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Is Slavery Moral?

devolved

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And then it goes on to state explicitly that such treatment is not allowed of israelites. It says explicitly that you shall not rule over israelites ruthlessly - implying that it is perfectly okay to do so with non-israelites.

As with any country, there's a preferential treatment of the citizens. That's true with our country today.

What you have not demonstrated is that all of the contextual laws (about buying back your freedom, fair treatment, etc) do not apply to servants bought from outside of the 12 tribes who this agreement is intended for (there were no nations as you would think of these today).
 
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DogmaHunter

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It only says that if you are applying a generic modernized translation that makes that distinction. A word for word literal translation doesn't.

39 `And when thy brother becometh poor with thee, and he hath been sold to thee, thou dost not lay on him servile service;

40 as an hireling, as a settler, he is with thee, till the year of the jubilee he doth serve with thee, --

41 then he hath gone out from thee, he and his sons with him, and hath turned back unto his family; even unto the possession of his fathers he doth turn back.

42 `For they [are] My servants, whom I have brought out from the land of Egypt: they are not sold [with] the sale of a servant;

43 thou rulest not over him with rigour, and thou hast been afraid of thy God.

44 `And thy man-servant and thy handmaid whom thou hast [are] of the nations who [are] round about you; of them ye buy man-servant and handmaid,

45 and also of the sons of the settlers who are sojourning with you, of them ye buy, and of their families who [are] with you, which they have begotten in your land, and they have been to you for a possession;

46 and ye have taken them for inheritance to your sons after you, to occupy [for] a possession; to the age ye lay service upon them, but upon your brethren, the sons of Israel, one with another, thou dost not rule over him with rigour.

These old english verses, are saying the exact same thing.
That being: don't treat your israelite brothers as slaves. Non-israelites are free game.

It literally makes a distinction between an israelite servant (who is the be treated as a worker or 'hireling') and a non-israelite servant (who can be treated as property / 'a possession' you can trade and pass on to off spring).

It even explicitly adds a "but..." in 46 which comes down to "you can treat non-israelite slaves like this but upon your brethren the sons of israel thou dost NOT rule over him with rigour".

You do know what the word "but" means, right?
 
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DogmaHunter

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As with any country, there's a preferential treatment of the citizens. That's true with our country today.

LOL!!!

Ow my…. it is insane to see the lengths you are willing to go to, to defend the obvious….

No, I cannot treat foreigners any worse then I can treat my fellow citizens in my country. Neither can you.

Good grief....

What you have not demonstrated is that all of the contextual laws (about buying back your freedom, fair treatment, etc) do not apply to servants bought from outside of the 12 tribes who this agreement is intended for (there were no nations as you would think of these today).

Do you know what the words "permanent" and "for life" means?
 
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Dorothy Mae

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Ow yes, because putting down a law that says "do not treat human beings as products that can be sold/bought/inherited", is so tyranical…
Exactly what does that mean in terms of law. How is the this measured? Does your country have laws that say something like this? I assume there are no slaves there so is the law of the land "do not treat humans beings as products" and how does not establish that someone has done this exactly? If you use them like things to get what you want, does that quality as violating the above law?
Yes yes, that is what tyrants do: establish some laws concerning basic human rights to make sure humans are treated with a minimum of dignity and respect. Uhu.
Do you think Sadam Hussain was a tyrant? Do you know that the Christians begged Bush not to invade because Hussain would not let the Muslims slaughter the Christians? That is right. He protected them as Christians. I can think of more tyrants in history who protected some people from injustice.
If he can tell you not to eat shrimp, he can certainly tell you not to treat people as property.
This is probably not going to go well if you do not see the difference between measurable laws and vague "be nice" laws. Seems like you just want to accuse God of evil as well. Understanding the matter does not seem to be of interest. You are not alone.

But I have to thrown in that that society, Israel, did not murder their babies and call it "rights of a woman to do to her offspring whatever she likes." Slaves were allowed to live and have children and a partner and were fed. The unborn in most western countries are treated like..............................products one can keep or throw away.
 
