Is Biblical Morality Situational, Based Upon the Arbitrary Whims of Yahweh?

leavingwt

Is Biblical Morality Situational, Based Upon the Arbitrary Whims of Yahweh?

Murder is wrong… if God orders it however, then murder is right, and failing to murder is a sin.

Exodus 20:13 versus 1 Samuel 15:1, 7-11

Lying is wrong... but, if God orders or sanctions it, then it is right.

Numbers 23:19 versus Ezekiel 14:9
Proverbs 12:22 versus Genesis 12:10-20

Children must honor their mother and father… but not according to Jesus.

Exodus 20:12 versus Matthew 10:34-36; Matthew 12:46-50; Luke 14:26, John 2:1-5

Human sacrifice is wrong… however, if God orders or sanctions it, it is right.

Leviticus 18:21 versus Genesis 22:1-15; Judges 11:29-38; 2 Samuel 21:1-14; Numbers 25:3-4

Stealing other people’s property is wrong… unless if God orders it.

Exodus 20:15 versus Exodus 3:22

Breaking the Sabbath is a sin punishable by death… but, if Jesus or his disciples decide to break the Sabbath, then it is OK.

Exodus 31:13-15 versus Matthew 12:1-8

Killing an unborn child or a baby is wrong… unless God orders it.

Hosea 13:16; Isaiah 15:9,16-18; Ezekial 9:6; Deuteronomy 2:33-34; 1 Samuel 15:3

Taking another man’s wife is wrong… unless God decrees it.

Exodus 20:17 versus Isaiah 13:16; ; 2 Samuel 12:7,11

Making a graven image is wrong… unless God orders it.

Deuteronomy 4:15-18; Exodus 20:4 versus Numbers 21:6-9; Exodus 25:18; 1 Kings 7:29; 1 Kings 6:27-28

Cannibalism is wrong… unless God decides to inflict it on people.

Deuteronomy 28:53; Jeremiah 19:9; Ezekiel 5:8-10

Punishing an innocent party for the sins of another is wrong… unless God decrees it.

2 Kings 14:6 versus Exodus 20:5; 2 Samuel 12:7-15; Genesis 12 (Abram lies, but Pharaoh is punished)

Rape is wrong… unless God commands it.

Deuteronomy 22:28-29 versus Numbers 31:15-18; Isaiah 13:16; Zechariah 14:2

http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2012/03/does-morality-come-from-god.html

Let me suggest, leavingwt, that these sorts of lists, developed from these sorts of web sites as you link, are attacks on a particular, American-fundamentalist, mode of reading scripture. They're fine, so far as they go. But to read these points as somehow having any bearing on the ancient traditions of reading these works (Jewish and Christian) is a pretty big mistake.

james_woods

Why is that, Sulla? There seems to be some pretty obvious contradictions here - at least to me.

Are you saying that these scriptural records are in error, or they are translated wrong?

NewChapter

Interesting way of putting it LWT. I still try to figure out how this all used to be okay with me----

I would read about genocide, and bloody murder and it bothered me---but somehow my brain told me that since god said it was the thing to do, then somehow it was okay. It's only after backing away and using critical thinking that one can see how absolutely contradictory the entire mess is.

NC

Sulla

Yeah, james woods, there are obvious contradictions. But they are hardly something that we've just discovered in the last couple decades. Hell, the complaint that the OT is filled with really horrible stuff was behind the Marconian controversy (I speak from memory, so it could have been somebody else). That idea ran in the gnostic tradition that the OT is the work of the evil creator god who is opposition to the good NT God. As such, the proper thing to do was to eliminate the OT from the Christian religion, focusing instead on all the "love thy neighbor" NT stuff.

Point is, the raping and killing and all the rest of it has always created some tension within the Christian community. For that matter, the same could be said for the Jewish community. But that doesn't imply that morality is arbitrary.

NewChapter

I was just listening to a podcast at Skepticality, and they discussed how the OT is simply cherry picked. If the person agrees with it, then all is good. If they disagree, they simply get to say that the NT trumps it. It's like they have a built in 'out'.

I see it over and over here.

NC

jaguarbass

God is good orderly direction.

If you want to get the good orderly direction from the word, you have to be able to

rightly divide the word of truth. 2timothy 2: 15.

There is always an explanation defending God and his ways.

Lifes not black and white, neither are God and his ways.

Iamallcool

good topic (bookmarked)

ctrwtf

I think the bible is a reflection of the old saying that Man created God in his image. In tribal days any sort of mayhem was justified if God commanded it. As humankind progressed so did our sensibilities and the belief in an all loving Creator. Having said that, we obviously have still a long way to go....

james_woods

Point is, the raping and killing and all the rest of it has always created some tension within the Christian community. For that matter, the same could be said for the Jewish community. But that doesn't imply that morality is arbitrary.

No? What about David and Bathsheba?

Did EVERY Israelite get away with adultry compounded by the deliberate murder of the woman's husband?

Is Biblical Morality Situational, Based Upon the Arbitrary Whims of Yahweh?

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