How can a book that tells you how to treat slaves possibly be valid moral guide

[WesOlsen]

3.slavery pretty awful shit? Compared to what exactly. Genocide? Famine? Anarchy? Against what moral yardstick. A society which has lost its way as badly as ours?

We live in a world where we drone bomb civilians be the thousand and call it war. Where tens of thousands die of starvation while we die from over consumption. Where we spend £30 on a kids cuddly toy which would feed a family in the third world for a month. Where warlords carry out genocides which would warm the cockles of the OT Yahweh's heart, and we ignore it. Where teenagers commit suicide because people say unkind things to them. Yeah, slavery is not a nice idea but considering how fucked and immoral our society is I'm afraid I can't get that worked up about it. So no, I don't particularly have a problem with the Bible not matching up to modern morality because modern morality ain't that special. It just seems that way to us because we're so inordinately proud of the horror we've created. It's like a paedophile taking a morally high stance over wife beating. Neither are moral. Both are funked.

Interesting. So tell me, Jacob: since when did two wrongs make a right?

Seriously, pointing out the problems of the past are how we avoid making them again in the future, and I submit to you that convincing people that this specific book is not a moral guide would be a net good, to begin with.

This basically. Modern morality is as varied as the mixed morality in the bible. You're simply comparing different things that 'have been' rather than things that we can all agree 'should be'. By making these distinctions in your post, you're basically highlighting things that you think are bad, and I completely agree with all of them. Like you I think that wars and famine are terrible terrible things, so as Esquillax points out, the only way we can improve shared morality is by making sure we don't repeat the mistakes of old.

[loganonekenobi]

Oh for fuck sake.  Sorry, I'm too pissed off to be polite this evening.

Are you going to go through EVERY bit of the bible you don't like and post a thread on the lines of "It says this so that's not very nice is it" with that smug, superior air?  Because frankly its fucking dull.

You know what? The bible advocates eating meat as well. Cute fluffy little lambs which scream when they are slaughtered while their mothers wring their hoofs wondering where their little treasures have gone. That's apparently equally immoral.  Bastard fucking bible. Bastard fucking carnivores.  Moral vacuums the lot of us. We could look at that, only most people are not as enlightened as you are are they.

Know what, If you don't like the bible, don't follow it. If you don't like other people telling you you should, take it up with them.  I'm  with you all the way on that one.  But what could possibly be the benefit of these whinily triumphant little "I've spotted something dodgy in an ancient scroll, look how  fucking enlightened I am"  threads. Christians don't care what you think and have probably heard the arguments, at least 8,000 times before. You ain't convincing anyone there with your one liner little offerings.  Atheists already probably agree. So  aside from the circlejerk satisfaction of stating something we all aready know with the air that you are imparting some great and secret truth, what in the name of lucifers cock ring is the point of threads like this. Does it make you feel good  LBD? Morally accomplished perhaps? Does it give you a tribal sense of belonging that everyone can see you don't like slavery?

Seriously. I'm curious. I'm all ears. What is your payoff from this thread. What do you hope to get from it. What does a good outcome look like for you.

I empathies with your rant. The reason that all this is happening is simply this... since Constitine Christianity has been the club which ruled in Europe for well into the 20th century. Then spread like a plague to the rest of the world. That's what historians call a long ass time. So now at the cusp of free thought, the time has come for the free thinkers to strike back. It is natural for humans to fight back when damage has been done to them. I'm sorry but christianity has done lots of damage. (Just look up Chistian atrocities). Being noble and turning the other cheek is.... tough for anyone to do. Once the force balences out then we (or maybe our children) won't see so much of this. Hopefully it won't take a long ass time.
Also remember that as free thinkers we often see the bible thumpers at our doors trying to convert us to save us from hell. Remember this is a country steeped in christianity so why do they? If one wants to seek Jesus all one has to do is walk a few blocks to the local church. SO to us it seems overbearing. So yes that's why. Christianity is overbearing and only now are we able to say no to it and still live. Do you understand? can you put yourself in our shoes?

[Mudhammam]

SERIOUSLY?!

[SteelCurtain]

ModHat On:
loganonekenobi, please make a habit of checking the post date on these replies. In this case you were replying to a post that was over a year and a half old. Necroposting is a breach of forum etiquette.