cofty
You said you would not hesitate to obey god's orders to
commit mass killing of women and infants. You think that infanticide is a moral
good as long as you can convince yourself that it is god's will. Never lecture
an atheist about morality again.
Really, what was the stipulation in the question? ‘If I was in
Joshua’s army’. Any other time the answer would be no. Nice try, BTW that stunt
you tried to pull, proves character.
But for the reader.
Since we are using the account in the Bible let’s keep it
within the parameters of Christianity. God offers everyone eternal life. This
come with some conditions, believe certain things, and live a life accordingly.
Very simple. That a sounds like a great deal. I live life accordingly for
approx. 70 years and my reward is eternal bliss. Now the flip side. If I offend
God there a punishment. The Canaanites were not innocent. They were a vile
people who practiced some of the lowest form of immorality. (Lev. 18:25). God waited patiently for hundreds of years
[Gen 15:16] but the Canaanites did not repent. When judgement fell God like a
surgeon amputated the cancer. At this time Israel was unique. Never before or
after has there been a theocracy, Israel was ruled and directed by God, and God’s
extermination was a direct command from God. Israel as a theocracy was an
instrument of judgment in the hands of God.
There is a difference between murder and justifiable
killing. If I was in Joshua’s army it is justifiable. If tomorrow I hear a
voice that tells me to kill, it would be murder.
You make God out to be this beast by taking verses in
isolation. But let’s look at the whole picture. The
story of Sodom and Gomorrah clearly demonstrates that God would save a whole
city for ten righteous people (Gen. 18:22f.). In that incident, when God could
not find ten righteous people, He took the four or five righteous ones out of
the place so as not to destroy them with the wicked (Gen. 19:15). On another
occasion God saved some thirty-two thousand people who were morally pure (Num.
31:35). Another notable example is Rahab, whom God saved because she believed
( Heb. 11:31). And in the Gospels Jesus who is God sacrifices Himself taking
our place, taking upon Himself the punishment that we justly deserve.
Let’s talk about morality, since you seem to consider
yourself such a moral atheist. Tell me what side of the abortion issue do you
take? Since you detest the killing of children in the Biblical accounts, do you
detest the murder of innocent children that could survive outside of the womb
if they were allowed to be born vs aborted?
The problem the atheist has here is that any moral denunciation
implies a moral doctrine of some kind. Human life is special, it has intrinsic
value. But on the atheistic view there does not seem to be anything about Homo
sapiens that make this statement objectively true. Since every individual
passes out of existence when they die, what ultimate value can life have? Mankind
is thus no more significant that swarm of mosquitoes or a barnyard of pigs, for
their end is all the same. When the lion kills he does not commit murder, why then do the Homo sapiens commit murder?
Notice you are using Christian values that are not supported
by an atheistic worldview in order to denounce Christianity.
