What IS good, and how do we determine it?

[Nope]

[quote='Catholic_Lady' pid='970172' dateline='1434873276']
Before I wrap it up here, I also want to once again point out that the most important thing to remember are a couple of Jesus' greatest commandments: Love your neighbor as yourself, and love your enemy. Does it really make sense that a person who tells us to love everyone like ourselves, including our worst enemies, would condone treating people like property?

Before I lost my faith, I kept telling myself that the god I worshipped couldn't be the same one I read about in the Old Testament. My god was a loving being and I had the bible verses to prove it. The problem was that the bible presented two versions of god. One was the Jesus in the Gospels who healed the sick and let the children come to him. The other god was not just the cruel, vindictive god of the Old Testament but the revengeful Jesus in Revelation that was going to destroy the world. Eventually, I realized that the only way for those traits to work together was if god was fictional

Part of the problem on this and other threads is that atheists take Christian description of their god seriously. We expect the bible god to act consistently in the ways that his followers claim that he should. So, it is hard for non Christians to understand why this omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent god is so weak in the face of evil or even iron chariots.

The following passage describes how the Hebrew slaves are to be treated.

   If you buy a Hebrew slave, he is to serve for only six years.  Set him free in the seventh year, and he will owe you nothing for his freedom.  If he was single when he became your slave and then married afterward, only he will go free in the seventh year.  But if he was married before he became a slave, then his wife will be freed with him.  If his master gave him a wife while he was a slave, and they had sons or daughters, then the man will be free in the seventh year, but his wife and children will still belong to his master.  But the slave may plainly declare, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children.  I would rather not go free.'  If he does this, his master must present him before God.  Then his master must take him to the door and publicly pierce his ear with an awl.  After that, the slave will belong to his master forever.  (Exodus 21:2-6 NLT)

rob seems to have missed the part where slavery was limited to six years. Not exactly the kind of slavery we had in this country, was it? And the primary purpose of such slavery was to pay off debt. IOW, it was a means by which those who were poor could SURVIVE.

Randy, this was true for the Hebrews not for the captive taken in war.

Exodus 21:20-21

20"If a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod and he dies at his hand, he shall be punished. 21"If, however, he survives a day or two, no vengeance shall be taken; for he is his property

So,  as long as the slave lived for a couple of days, all was good. Beating your slave until they nearly died was acceptable.

CL, do you see how this Whack-a-Mole game is played? First, the gang took issue with pedophile priests. Then, after I offered some agreement but also defense of the more hypocritical outrage, the Magdalen Laundries became the topic du jour.

We are a group of people who like to debate so yes, as long as the conversation is interesting, we will keep have the discussion and it will branch out into many different directions.  This forum is not for everyone. You need a thick skin. Most of the atheists on this site have no desire to evangelize you so there is no need to hide behind niceness to win you to our cause. If you aren't used to it, that kind of honesty can be disconcerting for some people.