The Immorality of God - The Canaanites

[athrock]

Fair enough. But don't you think it is reasonable to consider carefully whether God's actions are acceptable or not based upon a full set of data?


Which is both subjective and potentially wrong. Assuming you don't claim to be infallible, I would expect you to be open to arguments that might be counter to your own intuitive first glances, eh?


Apart from the fact that there is evidence that they WEREN'T literally wiped out down to the last man, woman and child, what problem do you think was being solved?


God had promised the land to Abraham and his descendants, remember?


They didn't steal it. See above.


Incorrect. The Canaanites weren't punished because they refused to worship Yahweh. They were punished because their deeds were evil. You can learn more about them from any number of sources online. Not a good group of folks.

We don't have a full set of data, because we only have one side of the story. A story told by the people who worshiping Yahweh, and felt that Canaanite lands belonged to them.

Gotcha. So, on the off-chance that the Canaanites side of the story wold exonerate them,you have decided to deny the existence of God. That doesn't really explain all the POSITIVE accounts of God, of course, but don't let THAT trouble you.

I have my opinions, and you have your opinions. But when a theist comes to be and says that at one time the paragon of goodness felt that rape, slavery, and mass murder are acceptable within certain limitations, but two men loving each other is a death-worthy crime, i find that suspect.

Ah...the shotgun approach. I told Cecelia that this is why we focus on one issue at a time.

I'm not gonna play your game, Chad. The issue at hand is the Canaanites, and your task is to prove why God was immoral for destroying them.

Yahweh promised lands to the descendants of Abraham, then the land was taken by someone else, and the descendants were enslaved. Kind of dropped the ball there, huh? And his solution to this, when he eventually gets around to freeing the Isrealites, is to tell them to go fight and die in a war over the land that was promised to them. Apparently this was the best solution Yahweh could come up with.

Let's see...God promises the land to one man, Abraham, and says that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars. Then God sends them down to Egypt where Israel becomes a large nation unto itself. Through years of slavery and decades of wandering in the desert, that people becomes both tough as well as obedient to their God. So, when it finally comes time to taking possession of the land, they have the manpower and the will to do it.

Yeah, some army comes to you, and tells your family to pick up and leave, because their god said the land your family has lived on for generations told them it belonged to them now. That's stealing.

Uh, no. The Canaanites lived in the land temporarily. Now, the rightful heirs had returned.

Because their deeds were evil. How so? How were they do different from what the Isrealites did? I've heard child sacrifice was involved, but there's a verse in the bible where Yahweh commands child sacrifice of his follower. Yahweh has issues with homosexuality for vague reasons. Just because Yahweh has personal issues doesn't mean people are evil when they don't listen to him.

Good and evil doesn't mean much when you base it on a book that, again, says raping a young virgin in a field is ok as long as you can pay the bride cost, but having consentual sex with another same sex adult is a horrible thing.

There are lots of online articles available to you; I offer this Google search.