriage, prop 8, same sex, children, divorce, premarital, adultery, ivf, immoral, immorality
or "Asking the Obvious Question"

The Playful Walrus is determined to ask the obvious question when it comes to other people's private lives:

WHERE IS THE MOTHER? We know these two guys did not conceive and carry these children. If they rescued these kids from a group home, that's a different matter than breaking up a marriage, making babies out of wedlock, or intentionally depriving these children of a mother. Since the media loves focusing on couples with kids in these stories, I will keep asking the obvious question every time they fail to answer it.

Now, you might say Walrus is combining bigotry with an unseemly interest in other people's private lives, but I say why stop at gay couples' children? Children potentially represent all kinds of immorality: divorce, premarital sex, adultery, IVF (but what about the zygotes!), the list goes on.

So I say don't just ask gay couples where the mother/father is, ask that question of any child you see on the street with only one adult accompanying them. Sure, daddy or mommy might be at work, or simply might have stayed at home, but surely we all have the right to make sure we're not witnessing the results of a divorce, or even worse, a couple who never did get married. Of course, it's entirely possible you may confront a recent widow/widower, but don't let that stop you.

But why stop there?

What about divorce, or what about all those women who just can't help but spreading their legs for every guy who comes along, and then pass off their children as their spouse's, another favorite topic of the Walrus? Those children represent immorality so any time you see a child that does not resemble the man (s)he is with, you should inquire as to the paternity. In fact, you may just want to go ahead and take a DNA sample, just to be sure. Don't let a little thing like an assault charge stop you.

What about the use of IVF? They don't just fertilize one egg, you know. And they don't store the rest of the frozen darlings forever, either. So, if you see a family composed of what looks suspiciously like multiples, you should ask how they were conceived. Don't let anyone tell you it's not your business, it totally is.

What about those childless couples you see? Well, they're just selfish and paving the way for the muslim takeover of the world. So the next time you see a man and a woman out in public without children, you should make sure they're taking their reproductive responsibilities seriously. Sure, their children could be at home, and you run the risk of asking that question of someone whose child just died, but don't let that stop you in your quest to save the world's children.

What about older couples with young children? You know that's some kind of immorality. Sure, it could just be grandma and grandpa taking their grandchildren out for some fun, but it could be the horror of older people having babies, or grandparents forced to raise their grandchildren due to their children's uncontrollable immorality, which is always the parents' fault, anyway.

Frankly, I think Playful Walrus hasn't gone far enough. Though, if you're going to root out all the immorality those little things some people call the future represent, Walrus is spot on: you shouldn't let a little thing like common decency get in your way.

Lessons From the Bible

bible, god, jesus, jews, muslim, bible, rape, slavery, christian, christianity, morality, immoral, asshat,
I like to check out the profiles of Ray Comfort's cheerleaders. Oddly, many of them have no viewable profile at all, or profiles with no information. Those with blogs are frequently the source of much amusement.

The Lord's Beautiful Things, not so much.

Prepare the Way for the Lord

In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Isaiah 40:3 What's interesting about this isn't the meaning of the quote, it's the translation. That is the New International Version, which is anethema to Christian fundamentalists, who all cling to the King James Version of the bible, for reasons I have never been able to make heads or tails of. (It's not like the texts were originally written in English. Oh, and Jesus was not a blue-eyed blonde.)

Dictionary.com says that a desert is-any area in which few forms of life can exist because of lack of water, permanent frost, or absence of soil.-any place lacking in something-of, pertaining to, or like a desert; desolate; barren. thanks for that. that really cleared nothing up for me.

We are in the desert right now. i suppose if we're in nevada, arizona, utah, parts of texas or california, but i'm not. i'm in pennsylvania. not a desert. America is the land of the free and the home of the brave!, but we are not really free it's true, but it's not like i wanted to go on a shooting spree. well, not that much.. The majority of us are walking around following trends, fashions, and behaviors because we think we should freely choosing to do so, in fact. People boast how in America you are free to do whatever you want except for stealing, raping, murdering, shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theatre, think and act how you want yes, you are free to think whatever you want. some people should take less advantage of that, but whatever, and wear what you want, but they are wrong.

How many times do you pick up a magazine and Say, "oooh, I want that!" , "I HAVE to have it"? in a given day? a week? what? besides, saying you really want something isn't wrong or inherently bad. i just, yeah, i dunno. Whether its is Glamor Magazine hey now, I read Glamour, it's not that bad., or Popular Mechanics, evil technology! people are always out to sell you something. welcome to the US. And not just sell you something, but tell you something as well. where is this going?

Fashion magazines tell young girls that they are not pretty if they don't wear the latest fashions actually, i thought fashion magazines told girls they're not pretty if they don't weigh less than me, but whatever. they're in the business of selling stuff, what do you expect? my niece figured out the lack of truth/reality in advertising by the time she was 6., the radio tells young men that it's okay to demean women and call them all sorts of nasty words ah, rap. not my favorite form of expression, but i don't think we can blame all society ills on a bunch of quasimusicians., and NOTHING in our general society talks about God.

Stop right there, asshat. Nothing? NOTHING? Take a dollar bill out of your wallet and tell me all about the total lack of god in general society. Need to swear to something in Court? you'll need a bible, or you'll need to out yourself as nonchristian. say the pledge of allegiance. written without "under god", but there it is today.

honestly.

