God sends two bears to rip up 42 little children for making fun of Elisha's bald head. 2nd Kings 2:23 From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. âGet out of here, baldy!â they said. âGet out of here, baldy!â 2:24 He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the LORD. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys. 2:25 And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.
You must hate your father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yourself, and carry a cross on your back to become a disciple. Luke 14:25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 14:26 âIf anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sistersâ"yes, even their own lifeâ"such a person cannot be my disciple. 14:27 And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. 14:28 âSuppose one of you wants to build a tower. Wonât you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 14:29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 14:30 saying, âThis person began to build and wasnât able to finish.â
Sell your clothes for a sword. Luke 22:35 Then Jesus asked them, âWhen I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?â
âNothing,â they answered.
22:36 He said to them, âBut now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you donât have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one. 22:37 It is written: âAnd he was numbered with the transgressorsâ[a]; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.â 22:38 The disciples said, âSee, Lord, here are two swords.â
âThatâs enough!â he replied.
Beat your children Proverbs 23:13 Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish them with the rod, they will not die. 23:14 Punish them with the rod and save them from death.
Moses's Vengence Numbers 31:1 The LORD said to Moses, 31:2 âTake vengeance on the Midianites for the Israelites. After that, you will be gathered to your people.â 31:15 âHave you allowed all the women to live?â he asked them. 31:16 âThey were the ones who followed Balaamâs advice and enticed the Israelites to be unfaithful to the LORD in the Peor incident, so that a plague struck the LORDâs people. 31:17 Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, 18 but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
God & Slavery Leviticus 25:40 They are to be treated as hired workers or temporary residents among you; they are to work for you until the Year of Jubilee. 25:41 Then they and their children are to be released, and they will go back to their own clans and to the property of their ancestors. 25:42 Because the Israelites are my servants, whom I brought out of Egypt, they must not be sold as slaves. 25:43 Do not rule over them ruthlessly, but fear your God.
25:44 ââYour male and female slaves are to come from the nations around you; from them you may buy slaves. 25:45 You may also buy some of the temporary residents living among you and members of their clans born in your country, and they will become your property. 25:46 You can bequeath them to your children as inherited property and can make them slaves for life, but you must not rule over your fellow Israelites ruthlessly.
Old Testament Counts Matthew 5:17 âDo not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 5:18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 5:19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
The teachings of the Bible are indeed outdated, which makes them ethically corrupt and biased due to the unethical traditions from the distant past.
@ The Christians in this thread:
Don't think that any book or teaching can explain a perfect ethical system, because there is no such thing due to the subjective nature of ethics. There are bound to be many flaws in the Bible, proving that God is not perfect.
No, that's asking how you know what you seem to be claiming to know.
Actually I believe master565 is correct.
It is the reason why the debate between Christians and Atheists cannot be solved. If we are to use cold logic, we will always come to the conclusion that we have no proof showing us whether God exists or not, for how unlikely it may be.
If we were in a tribunal, Christians would be the ones who would need to show evidence to back up their claims, but Christians do not "believe" in God because they follow a particular line of logic, they do because they have faith, making any rational argument practically pointless.
To get more on topic, and to answer the OP, the whole Bible is rather... controversial. It all depends on how you read it though.
Was it intended to be metaphorical? Was it really intended to spread a religion of love? My opinion is yes and no to both. I'm an Atheist but I think the Bible has a good amount of metaphors that were intended to be there, and probably the intention was to spread the new religion. On the other hand, while it still does teach a thing or two, said religion is rather obsolete, and it would definitely need to be rewritten. Even the Church is adapting to the modern times.
This ultimately leads me to think that the Bible was written by men, and inspired by none other than other men, as it is not perfect and it got old with time. But this is just a matter of opinion. "Objective" arguments, as I said before, do not exist in a debate about religion.
You said that the teachings about morals in the bible aren't applicable to today's world, but then I don't see why the other teachings in the bible should apply, since they are as old and outdated as the others.
Sorry, it got buried before i saw it i guess.
I said the bible isn't necessarily moral, no one said it was. Either way, why do all them have to be outdated. The ones about slavery are since we don't have slaves we don't really need to pay attention to those rules since we won't be breaking them. Really what were debating is wether or not the bible is moral.
Then it would seem so does God.
How do you get that from my statement?
No, that's asking how you know what you seem to be claiming to know.
If i don't believe God gave the bible or told us what to do than i don't believe in God.
If every word of God is not flawless then he does make mistakes. I would also call leaving such an important information to be filtered through beings that can mess it up in the process is also a mistake in itself.
If i don't believe God gave the bible or told us what to do than i don't believe in God.
Okay, but I'm not asking you what you believe, I'm asking you how you know. You made claim as fact that this book was inspired by God and your interpretation is the correct one, you can believe that all you like, but how do you know that?
They would have left people alive but they wouldn't have left them in charge.
Well obviously. That's called sense.
If you read my post, you are missing "the original hebrew text implies" in my post. You can't fully understand the bible with an english translation.
Nothing that implies consent.
No i don't. There are two bibles in my religion, an oral one and a written one. The oral one was given by God and has laws that were passed down orally and they written one was supposedly dictated by God for man to writes. So indirectly, God did write it.
So what the bible says is gods holy word? i take it you support slavery and stuff then as god supports it.
I said the bible isn't necessarily moral, no one said it was. Either way, why do all them have to be outdated. The ones about slavery are since we don't have slaves we don't really need to pay attention to those rules since we won't be breaking them.
