Why the Bible Doesn't Condemn Slavery

[dyresand]

Wow. So Christians are the only people in the world addressing sex slavery? And you know this how?

It pisses me off when a theist casts stones at atheists and others as though they occupy some moral high ground and are the only ones that do any good in the world. Well, you're dead wrong. Maybe if you'd climb down from your ivory tower you'd see that non-Christians of all kinds (atheists, agnostics, other religions, etc.) are capable of doing wonderful things.

Why are you even on this site? Shouldn't you be busy sinning?

*knocks off 10 atheist points*

Praise satan! my lord and dominator

[Chad32]

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I don't want to insult the OP but one thing has to be said about this....
there is always an excuse of some sort for the immoral actions perpetrated in the Bible, particulary in the Old Testament.

Whether because it's a thing that was common in the past so why all the fuss about (despite morality being timeless), or the guy that killed his son because God told him is misunderstood or even that when it says in the book women are servants of men and should obey them it's actually not literally...

I mean c'mon, it's getting ridiculous. At least have the decency to come up with better arguments.

How's this for a better argument, you do not believe in the God of the Bible, you've clearly have established this. So man has to be responsible for the actions of others that's against the moral high ground you have put on the immorality of slavery.
Then why is it that you and the rest of the atheist sit on your hands while the greatest slave trading in history goes on right under you noses. There are 10's of thousands of young girls and boys sold into the sexual slavery every year. Christians are actually going to dangerous places in the world to help these girls and boys escape this slavery, yes that's right the church is using an underground railroad of sorts to free these young people while you and the rest sit on your hands and so you can have your own life and enjoy sitting around here . So at least have the decency to say you've failed these precious souls for your own contentment. But, you like the rest here will allow this slavery to continue on, the worst slavery and largest amount of slavery the world has ever seen. Maybe you want be able to sleep knowing you have failed your fellow human beings and get busy doing something about it.

GC

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Why? It's not like the bible commands you too? If christians do this just because they feel it's wrong, and are not driven by what the bible says, how is this relevant to the topic at hand? If you want me to congratulate them on moving away from what the bible teaches, so be it, but there's nothing in there that commands them to do it.

You seem to be under the impression that we hae to fight against something in order to be against it. That's not true. Do tell us about all the slaves you saved, though. I'd like to read those news stories.

[robvalue]

Things about religious "morality":

Only the radical, insane people actually attempt follow it at all accurately.

You can't follow it accurately, because of the amount of blatant contradictions.

Often you get into "heaven" or whatever just for believing, or after apologising, so there's no incentive to follow the morality at all. Why's it even there?

[Minimalist]

Lek, you are the personification of this comment by Dave Matson:

Bible-believers are full of clever (and some not so clever) rationalizations. The crucial question, however, is not whether "answers" can be generated in response to Bible difficulties but whether credible answers can be produced. What is the best explanation? Bible-believers seem to think that any loophole, however improbable, that gets the Bible off the hook has solved the problem.

http://etb-biblical-errancy.blogspot.com...ailed.html


You are so desperate to get your fucking bible off the hook for being the primitive piece of shit that it is that you will gladly swallow any amount of nonsense to make yourself feel better. It may work for you but not for us.
Slavery is wrong and your fucking bible - and thus its 'god' - ought to have known that.

Failing that, it is a worthless piece of iron age horseshit.

[robvalue]

I'd be more than happy for christians to agree to expunge all references to slavery being OK, and replace them with a simple sentence saying it's not OK.

For some reason, they object to doing so. They want to keep in the parts that explain how you can buy and treat slaves.

[Mister Agenda]

I came across this article which I think does a good job of answering why the bible doesn't directly condemn slavery.

http://www.reasons.org/articles/how-come...mn-slavery

I wasn't able to follow the link because I'm at work, but if the argument is that it would have been too difficult to get rid of at the time, it's worth noting that it was condemned in Jainism around 500 BC. Torture was as well.

[Chad32]

Points for Jainism.

[Minimalist]

Torture was as well.

Xtians love torture.

[Esquilax]

The other thing is this; assuming that Lek's little argument is true, and that slavery was such a crucial component of old testament life that it couldn't be removed, how hard would it be to express the concept of slavery as a necessary evil in unambiguous language? Aside from spinning disparate verses, that are almost uniformly contradicted by other verses, into some subtextual, wheedling plea for kindness, where in the bible do we actually get a clear statement that, while this is not preferred, it is the way we're going to have to do things for a while?

The answer is, we don't. It's just not there, beyond the overtly contradicted spin of christians with presuppositions, but their arguments fall flat because of the clear false dichotomy in place. It's even in the article Lek linked to: it's either "get rid of slavery overnight," or "keep slavery." Never does the idea of gradually reducing slavery over time, and replacing it with more reasonable infrastructure, ever occur to them, probably because such a thing, while being the most rational course of action if god thinks of slavery as they describe, does not show up in the bible at all. And it's important to uphold the primacy of the bible, even in the face of obvious, smarter tactics to use, which god would obviously have known about.

[abaris]

Torture was as well.

Xtians love torture.

He's actually from a different denomination that literally believes in the revelations of Halliburton.