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Slavery Today

catsmate1 said:
Technically there are several bibles with different selections of "books"; the Catholic version, derived from the pre-revision Jewish scripture has a number of books, and additions to others, that aren't part of the Protestant bible and the Orthodox version has a few more again.
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that is true.
however, there are lord of the rings editions that do not contain the appendices too, but they are still basically the same story.
 
I think it's a good idea to keep in mind that, when you look at the entire set of extant manuscripts that are known, there are more differences among the various New Testament manuscripts than there are words in the New Testament.

In fact, there is not a single passage in any of the NT books that does not have a variant text.
 
JudeBrando said:
Agreed.
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The point about slavery in the Bible is not that it's good or bad. The point is that the Bible is not a viable source of moral guidance because it contains texts that support slavery. If it was going to the the font of all moral knowledge it would say something to the effect of, "hey, stop owning slaves".
 
Craig4 said:
The point about slavery in the Bible is not that it's good or bad. The point is that the Bible is not a viable source of moral guidance because it contains texts that support slavery. If it was going to the the font of all moral knowledge it would say something to the effect of, "hey, stop owning slaves".
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Exactly. The fact that the Bible never makes the slightest indication that owning another human being is immoral is a clear indicator that the Bible is of all too human origin. The authors of the various books all seem to have been of the mind that slavery was a normal pert of their culture and never seem to have considered it to be wrong. It's true that any of us who had been born into that society would almost certainly have felt the same way, at least those of us who were in a position to write the laws. But the fact that the Bible contains morality that even modern theists almost unanimously regard as immoral just goes to show that their god was not its author.
 
I think it's odd that we're discussing slavery at all, and not, oh, let's see... slaughtering entire populations down to the last woman and child because you want their land.

Compared to that, slavery is a curfew violation.
 
Piggy said:
I think it's odd that we're discussing slavery at all, and not, oh, let's see... slaughtering entire populations down to the last woman and child because you want their land.

Compared to that, slavery is a curfew violation.
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Or killing your own daughter because she chose her own sexual partner, or killing members of your own family for inviting you to follow another religion, or ordaining yourself for the service of the Lord by slaughtering three thousand of your sons, brothers, friends and neighbors...
 
Piggy said:
First, the Bible can't claim anything, since it's an anthology.

Second, very few books of the Bible claim such inspiration in their entirety.
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One would think that the super de duper universe creator would have a vested interest in ensuring that the relevant holy book is accurate.
 
excaza said:
One would think that the super de duper universe creator would have a vested interest in ensuring that the relevant holy book is accurate.
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Or that it exists. If our current Bible is the Word of God, then God didn't want anyone to know what that Word was until some 3 or 4 centuries after the death of Jesus.
 
Piggy said:
Or that it exists. If our current Bible is the Word of God, then God didn't want anyone to know what that Word was until some 3 or 4 centuries after the death of Jesus.
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This made me think about the sign out front of a small church in the next town over. For the past few weeks it has read, "What's better than answers to our 'why' questions? Trusting in a good God who has his reasons".
 
Foster Zygote said:
This made me think about the sign out front of a small church in the next town over. For the past few weeks it has read, "What's better than answers to our 'why' questions? Trusting in a good God who has his reasons".
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I was floored by the comments of that pastor who introduced Perry a while back. He said, when faced with a choice between a good and moral man, and a Christian, vote for the Christian.
 
Foster Zygote said:
This made me think about the sign out front of a small church in the next town over. For the past few weeks it has read, "What's better than answers to our 'why' questions? Trusting in a good God who has his reasons".
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A "good" God? So, not the one in the Bible huh? He just seems like he's pissed off all the time playing gotcha games.
 
Craig4 said:
The point about slavery in the Bible is not that it's good or bad. The point is that the Bible is not a viable source of moral guidance because it contains texts that support slavery. If it was going to the the font of all moral knowledge it would say something to the effect of, "hey, stop owning slaves".
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Seconded.

JudeBrando, may I ask you to take a moment to respond to Craig4's post?
 
Piggy said:
Or that it exists. If our current Bible is the Word of God, then God didn't want anyone to know what that Word was until some 3 or 4 centuries after the death of Jesus.
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the bible is a very cool and important book.
it's influence on western culture and art is monumental.
it's a diverse and fabulous collection of myths, legends and laws, with a generous portion of poetry amd stories.

it ain't the truth, that's all.
the world would be a better place if more people knew this.
 
bikerdruid said:
the bible is a very cool and important book.
it's influence on western culture and art is monumental.
it's a diverse and fabulous collection of myths, legends and laws, with a generous portion of poetry and stories.

it ain't the truth, that's all.
the world would be a better place if more people knew this.
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That right there is my primary frustration with the JREF forum community. And I have few frustrations here.

For some reason, plenty of folks who are perfectly rational about other topics will suddenly snap their minds shut when it comes to discussions of the Bible and dismiss it as a "collection of fairy tales", which is a profoundly ignorant way to view it.

Oh, and btw, some of it is the truth, so even saying "it ain't the truth" does it a slight injustice.
 
Piggy said:
That right there is my primary frustration with the JREF forum community. And I have few frustrations here.

For some reason, plenty of folks who are perfectly rational about other topics will suddenly snap their minds shut when it comes to discussions of the Bible and dismiss it as a "collection of fairy tales", which is a profoundly ignorant way to view it.

Oh, and btw, some of it is the truth, so even saying "it ain't the truth" does it a slight injustice.
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People declaring the Bible is The Truth does the world a massive injustice because it is used as the so-called Truth to justify all kinds of heinous behavior. Westboro Baptist Church?

The book in and of itself it not the problem, the way it is used/misused is.
 
bikerdruid said:
i never dismissed it at all....and i never used the term 'fairy tales'.
did you miss the bit where i called it 'important', 'fabulous' and 'monumental'.
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No, I didn't miss that at all.

Couldn't you see that I was agreeing with you? :confused:
 
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