Blue, I think you misunderstand the thrust of what I am saying. Morality is as relative today as it was three thousand years ago. I am not deriding anybody for his religious beliefs. I am simply pointing out that those beliefs are mutable. And pointing to the Bible as the source of morality is an exercise in futility.
If we moved to a less volatile issue than murder or incest I think you will see what I mean. Look in Leviticus and you will find hundreds of laws purportedly handed down by God. Most if them are trivial (in the sense that they do not deal with killing, etc). For example, God commands that mildew be treated with a ritual consisting of sprinkling dove's blood on the walls. I can't remember the rest, but it is pretty odd. Nobody would advocate that kind of thing today, but apparently the ancients believed it. Thatkind of shifting morality can be found in everything from things we all hold dear (like life and truthfulness and honesty) to things that some, but many others do not (like ritual baths and kosher laws).
By the way, I don't think God ever committed adultery, nor theft, nor lied, nor all the other stuff ... There are several occasions where God lied, and many many occasions where he encouraged people to do all of those things which we, as decent human being, agree are terrible.
Again, the point of my comment was not to denigrate religion as to debunk the idea that religion is the source of our morality. In fact, I think it is the other way around.
TTFN,
CTC |