The Bible tells you just as easily how to dress really? i did see a few passages on how the Aaronic High Priests were to dress (like a cross between a gay pride parade and any given day at the Vatican), but not a whole lot on the rest of us. unless we count not mixing fibers in our fabrics., how to talk ???,

how to treat women

i would be terrified to live in a world where the bible was the basis for how women are treated. Rape is an acceptable practice in the bible.

Deuteronomy 22:28-29 NLT If a man is caught in the act of raping a young woman who is not engaged, he must pay fifty pieces of silver to her father. Then he must marry the young woman because he violated her, and he will never be allowed to divorce her.

Can you imagine being forceably married to your rapist? This is good and moral? On what planet?

To take this even further, if the woman is prevented from alerting others to her rape (usually what rapists do. It's not much use to rape a woman who is screaming her head off and alerting potential defenders.), she is to be murdered for being a rape victim.

Deuteronomy 22:23-24 NAB If within the city a man comes upon a maiden who is betrothed, and has relations with her, you shall bring them both out of the gate of the city and there stone them to death: the girl because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbors wife.

This is the great morality that Christians have and I do not? Keep it! I don't want it.

and human beings in general.

Oh, really? Apparently, Christians view slavery as a perfectly acceptable way to treat humans.

Leviticus 25:44-46 NLT However, you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners who live among you. You may also purchase the children of such resident foreigners, including those who have been born in your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat your slaves like this, but the people of Israel, your relatives, must never be treated this way.

Beating your slaves to death is okay, as long as they don't die right away.

Exodus 21:20-21 NAB When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property.

Just so nobody says, "Well, that's the old testament, Jesus changed everything, no, he didn't.

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with deep respect and fear. Serve them sincerely as you would serve Christ. (Ephesians 6:5 NLT)

Christians who are slaves should give their masters full respect so that the name of God and his teaching will not be shamed. If your master is a Christian, that is no excuse for being disrespectful. You should work all the harder because you are helping another believer by your efforts. Teach these truths, Timothy, and encourage everyone to obey them. (1 Timothy 6:1-2 NLT)

But no one looks to God to tell them what to do because it's not "popular". Maybe because it would be entirely immoral to actually do so. Being a Christian is not popular. yeah, christians are only more than 75% of the US. Have you noticed how if you talk about how great God is, you will get a whole bunch of wohoos um, what? from Catholics, Jewish, Christian and Muslim alike (Muslims worship the same God as us, just a different name)? But if you DARE to mention Jesus, everyone will go silent, 'cept for Christians of course. maybe because jews and muslims don't view jesus as god? asshat. It is if our world is backwards. it's so insane that jews and muslims don't worship jesus! Everyone rewards and accepts the perverse following fashion trends! and questions and looks down upon the righteous, and wholesome. rape and slavery! Our nation has become like a barren wasteland. unless you're in Pennsylvania, in which case the crucuses (croci?) are blooming! It is a desert in need of the Living Water. the living water of brutal immorality!

Assisted Suicide and a Very Honest Moment

assisted, suicide, ethics, morality, immoral, murder, euthanasia, euthenasia

You've been getting a lot of honest moment's out of me recently, and here's another one. In fact, the honesty here might be a little bit much, just so's you know.

cschande has an article up about proposed assisted suicide in Hawaii. (Naturally, it's Teh Evul.) I will say this: the vast majority of people whom you think would want to commit suicide (terminal cancer patients, for example) don't want to. I will also say this: assisted suicide happens in the US every day. It's illegal, so the doctors involved are risking their licenses and livelihoods, but it still happens. Why?

Let me give you an example. I knew a man whose wife collapsed one day unexpectedly. She hadn't said a word about feeling sicker and sicker and sicker for an entire year. She was too busy, she was scared of doctors, and she was probably afraid of having confirmed what she already suspected: she had cancer. Liver cancer, to be exact, that had metastesized all over her body, including to her brain.

Within 3 weeks, this previously kind, funny young woman became a raging maniac as the cancer ate away her brain. Her husband sent her to hospice, but she was sent back home because she kept assaulting the aides with whatever objects were handy. Once she was home, their daughter had to be sent to live with relatives, because mommy tried to kill her. Then came the pain. The cancer got into the nociception centers of her brain, causing unimaginable pain throughout her entire body. Painkillers can't work once that's happened. There is nothing to do about the pain at that point except feel every bit of it, with no relief, not even for a moment.

She screamed in agony no narcotic could touch for 36 hours straight before her husband called her doctor and begged him to do something, anything. Her doctor brought over an extra vial of morphine. The husband was enraged: morphine didn't work at all, what was this idiot doctor thinking?

"Too much morphine and she won't be able to breathe," the doctor said. "It would be an accident, anyone could understand how easy it would be to give too much morphine to a woman screaming in agony for days."

"There's no other way, is there?" the husband asked.

"She's dying," said the doctor. "You know that. It could be an hour from now or weeks from now, but that pain's not going away. She's not getting better. I'm sorry, but there's nothing more to be done."

I think you can guess what happened next. What would you do? (If it takes you less than 30 seconds to come up with the answer, you didn't think hard enough.)