Is Yahweh a Moral Monster?

[rufustfirefly]

http://www.epsociety.org/library/articles.asp?pid=45&ap=1

And a reply:

http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2008/07/paul-copans-moral-relativism-response.html


These pieces are long, but I thought they fit in this forum.

[BeamStalk]

I am reading through the first one now. This made me laugh.

"In other ANE [Ancient Near East] codes, the law is given by human kings and monitored by gods. Unlike kingship in the ANE, Yahweh's rule did not require an earthly human representative."

Personally I don't think Moses existed, but apparently Moses was YHWH according to this apologist.

[rufustfirefly]

Is that James Randi, Beamstalk?

[BeamStalk]

Is that James Randi, Beamstalk?

Yep, the Amaz!ng one and myself.

[rufustfirefly]

Cool.

[BeamStalk]

I am impressed by anyone that can get through that first article, it is putting me to sleep. I keep trying to come back to it, but his arguments are bad and he fills them with technical jargon trying to sound smart.

[BeamStalk]

Another great quote from page 5 of EPS's article 'Is Yahweh a Moral Monster?'.

The historian Tacitus (AD 55-120) wrote of Rome: "The more corrupt the Republic, the more numerous the laws." Consider how a rebellious child will often need external rules, severe deadlines, and close supervision to hold him over until (hopefully) an internal moral change takes place. Rules, though a stop-gap measure, are hardly the ideal.

Reading Comprehension fail. Your analogy fails because you have completely missed the point of Tacitus' comment. By your analogy the adult would be the corrupt one. When you take that further to the rules of the Old Testament, then God is extremely corrupt.

Edit: ZOMG, there is just so much in his apologetics that beg more questions. Like this quote from page 6:

What then of the children? Death would be a mercy, as they would be ushered into the presence of God and spared the corrupting influences of a morally decadent culture.

God is all powerful and knew they would be corrupt, so why fucking have them born in the first place?????????? This is just regular crappy ass apologetics for the genocide (that didn't happen in reality) described in the Bible.

[Personal Failure]

ummm . . . has this guy actually read the pentatauch? there's over 600 rules in there.

[rufustfirefly]

Vera used to write the same shit. "Things were so bad the children couldn't be saved". Your all powerful God who cares about football and stock car racing couldn't save some children. Well, let me get down on my knees right away.

[BeamStalk]

I see, in the rebuttal, that I was not the only person to think of sterility.

Yet, Yahweh was believed to cause sterility in women (see Genesis 20:17-18). So, Yahweh could have sterilized Canaanite women supernaturally, and the problem would be solved in a generation or two. No need to kill children with this procedure.

Edit: I love this comment also

And who decided that polygamy was a deviation from an ideal original monogamy? The idea that monogamy was original is a faith-based claim---i.e., based on accepting the word of the author of Genesis 2-3. After all, incest was also original, as you could not have reproduced from the first pair without incest at some level. So should we regard non-incestuous pairings as a deviation from the original ideal?