Quote:there are multiple verses saying not to kill. you're questioning why God commanded the Israelites to slay the Canaanites, and the answer is that God said the sins of the Canaanites reached such a level that they deserved to die. Just like how we execute murders in our society, God exercised His justice.
Yes, the Bible says not to kill, although what it actually means is 'Adult male Israelites should not kill other adult male Israelites, everyone else is fair game.' But I digress.
If God is powerful enough to create to create the entire Universe through an act of will, why did he need the Israelites to kill the Canaanites? God could have simply blinked them out of existence, thus removing the need for one band of nomadic semi-savages to slaughter another. On a related note, could you list the sins committed by the Canaanite and Amalekite infants that the Israelis butchered?
Maybe your society executes murderers. Mine doesn't. Apparently, we're on a higher moral ground than Jehovah.
Shall I tell you why God ordered the Israelites to slay the Canaanites? It's quite simple, really: The Canaanites had land that the Israelis wanted. The Israelites were going to get the land. The most direct way of accomplishing this was war (it typically is). The wholesale butchery had to be explained some how or other, so the Israelites came up with, 'God told us to do this. Yeah, that's it. The Canaanites were going all sinny, so we stopped the sin with genocide, which is clearly not a sin if God says it's ok.'
It never fails to astonish me how theists can't grasp the moral conundra like this that fill the Bible.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