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Dorothy Mae

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What part of, "I don't blame the god you believe in for anything, and I don't accuse it of being evil" are you having difficulty understanding? I've already stated that any atrocities recorded in the bible, if they actuall y happened, were the actions of men and men alone. Me blaming some god I don't believe in would make as much sense as me blaming Santa Claus.
Do you write posts of the immoral connections of Santa Claus? Do you write about Santa Claus at all? If not, that santa clause is not the same category as God. Him your write about. Why?

And just so you know, if you write about God and use insulting words, words that would be insulting if someone said that of you, know that believing He is not there and not listening will not be an excuse. Same as if employees thought the boss was on vacation and talked very badly about him only to find that he was listening because his vacation was posphoned and he had business in the adjecent room would not be able to say, "we thought you weren't there."
I am not changing the meaning of anything, I am simply stating what the bible says. I am not changing what it says.
When you extract bits to present the picture you want changing what was actually said, it is called editing and changing the meaning.
Anyway, when the bible talks about the slaughter of a nation's, men women and children sparing no one, I understand what that means. It's called genocide, although you still haven't said what you call it.
When it talks about slavery I know what it means no matter what spin you put on it to the contrary.
You have no interests in the circumstances. You just want to accuse God of evil. It is like if I wrote, "A man stood over the frightened woman with the sharpest knife in the room" and you cried "cruel and evil man" only to have edited out the fact that he was a surgeon about to save her life.
So you see, I don't have difficulty understanding certain things in the bible. There are things in the bible I don't understand, but that is when it is not dealing with reality, but slavery and genocide I certainly do understand. I understand both are totally wrong.
OK, Par5, I give up. You WANT to believe God is evil and no one will convince you otherwise. You will certainly understand less of the Bible than most. "Whoever has not, what he has will be taken away." You will need to find someone else to express your hatred for God. I tried and you do not want to be corrected on matters that are relatively easy to understand.
 
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Allandavid

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I didn't. See the post above. Again, this is another case of projecting your present understanding on sociology and legal systems of the past.

1) The immediate context of "Foreign slaves" is not .... drive over to Mexico and buy some slaves off the market.

There were no clearly defined national borders. Countries and regions were defined by territorial allegiances between tribal entities that were comprised of family clans.

When these laws were outlined in context of Exodus, the context is "doing business" with surrounding tribes.

Business relationships in the past revolved around:

1) Trading goods, and animals
2) Trading workforce
3) Securing relationships through marriages

The entirety of Exodus 25 deals with guidelines for business relationships internally and externally.

For example....

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.

What do you think the above means? :) You just buy a random person walking on the street?

I grew up in Turkmenistan, where locals still save up $50,000 as a dowry payment for a wife for their son. Would that be an example of sex slave trading?

Understand the context of the culture first, and then we can have some nuanced conversation. Otherwise you are merely triggered by your own projections on the subject matter.

I understand the culture quite well, as described in the scriptures. You have Hebrews, writing on behalf of Hebrews, about the manner in which their society is to be organised.

And, surprise, surprise, they write in a series of rules and laws that portray themselves as the most important and significant people in that region. They consider their “brothers” to be culturally superior, in that they may not be enslaved, but consider foreigners to be ‘fair game’ in that regard.

Now, you would claim, as they do, that they are writing on behalf of a god....that they are fulfilling that god’s wishes. I simply see a group of people furthering their own self-interests...
 
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According to the Bible, the God of the holy Old Testament and New Testament seem to condone slavery (a few samples below):

OT: Exodus 21, Leviticus 25:46
NT: Luke 12:47, and Luke 17:7-10, John 13:16, Ephesians 6:5, 1 Timothy 6:1-2

Does this mean slavery is moral?

Thank you in advance for the response(s).

I think a case can be made that "slavery" can be for "good" purposes or for "evil" purposes. Consider all the different ways that people willfully enslave themselves, healthy or not. For example:

What is alcohol for the alcoholic?
What is a "booty call" for the sex addict?
What is a continue or save feature for the gaming addict?
What is social media for the social media addict?
What is power to the pride addict?
What is achievement to the ego addict?

What is welfare for the poor?
What is a low paying job for people living in poverty?

Slavery comes in many forms and some forms are beneficial, while other forms are means of control and suppression. Some forms are self-induced, other forms are forced by others through society, laws, systems, or individuals.

