Refuting Christians with their Own Bible

[Crossless2.0]

Yeah, I never get an answer to that one.

God forgets sometimes? Or expects some people to just guess or copy other people?

It is ironically the only time a handbook of morality would be any use. Assuming it contains good advice, which these things don't. Can you imagine a psycopath reading the bible?

What's to imagine? We have Drich. 

[robvalue]

Lol!

Then you have armies of nice Christians trying to explain to the psycopath why he should ignore almost everything he's reading, after telling him to go read it.

Confusing?

[GrandizerII]

Yeah, I never get an answer to that one.

God forgets sometimes? Or expects some people to just guess or copy other people?

It is ironically the only time a handbook of morality would be any use. Assuming it contains good advice, which these things don't. Can you imagine a psycopath reading the bible?

I'm sure there's a number of them leading some churches.

[Crossless2.0]

Lol!

Then you have armies of nice Christians trying to explain to the psycopath why he should ignore almost everything he's reading, after telling him to go read it.

Confusing?

Not really. Paul provides the escape hatch for Christians to ignore those parts of the Bible they find embarrassing.

[SteveII]

I disagree. He summed up the law and the prophets with two commandments: 1) love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul and 2) your neighbor as yourself. He explained that everyone was your neighbor. Further instruction and detailed examples were given in the other dozens and dozens of chapters. 

Can you give an example of how Jesus' teachings on morality was vague?

He never said everyone was your neighbor. Samaritans were, after all, still literally neighbors to the Jews. And again, this could've been interpreted as not including slaves because slaves were their own group according to these interpreters. Perhaps the lesson is that who you perceive as an enemy may be the one to show you mercy, so show mercy and love to them as well. But furthermore, even if this applied to slaves, it doesn't mean Jesus was moving them to stop owning slaves.

Examples of vague commandments are the ones listed in your quotes. What does it mean in full details to love God with all your heart, mind, and soul, in terms of action, and then love your neighbor as yourself? Does it mean "stop owning slaves"? Then why not say so? Does it mean "polygamy is ok or not"? Why not just make it clear if polygamy is strictly not ok? Is pirating Christian movies ok? When does talking about someone in their absence become gossip? Is abortion really wrong? Or is it wrong that we are not loving the women of this world enough to respect their bodily/reproductive rights? Is smoking sinful? etc.

You need to read everything together and you'll understand the message of Jesus was decidedly not conducive to slavery. Paul expounded on a lot of things (that was kind of his job).

Galatians 3:27 "For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

I would argue that "love your neighbor as yourself" is incompatible with owning a slave so therefore teaches slavery is wrong. Polygamy not clear except that church leaders should be the "husband of one wife". Pirating movies is stealing. Proverbs deals harshly with gossip. Abortion falls under the murder prohibition so it trumps anyone's 'rights'. Smoking is harmful to the body and harming the body is sinful -- gray area. 

As I said above to Veritas-Vincit, we encounter many situations that are not found in the Bible, so basic principles of morality are extracted and used to apply to the new situation. Is that process flawless, no.

[robvalue]

Yeah, I never get an answer to that one.

God forgets sometimes? Or expects some people to just guess or copy other people?

It is ironically the only time a handbook of morality would be any use. Assuming it contains good advice, which these things don't. Can you imagine a psycopath reading the bible?

I'm sure there's a number of them leading some churches.

I do hear they make excellent top level businessmen.

[GrandizerII]

I'm sure there's a number of them leading some churches.

I do hear they make excellent top level businessmen.

And top politicians.

And if not psychopath, it may be someone with antisocial personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, or something similar.

[robvalue]

Someone who considers themselves so important they have a mainline to God, perhaps?

[GrandizerII]

Someone who considers themselves so important they have a mainline to God, perhaps?

Quite likely. I mean it seems a reasonable hypothesis at least.

[RoadRunner79]

While Scripture does contain moral guidance, it is not a moral handbook, that contains everything needed to be good; nor that every command is directly a moral edict.

So where do you get your moral handbook from?

I don't know that I have a handbook.... you?

As for what I base my view of morality on, it is going to be a number of things, but the guidance of Scripture is going to be of first consult.