(July 5, 2016 at 1:57 pm)Veritas_Vincit Wrote: Even if we concede that a few of the teachings in the Bible are good, they are not good because they are in the Bible or because of who said them, they are good because they are good, and would be even if they were said by someone else or in another book. The flip side is that there are countless teachings in the Bible that are decidedly evil, immoral, barbaric and utterly worthless.
Now granted, they don't mean the Bible is all bad. But the point is - the Bible is just a book. Behaviours, morals, and teaching are either good or bad on their own merits, no matter who says them or what book they are printed in.
What "teachings in the Bible that are decidedly evil, immoral, barbaric and utterly worthless."? Let's limit it to the moral discussion earlier and only have examples of what we "ought" personally to do.
Of course civil penalties for law violations in a theocracy are decidedly not teachings.