It seems to me, that "slavery" is subjective to many variables, and cannot be said to be "moral" or "immoral" at face value. Consideration have to be made. Perhaps the notions of "slavery" to sin are as offensive to non-believing ears as the notion of being a "slave" to Christ is, but no man can serve two masters, and when considering entire societies composed of slaves to sin and slaves to Christ, the "morality" between the two, and other variables will dictate the nature of that slavery. It is necessary to make distinctions between laws applied to a secular society, and the law of the Spirit of life. So in summary, slavery has never gone away, only the appearance of it in certain areas of the world. One of the most obvious evil forms I hear about today is in illegal human trafficking, and it is done outside of the public eye. But if all morality is relegated to subjectivism, and we're but highly evolved animals, is disagreement with a slave owner meaningful? So their senses of morality differ with yours, ok, and?
 
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Allandavid

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I think a case can be made that "slavery" can be for "good" purposes or for "evil" purposes. Consider all the different ways that people willfully enslave themselves, healthy or not. For example:

What is alcohol for the alcoholic?
What is a "booty call" for the sex addict?
What is a continue or save feature for the gaming addict?
What is social media for the social media addict?
What is power to the pride addict?
What is achievement to the ego addict?

What is welfare for the poor?
What is a low paying job for people living in poverty?

Slavery comes in many forms and some forms are beneficial, while other forms are means of control and suppression. Some forms are self-induced, other forms are forced by others through society, laws, systems, or individuals.

It seems to me, that "slavery" is subjective to many variables, and cannot be said to be "moral" or "immoral" at face value. Consideration have to be made. Perhaps the notions of "slavery" to sin are as offensive to non-believing ears as the notion of being a "slave" to Christ is, but no man can serve two masters, and when considering entire societies composed of slaves to sin and slaves to Christ, the "morality" between the two, and other variables will dictate the nature of that slavery. It is necessary to make distinctions between laws applied to a secular society, and the law of the Spirit of life. So in summary, slavery has never gone away, only the appearance of it in certain areas of the world. One of the most obvious evil forms I hear about today is in illegal human trafficking, and it is done outside of the public eye. But if all morality is relegated to subjectivism, and we're but highly evolved animals, is disagreement with a slave owner meaningful? So their senses of morality differ with yours, ok, and?

This is such a weak response...and it’s not as though it’s original either...

Slavery involves the ownership of another human being as your property...! It is not you choosing to be a gambler or a drug addict...it is someone else taking ownership of your freedom and your life, whether you have agreed to that ownership or not.

Let’s try to be a little intellectually honest here...
 
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devolved

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And, surprise, surprise, they write in a series of rules and laws that portray themselves as the most important and significant people in that region. They consider their “brothers” to be culturally superior, in that they may not be enslaved, but consider foreigners to be ‘fair game’ in that regard.

Yes. It makes total sense. Especially when their entire written history is that of being slaves themselves, and then continual disappointment and disobedient to the principles they've ascribed to keep. :)
 
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This is such a weak response...and it’s not as though it’s original either...

Slavery involves the ownership of another human being as your property...! It is not you choosing to be a gambler or a drug addict...it is someone else taking ownership of your freedom and your life, whether you have agreed to that ownership or not.

Let’s try to be a little intellectually honest here...

Wow, the scholarship and intellectual vigor in your response is overwhelming...not. Maybe next time allow the OP to respond, he appears to be a notch above you in those regards, just saying'. That you cannot or will not allow for other forms of slavery is telling in more ways than one. It's also comical the objectivism assumed in your response. Do tell me about intellectual honesty, please do tell.
 
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devolved

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LOL!!!

Ow my…. it is insane to see the lengths you are willing to go to, to defend the obvious….

No, I cannot treat foreigners any worse then I can treat my fellow citizens in my country. Neither can you.

Good grief....


You personally may not (which I highly doubt), but we still are still living in context of the national identities and localized cultural preferences... And if you don't think that there's subliminal sense of "we are #1" in this country (assuming you are from the US)... then I'm not the one going to great lengths.

I know you would like to believe that we don't prioritize everything American in the world... But we do. I'm a naturalized citizen, and I personally had to claw myself into this society through various legal hoops exist to keep people out.

For example, I came on H1b, and legal restrictions capped my salary for nearly 7 years, where my American-equivalent workers were make 2-3x with no chance for a raise for me.

