The Immorality of God - The Canaanites

[Chad32]

It doesn't really matter if the stories are true or not. People believe they are, and want me to give myself willingly to the person described in the book, so I'm free to judge his actions as acceptable or not. It's like if someone watched star wars, and tried to argue that Darth Sidious is a good guy. I don't believe those events happened, but I can still argue against the idea tht Sidious isn't evil.

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?

when I decide if something is acceptable or not, I use my standard. There's a big culutral difference between the bible and most modern societies. Granted I'm not perfect, but my limited understanding of right and wrong is all I have. So that's what I work with.

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?

The Canaanites were a bad people. That's all well and good. Killing them all, down to the women and children, does not solve the problem of people being bad. This is a proven historical fact. Wiping out neighbors who disagree with you does not solve the problem.

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?

And where were they supposed to go? If there was another place for a tribe to go, why didn't Yahweh just send the isrealites there?

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

It doesn't matter if the Isrealites only stole some land, and killed some people. It's still wrong.

They didn't steal it. See above.

Killing people for not worshiping Yahweh is not "wiping out evil". It's just picking sides based on who is willing to worship Yahweh more. Which is really what the bible is about. It has little to do with morality. It's just some god demanding worship, and killing people who don't.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.