lovelylil:
I disagree. You are interpreting the scriptures according to our modern day views. The fact of the matter is arranged marriages was the normal thing back then and there were no provisions for divorce.
That hardly seems an enlightened policy. Modern lawmakers are generally opposed to arranged marriages on the grounds that every person is an autonomous individual with the right to make their own choices. Divorce is also nearly universally allowed based on the principle that nobody should be forced to remain in a relationship if they do not wish to. It's a pity your god wasn't so enlightened. His laws would then have actually improved the lives of his people.
The couple put to death were both adulterers. They knew the penalty for thier sin.
That doesn't make it acceptable. Their actions only affected them and their own spouses. Consensual sex between adults doesn't deserve the death penalty.
In ancient times, the laws were much stricter than now. And that included all the lands, not only Israel.
Of course, people knew a lot less than we do now about human nature. That doesn't explain why God would be influenced by this. Does God still find arranged marriages, the death penalty and slavery acceptable? Or has he moved with the times?
The young girl "raped" was not forced to have sex with the man. It was called rape because she was not betrothed to him.
Perhaps, but there was no real issue of consent. If they were betrothed or married, she had no right to refuse his request for sex. If they were not, then she had no right to accept. She was the property of her father or her husband.
As far as young girls being married very young, that was also the norm back then.
All the things the Israelites did were "the norm back then". Behaviourally, they were largely indistinguishable from other tribes of Bronze Age nomads. But when you compare their backward law code to that of any modern western country, you can appreciate just how primitive and inhumane it really was.
And chasity of virgins was much more valuable, then it is in our modern day culture.
Valuable to whom? Isn't virginity the property of its holder, to do with as they please?
The rules of the ancient world would not be approprate today. That is why religions like the WT are so wrong for trying to force their members to live by them. If you live in a modern society, you have to leave the caveman beliefs behind and do what is acceptable in that society for the particular time period.
So you don't believe in any sort of universal morals then? Just do what is acceptable in the society in which you find yourself?
I'm sure even the God of the Bible would not have a problem with that.
Isn't he unchanging? Didn't he make those laws?
For even he supposedly said that he "forgive man for thier past ignorances". But when this "ignorance" came to light, man had to adjust to what would now be appropriate to do
Again, I've no problem with this. Societies today generally have much more enlightened laws, leading to a better standard of life for all. Human culture has developed and continues to develop. But where does God fit into that? Did he make the primitive laws ascribed to him in the Torah? If so, why would you worship such a barbaric god?
