The Gloves are Off Now! Slavery? NO, A Thousand Times NO!
I've had enough. I am sick and tired of Christian intellectuals, from Paul Copan (my friend), to Victor Reppert and a lot lower down the totem pole to David Wood, in their attempts to say that the slavery in the American South was different than what the Bible allows, and so it should never have been used to justify it. If you want to see me hot tempered, then just raise this asinine argument. I try to get along here at DC by being respectful of Christian beliefs, but on this issue I cannot bend for one nanosecond. Don't even suggest it, as Dr. Victor Reppert just did. Here's what I wrote in response:
When it comes to the brutal slavery in the South that was justified from the Bible I have had enough. Have you ever read Frederick Douglass' life narrative? Have you?
As intelligent as you are, can you not see what it would be like to be a slave in the South, and to be told that your Christian master doesn't properly apply the Bible to his world? Can you not see what it would be like?
"Oh, my Christian master separated me and my family and beats me into submission, denying me any rights whatsoever, but the Bible is still good and true. He just misunderstands."
Wouldn't you at least be intelligent enough to ask why God did not condemn slavery in no uncertain terms, if he authored the Bible?...and say it often enough that no one could misunderstand, just like he purportedly did with murder and rape? He could have said, "Thou shalt not trade, buy, sell, or own slaves," and said it as often as needed so that we'd understand.
I just don't get you at all on this.
Nothing can exonorate your God for failing so miserably on the greatest (and easiest) moral issue in American history...nothing.
On this issue alone, you should abandon your faith. The problem is that there are so many other issues besides this that it baffles me why a thinking person like yourself claims to believe in the God of the Bible.
YOU DO NOT BELIEVE THE BIBLE, OR YOU WOULD BELIEVE ALL OF IT!
The whole attempt to justify the differences between the slavery in the Bible and in the slavery in the South just makes me sick.
Sorry, it just does not sit well, no matter what you say, with what a PERFECTLY GOOD God would do. I am better than your God, and according to you I am a miserable sinner deserving of hell (however conceived).
Again, I am better than your God, and I can prove this. I would have never allowed any human being to misunderstand that I told them slavery is a complete abomination.
So, do you really believe a perfectly good God exists? On this point a believer must indeed "sacrifice his intellect" in order to believe, as Ignatius Loyola had written.
You have sacrificed your intellect. Be gone with it then, but no longer talk to me about how reasonable your faith is. You no longer have that right.
Sorry, but on this topic I can get angry. It is complete and utter foolishness to continue believing in the face of this problem.
You might as well write your own Scriptures and tell people it's from God, or believe in Zeus, Apollo or Thor. Such a religion has the same basis once one sacrifices his or her intellect, like you have just done.
Why do smart people believe absolutely stupid things? I have an answer. They believe based on when and where they were born. Smart people are just more skilled at defending ideas they arrived at because of stupid reasons.
Sorry. But this was a camel's straw for me. It broke my back and it broke my heart. I can no longer sit by while absolute stupidity is paraded under the mask of education and intelligence. Someone has to tell the Emperor he has no clothes on.
You're naked.
[First posted 5/1/07]
When it comes to the brutal slavery in the South that was justified from the Bible I have had enough. Have you ever read Frederick Douglass' life narrative? Have you?
As intelligent as you are, can you not see what it would be like to be a slave in the South, and to be told that your Christian master doesn't properly apply the Bible to his world? Can you not see what it would be like?
"Oh, my Christian master separated me and my family and beats me into submission, denying me any rights whatsoever, but the Bible is still good and true. He just misunderstands."
Wouldn't you at least be intelligent enough to ask why God did not condemn slavery in no uncertain terms, if he authored the Bible?...and say it often enough that no one could misunderstand, just like he purportedly did with murder and rape? He could have said, "Thou shalt not trade, buy, sell, or own slaves," and said it as often as needed so that we'd understand.
I just don't get you at all on this.
Nothing can exonorate your God for failing so miserably on the greatest (and easiest) moral issue in American history...nothing.
On this issue alone, you should abandon your faith. The problem is that there are so many other issues besides this that it baffles me why a thinking person like yourself claims to believe in the God of the Bible.
YOU DO NOT BELIEVE THE BIBLE, OR YOU WOULD BELIEVE ALL OF IT!
The whole attempt to justify the differences between the slavery in the Bible and in the slavery in the South just makes me sick.
Sorry, it just does not sit well, no matter what you say, with what a PERFECTLY GOOD God would do. I am better than your God, and according to you I am a miserable sinner deserving of hell (however conceived).
Again, I am better than your God, and I can prove this. I would have never allowed any human being to misunderstand that I told them slavery is a complete abomination.
So, do you really believe a perfectly good God exists? On this point a believer must indeed "sacrifice his intellect" in order to believe, as Ignatius Loyola had written.
You have sacrificed your intellect. Be gone with it then, but no longer talk to me about how reasonable your faith is. You no longer have that right.
Sorry, but on this topic I can get angry. It is complete and utter foolishness to continue believing in the face of this problem.
You might as well write your own Scriptures and tell people it's from God, or believe in Zeus, Apollo or Thor. Such a religion has the same basis once one sacrifices his or her intellect, like you have just done.
Why do smart people believe absolutely stupid things? I have an answer. They believe based on when and where they were born. Smart people are just more skilled at defending ideas they arrived at because of stupid reasons.
Sorry. But this was a camel's straw for me. It broke my back and it broke my heart. I can no longer sit by while absolute stupidity is paraded under the mask of education and intelligence. Someone has to tell the Emperor he has no clothes on.
You're naked.
[First posted 5/1/07]