To Christians...Theocracy?

[Tonus]

I'm just baffled that people think Christianity is the root of all evils like slavery.

That's not what people think. People simply wonder how a nation of people governed by the almighty god of all creation --a moral arbiter of utmost purity backed by irresistible power-- nonetheless took, bought, and kept slaves, to the extent that they had to write out rules for managing them. Or that this is defended under the idea that the social and cultural mores of the time were too much for that god to overcome. There is no sensible defense of the use of slavery by Israel that is described in the Bible.

[robvalue]

If you are spending a lot of time trying to show how the bible is saying the opposite of what it actually says, then there's something amiss.

I'm quite happy to agree the bible is entirely irrelevant, at best it was a moral code for the people of that time, it has no use to our society. So we can agree to ditch the thing. But if it's meant to be relevant now, you can't just ignore parts of it because you don't like them, or say which parts are and aren't relevant as you see fit.

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I wish people would, and chuck out the blatantly horrible stuff. That would be just dandy by me. But I have suggested it before, and the theists blew their top at the idea of taking slavery endorsement out of the bible.

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Let's see how relevant it is. Who knows the 10 commandments?

[Whateverist]

It's like no one's even read what I wrote

Just read it. So would you say the bible's intended audience has come and passed? Is it still relevant today?

Of more interest to me is why you think the bible is of special value. Isn't it a book like any other subject to interpretation like all the rest? Why do so many Christians read it to receive direction on how to lead their lives? Why do so many think it is a book of authoritative facts (such as the age of the earth) which should be believed in lieu of empirical research?

[Grasshopper]

I read it, but you pretty much repeated yourself without addressing the points I made.

God is all powerful, remember? If he wants no slaves, there's no slaves. Or is he not powerful enough to do that?

God doesn't want murder, divorce, prostitution, evil thoughts too. No sin. But obviously we ain't getting that. Free will remember?
Might as well command some people to decrease the amount of cruelty to them.

And you say it was a moral code of their time. I agree with you but only partially. LEVITICUS was the moral code ONLY. The first 5 books were written over 600 years not only moses. The bible as we know it didn't exist then.
To be honest I don't know why the early church fathers included leviticus I really don't.
By the time of jesus the world had evolved enough for people to make decisions without any laws. Love god and love your neighbor are the only 2 laws we really need. The world would be a much better place if everyone followed this and the 10 commandments

[Tonus]

God doesn't want murder, divorce, prostitution, evil thoughts too. No sin. But obviously we ain't getting that. Free will remember?

But god visited destruction and pain upon people many times as a result of their actions. He drowned nearly every living thing on the entire planet at one point. Where were his concerns over free will then? He ravaged Egypt with plagues and drowned its army. Where were his concerns over free will then? He allowed the massacre of his own chosen people time and again, sometimes directly and sometimes allowing the pagan nations to do his work for him. Where were his concerns over free will then?

There are plenty of examples where god did not hesitate to take violent and decisive action against anyone who went against his will. Pointing at the times when he looked away and pretended not to notice does not reinforce the concept of free will; it simply shines a glaring spotlight on his arbitrary and contradictory nature.

[Nope]

I'm just baffled that people think Christianity is the root of all evils like slavery.

That's not what people think. People simply wonder how a nation of people governed by the almighty god of all creation --a moral arbiter of utmost purity backed by irresistible power-- nonetheless took, bought, and kept slaves, to the extent that they had to write out rules for managing them. Or that this is defended under the idea that the social and cultural mores of the time were too much for that god to overcome. There is no sensible defense of the use of slavery by Israel that is described in the Bible.

This.

God provided rules for some silly stuff in the Old Testament. Exodus 23:19 states:

Bring the best of the firstfruits of your soil to the house of the LORD your God. "Do not cook a young goat in its mother's milk.

God could make a rule about boiling goats but couldn't explain that slavery was wrong?

Sometimes I think that religious people don't really understand the concept of being omnipotent. Their mythological god can supposedly do ANYTHING. He killed a man for putting out his hand to stop the freaking ark from tumbling to the ground. This same god couldn't say, no slaves?

[abaris]

By the time of jesus the world had evolved enough for people to make decisions without any laws. Love god and love your neighbor are the only 2 laws we really need. The world would be a much better place if everyone followed this and the 10 commandments

What gives you that impression? First, love god isn't of any value to a society. It's an abstract concept That only binds the ones believing in a certain god. And to what exactly? There's no real life consequence if you do or if you don't.

Second, love thy neighbour. Humans being humans will never follow that rule. Regardless if they're christians or not. There's always exclusiveness.

Third, we're not talking about a golden age, if something like that ever existed. For the ones living in it, status was all that mattered. If you were low down on the ladder, you probably were even worse off than you are today in most societies. And we're also talking about a time when Roman law ruled this part of the world. Roman law was as sophisticated that it's foundations still are in use in anglo saxon case law. The whole precedence idea is derived from Roman law, which was nearly entirely based on that concept.

[Grasshopper]

It's like no one's even read what I wrote

Just read it. So would you say the bible's intended audience has come and passed? Is it still relevant today?

Of more interest to me is why you think the bible is of special value. Isn't it a book like any other subject to interpretation like all the rest? Why do so many Christians read it to receive direction on how to lead their lives? Why do so many think it is a book of authoritative facts (such as the age of the earth) which should be believed in lieu of empirical research?

You know I don't know why people read it. Hell I don't know why I read it. I haven't completed it yet. But most people get stuck during the first five or six books thinking it endorses evil. I take the bible to be factual ( or semi factual) only from the book of Samuel onwards.
But the later books in the old testament and epistles in the new are often ignored or overlooked by atheists and I admit some christians.
For example there's one in which a person is angry at god and questions him rudely about why bad things happen to good people. He later gets an answer and believes.
Then there's a book about a man testifies about getting hope once he put faith in god after something happened. Then there's proverbs, that talks about wisdom, psalms, which have uses even in modern life.
The epistles of paul are good. Especially colossians. Then again I haven't completed it yet so can't go into much detail

[robvalue]

There's a few good bits, but it's mostly monstrously evil. If you knew nothing about who "god" was, or that this book was meant to be about anything real, I think almost anyone would come to the conclusion that "god" is an evil tyrant. You're right, the start of the bible is heavy going because it's alternatively extremely boring and irrelevant, unbelievable, and evil. Really not a lot more than that in the old testament. The new testament is just a bunch of hearsay, no eye witness testimony.

Yep I don't know why anyone would read it at all, let alone take it seriously. It has just developed a reputation and cult following. I don't believe it has anything at all relevant to our society that isn't blindingly obvious.

Are you aware that these are the 10 commandments? See how many of these have any relevance at all to our society.

[Grasshopper]

There's a few good bits, but it's mostly monstrously evil. If you knew nothing about who "god" was, or that this book was meant to be about anything real, I think almost anyone would come to the conclusion that "god" is an evil tyrant. You're right, the start of the bible is heavy going because it's alternatively extremely boring and irrelevant, unbelievable, and evil. Really not a lot more than that in the old testament. The new testament is just a bunch of hearsay, no eye witness testimony.

Yep I don't know why anyone would read it at all, let alone take it seriously. It has just developed a reputation and cult following. I don't believe it has anything at all relevant to our society that isn't blindingly obvious.

Are you aware that these are the 10 commandments? See how many of these have any relevance at all to our society.

Yes I know those are the ten commandments. What's your point? And I would debate on what you think is monstrous but that's your opinion and I don't want to interfere.