I'm not event talking about my parents were denied entry for my wedding here, when no American needs to jump through the same hoops to come and visit my former home country. So, I'm not quite sure what you have in mind when you are talking about no preferential treatment? Do you mean you say hi to everyone the same way :)

Of course there's preferential treatment, even within isolated sub-cultures. Humans are tribal by default.

Do you know what the words "permanent" and "for life" means?

Yes. In Hebrew literature these usually mean an indefinite period of time. These don't mean "hopelessly forever, without exceptions".

Again... you continually shift the context of our modern convenience-driven freedom on a society where most people live comparatively on less than $1 a day. I keep pointing that out and you keep implying that simply pointing out that people SHOULD NOT OWN other people would make a difference, or even make sense as a moral proclamation in that context. Yes, and people should brush their teeth, but that was not the cultural priority of the day when it comes to basic tribal survival.
 
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dmmesdale

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Morelity is for all intents and porposes about opinion.
So why is your opinion any more valid than that of the local panhandler's opinion?

If you don't like it, there's the door. Maybe there is a different planet where things are to your liking?
I don't need your permission so there is no sense getting snotty. We both agree your contempt for slavery in the Bible is nothing more than your opinion. Opinion of a bible illiterate bible despiser.
 
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dmmesdale

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They had plenty of reason for slavery in their time. What you do not have is any reason to impose judgement against them since reason is amoral. They can reasonably build hospitals or concentration camps.
 
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cvanwey

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I think a case can be made that "slavery" can be for "good" purposes or for "evil" purposes. Consider all the different ways that people willfully enslave themselves, healthy or not. For example:

What is alcohol for the alcoholic?
What is a "booty call" for the sex addict?
What is a continue or save feature for the gaming addict?
What is social media for the social media addict?
What is power to the pride addict?
What is achievement to the ego addict?

What is welfare for the poor?
What is a low paying job for people living in poverty?

Slavery comes in many forms and some forms are beneficial, while other forms are means of control and suppression. Some forms are self-induced, other forms are forced by others through society, laws, systems, or individuals.

It seems to me, that "slavery" is subjective to many variables, and cannot be said to be "moral" or "immoral" at face value. Consideration have to be made. Perhaps the notions of "slavery" to sin are as offensive to non-believing ears as the notion of being a "slave" to Christ is, but no man can serve two masters, and when considering entire societies composed of slaves to sin and slaves to Christ, the "morality" between the two, and other variables will dictate the nature of that slavery. It is necessary to make distinctions between laws applied to a secular society, and the law of the Spirit of life. So in summary, slavery has never gone away, only the appearance of it in certain areas of the world. One of the most obvious evil forms I hear about today is in illegal human trafficking, and it is done outside of the public eye. But if all morality is relegated to subjectivism, and we're but highly evolved animals, is disagreement with a slave owner meaningful? So their senses of morality differ with yours, ok, and?

When I read such Bible passages, it seems fairly apparent it was written by humans, with no actual divine inspiration. It seems the Bible was written, in a time where such dictates benefited the many whom asserted these laws. It may have also been slightly more 'acceptable' 'morally' to the many whom followed such acts. The Bible also seems to over generalize some laws and dictates. 1) Apologists later appear to over analyze them, 2) place deeper meaning into them, 3) or maybe spin the verses to align more with their own acceptable moral compass, or also, 4) because they internally know these verses appear 'jacked up', and yet are trying to rationalize them.

At the end of the day, I view the Bible as a man written book, written in a time when slavery, misogyny, anti-homosexuality, etc.. was the 'moral norms' of the day. It's fairly safe to say, if the Bible was produced within a few decades from today, and was also generated from American culture, I'm willing to bet many of the stuff all of us are debating about, would never have even been written and placed within it in the first place.

My point, for this thread, was to demonstrate how morals are subjective; subjective to the time in which they were written. Meaning, if something is truly right - it never changes. If it ever changes, it was merely subjective to the time, place, and culture. Truth does not change.

I see no elaborate circumstances from the Bible. It appears to be laws, which are to transcend time and be okay until the end of the earth. The people who wrote the Bible wrote stuff in there, in which they thought would be objective truth forever.

