Theists are Insecure

[Mister Agenda]

Regarding the human sacrifice debate, I'm surprised that Jephthah's sacrifice of his daughter (due to a vow to sacrfice to God whatsoever comes to greet him at the door when he returns home victorious) as a burnt offering. God didn't send an angel to tell Jephthah, 'Hey, God doesn't hold with this human sacrifice crap, make it seven cows instead'. In fact, God didn't bother to include an injunction against human sacrifice in the Bible.

God never said he approved of this promise. In fact in scripture he has spoken out against such acts. Example: Deuteronomy 12:31. And that debate has been left for over a month.

Sorry, wasn't aware of the time limit. But since you've chosen to respond, certainly the lesson in Jephthah is not to make vows you may regret (as in similar Celtic faerie stories), but perhaps you are interpreting Deuteronomy too broadly since the Hebrew priests didn't let Jephthah off the hook. Maybe they took Deuteronomy 12:31 only as an injunction against the sacrifice of babies, or they considered the vow to Yahweh to outweigh the prohibition against human sacrifice. God never said he approved this promise, but as I pointed out, he did nothing to indicate that he preferred a broken vow to a sacrificed daughter.

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Oh, spoken out against such acts has it? How did exactly such an act become the basis of the faith then? When you remove christ from christianity you come back and talk to me about how ardently scripture decries human sacrifice.

What are you talking about? Basis of our faith? Why would you think that? And why are you talking about removing Christ? That's not what we were talking about.

I think Rhythm is talking about the centrality of the sacrifice of Jesus to Christianity. Although it might be more precise to call it 'scapegoating'.