(March 18, 2013 at 1:37 pm)Drich Wrote: God's 'brand of Morality' Is refered to in the bible as Righteousness. God's righteousness is whatever He says it is. When ever He says it. The acts themselves mean nothing. For in just about every case where we have a 'thou shalt not,' there is an exception to the rule. (A Time or place where what God would normally considered to be a sin is either commanded or permitted.)
It's refreshing to find a Christian who admits that god is above morals and that, as the rule maker is within his rights to break the rules, and even command his followers to do so. Too many Christians claim that morals are absolute, but cannot reconcile that claim with the arbitrary and repulsive things that god does in the Bible, or that he commands others to do in his name.
God, particularly in the OT, is very clear that he's the boss and that it's his way or the highway. And if he orders an action that is otherwise horrifying or immoral in the extreme, there is no punishment for carrying those actions out. Personally, it makes more sense to see this as the work of men who want moral cover for otherwise shameful or vile actions. It wasn't us, they write, it was god. And he cannot be judged, so it must have been the moral thing to do.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
