Do you believe in good and evil?

[Jenny A]

The Hebrews were practically saintly compared to the people who lived around them, who engaged in human sacrifices, wild sex orgies, rampant homosexuality and pedophilia, and all the other evils that caused God to destroy Sodom and Gamorrah.

I know that is not an explanation that will satisfy atheists, who demand that all people in all historical periods act like perfectly civilized 21st century Americans.

After all, we are so far superior to the Hebrews, since all we do is send drones to kill people at long range so we don't have to do the killing up close and personal, getting our hands dirty.

Therefore, we have the right to sit in judgment over the Hebrews, and condemn them, even though they were fighting the same kind of craziness we are currently fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

You're quite right about the Hebrews being a product of their times. BUT GOD was right there with them egging them on, aiding and abetting the killing and often stepping in to do the smiting himself. Not to mention "giving" his chosen people land that belonged to other people.

Speaking of Sodom and Gomorrah, did you notice that the one "good man" God agreed to save offered his virgin daughter to a crowd of neighbors just so he wouldn't have to fight to defend his guests from rape. Lovely father, Lot. Of course the daughter weren't so great either because after they escape Sodom and Gomorrah, they get Lot drunk just so they can have sex with him. They did it twice, once for each girl.