SI
SI
discoversearch

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor.  We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community.  If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.
Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  
To: Brumar89 who wrote (153864)2/4/2009 10:05:26 PM
From: Steve Dietrich  Read Replies (2) of 173976
 
The Bible relates that God once both commanded it and committed it at specific times in the past.

You've got your facts wrong. According to the Bible, God ordered Joshua to commit genocide. Several hundred years later God ordered Samuel to commit another genocide. And not just one nation was ordered exterminated, there were seven.

Christians throughout history have used I Samuel 15 to justify their own genocidal rampages. Here's what minister and professor of theology Craig D. Atwood has to say about it:

theflamingheretic.wordpress.com

One reason I’m spending so much time on this question of interpretation is that this chapter of I Samuel has a long and bloody history in Christianity. Recently I was at a conference on religion and violence at Yale University, and an historian presented research on Puritan preaching on war. He discovered that I Samuel 15 was one of the favorite texts of Puritan preachers in colonial America, particularly when they were encouraging the congregation to kill neighboring Indians. The American Indians became the Amalekites in the hands of the preachers, and the Puritans added their chapter to the history of European genocide against American Indians.

Going farther back into history, the Taborite preachers in Bohemia used this chapter to justify the murder of Catholics. Catholics used this chapter to justify pogroms against the Jews and Protestants. One of the bitterest ironies in history is that a chapter about Israelites exterminating their enemies was used by Christians to justify the Final Solution in the 20th century. This is a very dangerous chapter that challenges our faith and our morality.

The Bible does condone genocide. I, on the other hand, can say without reservation, without exception that genocide is always immoral and always wrong. You cannot. Your philosophy, morally speaking, is inferior.

Then you're claiming condoning genocide isn't evil.

I don't think you're evil for condoning Biblical genocide. I just think you're morally screwed up. Also, just because you're morally screwed up doesn't mean Christianity is morally screwed up. Not all Christians teach and believe what you believe about genocide.

I did show you that Hamas and Hezbollah have genocidal programs

I categorically condemn any person or group that calls for the destruction of Israel or the extermination of Jews.

But you claimed some who post here do just that. I've never seen it, and you don't seem to be able to show me any examples. How can you expect me to condemn a post you can't even show exists?

Doesn't that seem a little unreasonable and dishonest on your part?

SD
Report TOU ViolationShare This Post
 Public ReplyPrvt ReplyMark as Last ReadFilePrevious 10Next 10PreviousNext  

HomeMailHotSubjectMarksPeopleMarksKeepersSettings
Terms Of UseContact UsCopyright/IP PolicyPrivacy PolicyAbout UsFAQAdvertise on SI
© 2025 Knight Sac Media.  Data provided by Twelve Data, Alpha Vantage, and CityFALCON News