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Goodbye Jesus

Ozymondius Defense For Christian God's Actions?


megasamurai

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I've been pondering the way that Christians are desensitized the mass slaughters in the Bible. The body count is in the millions. I've just been thinking about how Christians think this slaughter was for the greater good. I've been thinking about this defense reminds me of a famous quote from Ozymondius from Watchmen "killing millions to save billions" (of course the idea in Watchmen was to unite people against a common enemy to end the Cold War. The Biblical rational is a tad different.) I've just pondered how it would be like if both these premises are true: 1) The Bible really does tell the whole truth of the history of God and Israel and 2) The Christian God really had benevolent reasons for taking lives.

 

I've just pondered, when I was a believer, why did the idea of the slaughters horrify me even if he had a benevolent motive? The means just seemed horrifying and I had a hard time feeling love for him. I just ponder why the Christian God doesn't seem to acknowledge that some people would have a hard time of loving him more than anyone else if it's in human nature to be bothered by his killings. Why should I be fried for emotions I can't help?  I just wonder if it was crazy for me to hate him just before I lost my belief in his existence even though he might have been an extremist with benevolent intentions.   

 

What is everyone else's thoughts on the idea that the slaughters were horrific, but for the greater good?

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What greater good could there possibly be for OT slaughters? I don't recall the Bible mentioning any greater good.

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The greater good excuse makes me sick.  Like physically wanting to vomit thinking about how God can do violent, monstrous things , and not only get away with it but come off looking like a hero because he did it for some greater purpose.  Hitler did the same things as God, attacking certain individuals for the supposed greater good of Germany, and we all recognize that his means were unjustifiable.  Why does God get the badge of honor for doing the exact same shit? 

The people that will accept the sacrificial system and the "some must suffer for the greater good" theology are the ones who are not the ones being sacrificed and who feel entitled to having others suffer for their account.  I heard a great quote before, condemning Christianity, which said "the sacrificial system is always self-serving."  It is simply a selfish means of getting something at somebody else's expense.  A real god worthy of worship would not behave in such a way. 

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     Look, all god needed to do, if he couldn't simply make people/things not-exist is to terraform another planet around a star in another galaxy and move everyone but his chosen ones there.  *poof*  Problem solved.

 

     Uh oh, the planet is all evil.  Better send a flood.  Oh wait.  *poof*  Never mind.  Uh oh, I want Canaan for my special people I'd better have them slaughter one another.  Oh wait.  *poof*  Never mind.  Uh oh, I have some other stupid thing rolling around my feeble god brain I'd better inflict misery and suffering for no reason.  Oh wait. I've finally realized I'm the problem. *poof*

 

          mwc

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I just wonder how far one can take the "they would have grown up to be evil" excuse for killing God's killing of children. The evidence that the authors of the Old Testament ever thought this is sketchy at best. I just ponder if David's baby really was to grow up to have been evil, why did the Bible say that his motives were to punish David? That's scapegoating. If his motives were benevolent why give an immoral reason? The motivation given seems immoral, but there's a way to reimagine that idea based on argument from ignorance. The Bible doesn't say that David's son wouldn't have been a monster if he were to live, therefore he would have been a monster. Also there's the "children go to heaven excuse". If the child went to heaven, why did he have to suffer for seven days of illness before dying? Why inflict that much pain? Why doesn't the Bible itself offer this assurance? Why are Strobel/Craig/whoever's excuses so filled these fallacies?

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If we are justifying genocide based on benevolent intent, then we have to accept that Hitler had really good intentions for slaughtering the Jews and purifying the Aryan race.  Personally, I can't stomach that kind of justification.

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A Christian would probably rebut this with "Hitler was just pretending to have good intentions. What Hitler wanted would not help ease the suffering of this world." "The Caananites were killed because they would have committed genocides against the Israelites. Killing the Caananite children was needed to prevent them from growing up to cause mass destruction. The destruction of the Caananites was done to save lives."

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If God does something then God doing it makes that thing the greater good.    Wendybanghead.gif

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A Christian would probably rebut this with "Hitler was just pretending to have good intentions. What Hitler wanted would not help ease the suffering of this world." "The Caananites were killed because they would have committed genocides against the Israelites. Killing the Caananite children was needed to prevent them from growing up to cause mass destruction. The destruction of the Caananites was done to save lives."

And a good rebuttal would be to produce the historical attitude toward the Jews that was rampant, not just in Germany, but throughout Europe since the Dark Ages.  Hitler's intentions are clearly justifiable, given the Antisemitism that was prevalent at the time... Kind of like the hatred for the Amalekites, back in the day.

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A Christian would probably rebut this with "Hitler was just pretending to have good intentions. What Hitler wanted would not help ease the suffering of this world." "The Caananites were killed because they would have committed genocides against the Israelites. Killing the Caananite children was needed to prevent them from growing up to cause mass destruction. The destruction of the Caananites was done to save lives."

This view is not scriptural, however. The Bible doesn't say this.  It's made-up theology.

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Yes, but the Bible doesn't say that the Caananite genocide wasn't done to save the world from the evil of the Caananites. It's an argument from ignorance or "history channel logic".

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Kind of like the hatred for the Amalekites, back in the day.

     The who?

 

          mwc

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