I find this to be an odd response. I did some research and came across this:
The voice of conscience and sensitivity to the reactions of others are important elements of moral direction (1 Timothy 1:5). But personal consciences vary. One conscience permits almost anything, while another conscience generates devastating amounts of shame and guilt (1 Corinthians 8:7 ; Titus 1:15). Going by "how other people feel" also has limitations (1 Corinthians 4:3-5). The anger of other people doesn't necessarily mean that we've done something wrong. A child who throws a tantrum or an adult who tries to get his way through emotional manipulation are using the same strategy. Paying too much attention to other people's reactions is as likely to confuse us as it is to help us.
Secondly, who gets to decide what is outdated? On what authority? You're running into some problems, I think.
I said the bible isn't necessarily moral, no one said it was. Either way, why do all them have to be outdated. The ones about slavery are since we don't have slaves we don't really need to pay attention to those rules since we won't be breaking them.
But rules like kill kids who talk back to parents are still applicable and anyway what is the point of all the teachings in the bible if they aren't meant to be followed literally. What is the point of the bible if you can't trust it.
If every word of God is not flawless then he does make mistakes. I would also call leaving such an important information to be filtered through beings that can mess it up in the process is also a mistake in itself.
We still can't say God doesn't make mistakes. If he knows the grand scheme of everything than he knows what is correct to do.
Okay, but I'm not asking you what you believe, I'm asking you how you know. You made claim as fact that this book was inspired by God and your interpretation is the correct one, you can believe that all you like, but how do you know that?
First of all i don't believe i ever used the word inspired. Second, my interpretation of what? Third, I don't know that just like i don't know if God actually exists. There is always a doubt that were all wrong but i believe one i believe the other.
Well obviously. That's called sense.
Well why is it called sense in leaving them alive? There is no benefit to it.
Nothing that implies consent.
Can you read english? Because i said "the original hebrew text implies" and you keep missing the word "hebrew. Now if you didn't miss that then can you read hebrew?
So what the bible says is gods holy word? i take it you support slavery and stuff then as god supports it.
Ok he supports slavery. So? You keep saying that this is wrong but not giving reasons why.
Secondly, who gets to decide what is outdated? On what authority? You're running into some problems, I think.
I don't and neither does he. He said they were all outdated and i said why is that true.
I find this to be an odd response. I did some research and came across this:
I still don't believe in jesus or the new testament. You can make this argument to someone else who is Christian.
But rules like kill kids who talk back to parents are still applicable and anyway what is the point of all the teachings in the bible if they aren't meant to be followed literally. What is the point of the bible if you can't trust it.
I found a part of an answer for "God sends two bears to rip up 42 little children for making fun of Elisha's bald head."
First of all, its not little children. The text used the hebrew word "naar" (don't know how else to spell it) which doesn't mean little children, its young men. The word for child is "yelad". Second, it never just happens that 42 young men are together outside of a city and just happen to see someone passing by the city, they knew he was coming and came specifically to insult him. Also, prophets can't exactly call the name of God in vain so when they do, either they get punished or the people they directed it at do, and God probably needed Elisha and Elisha was probably punished at one point but i don't know much about him so i can't say.
First of all i don't believe i ever used the word inspired.
This is what you said. Pretty sure that denotes being inspired by God.
"God and has laws that were passed down orally and they written one was supposedly dictated by God for man to writes. So indirectly, God did write it."
Second, my interpretation of what?
Your interpretation (or translation) of the Bible.
"No i don't know what to say because all i can argue is that my translation is correct."
Third, I don't know that just like i don't know if God actually exists. There is always a doubt that were all wrong but i believe one i believe the other.
Then why make such claim in such a matter of fact way?
Ok he supports slavery. So? You keep saying that this is wrong but not giving reasons why.
You don't see how someone owning and treating another person as property is wrong?
I still don't believe in jesus or the new testament. You can make this argument to someone else who is Christian.
First of all, its not little children. The text used the hebrew word "naar" (don't know how else to spell it) which doesn't mean little children, its young men.
This is what you said. Pretty sure that denotes being inspired by God.
Wow i had to many grammar mistake in that sentence. But on topic both are supposedly* the word of God, not inspired by the word of God.
*based on wether or not you believe in God
Your interpretation (or translation) of the Bible.
I'm still don't understand fully but i feel like were still getting back to belief in God.
Then why make such claim in such a matter of fact way?
I used the word "supposedly" so i don't really feel like i stated this as a "fact".
You don't see how someone owning and treating another person as property is wrong?
Of course i see it as morally wrong but I'm going to repost my definition of "moral" from page six.
Moral is a relative term. It changes with society. It is what society currently views as the correct thing. 2000 years ago almost anyone would view slavery as normal. Now almost no one will view slavery as normal. Really morals are a lot like common sense, and quoting einstein "Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen." If we were told growing up that slaves were okay than our society would believe slavery is moral. Society is like evolution, it keeps changing (but we don't know for better or for worse).
I've been wondering what is your religion?
I have been hiding it but i kind of feel like telling. If you can give me a reason to tell i will do so. (you can also make a guess)
Ya because that makes it much more acceptable....
No it doesn't but don't act like they did it out of imaturity. Also i gave a reason why Elisha was probably punished but don't ask me to follow up on it because i don't know it as a fact.
Well why is it called sense in leaving them alive? There is no benefit to it.
You get the labour force.
Can you read english? Because i said "the original hebrew text implies" and you keep missing the word "hebrew. Now if you didn't miss that then can you read hebrew?
If it said it in hebrew why wasn't it translated? And can you read hebrew
Ok he supports slavery. So? You keep saying that this is wrong but not giving reasons why.
Because either everyone is just a slave of other people or no one is ever a slave. Since the latter is a better option slavery is considered immoral. And I take it you suport incest and genocide as well as all the other bad things in the bible god endorses.