I see NO logical or rational reason to abide by many of these stated slavery verses; especially here in America. This makes it subjective to the time or era. The Bible does not appear to do a 'good' job distinguishing what is acceptable or unacceptable. Apologists later provide many ad hock conclusions, reasons, or 'justifications'.

I have read many rationalizations for slavery. When I read these rationalizations from apologists, at least for me, seem to always fall in line with one of the (4)reasons I stated above.

The people who wrote the Bible asserted to advocate, allow, condoned, regulate, or whatever term one feels okay with using, for slavery.

If the "word' was God's chosen method for objective moral dictates, and million/billions can read the same words, and either reject them, create 1000's of differing denominations (all claiming ethnocentrism), or try to place their own injected deeper meaning into such black and white verses, what does this actually say about the claimed or stated God?

The Muslims do the exact same thing with their claimed holy text as well.

In conclusion, I assert that the Bible was written by humans, with no God help. Therefore, it is very easy to see why the Bible appears to represent some very 'jacked up' stuff, in which many apologists attempt to justify today.

Peace!
 
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devolved

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I understand the culture quite well, as described in the scriptures. You have Hebrews, writing on behalf of Hebrews, about the manner in which their society is to be organised.

Actually, it's a bit different than that. It's Hebrews writing on behalf of certain preferential view of morality that traces its lineage through certain religious philosophical baselines.

I take a more pragmatic and Existentialism view of this, but when we look at some claim like "God commanded us to do X", we typically can't evaluate whether God really commanded something to someone. What we can evaluate is how such view would work among other views of the day.

Thus, my criticism of your view wouldn't be as much that you are doing exactly the same thing, just using your own subjective preferences of "writing on behalf of your people" as a platform for why your views are the best.

My criticism would be based on the irony that these Hebrew-Roman-Christian views are foundational to Western societies that we've had today, thus you can't have what you have today without those foundations, no matter how horrific you think these were to begin with.

And, surprise, surprise, they write in a series of rules and laws that portray themselves as the most important and significant people in that region. They consider their “brothers” to be culturally superior, in that they may not be enslaved, but consider foreigners to be ‘fair game’ in that regard.

Not quite. If you think so, then you clearly did not read the OT in its entirety. With a few exceptions, it takes a negative view of Hebrew culture, and attributes its failures to the fact that these people continually failed to adhere to the moral ideals that they collectively aspired to.

The context of the OT is "We were given these ideals, but we screwed up and here's the history of consequences"


Now, you would claim, as they do, that they are writing on behalf of a god....that they are fulfilling that god’s wishes. I simply see a group of people furthering their own self-interests...

Not quite. I've already addressed that. Quite the opposite. The history of OT is Hebrews continually failing to fulfill prerequisites of their morality, hence the nation ceased to exist.
 
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When I read such Bible passages, it seems fairly apparent it was written by humans, with no actual divine inspiration. It seems the Bible was written, in a time where such dictates benefited the many whom asserted these laws. It may have also been slightly more 'acceptable' 'morally' to the many whom followed such acts. The Bible also seems to over generalize some laws and dictates. 1) Apologists later appear to over analyze them, 2) place deeper meaning into them, 3) or maybe spin the verses to align more with their own acceptable moral compass, or also, 4) because they internally know these verses appear 'jacked up', and yet are trying to rationalize them.

At the end of the day, I view the Bible as a man written book, written in a time when slavery, misogyny, anti-homosexuality, etc.. was the 'moral norms' of the day. It's fairly safe to say, if the Bible was produced within a few decades from today, and was also generated from American culture, I'm willing to bet many of the stuff all of us are debating about, would never have even been written and placed within it in the first place.

My point, for this thread, was to demonstrate how morals are subjective; subjective to the time in which they were written. Meaning, if something is truly right - it never changes. If it ever changes, it was merely subjective to the time, place, and culture. Truth does not change.

I see no elaborate circumstances from the Bible. It appears to be laws, which are to transcend time and be okay until the end of the earth. The people who wrote the Bible wrote stuff in there, in which they thought would be objective truth forever.

I see NO logical or rational reason to abide by many of these stated slavery verses; especially here in America. This makes it subjective to the time or era. The Bible does not appear to do a 'good' job distinguishing what is acceptable or unacceptable. Apologists later provide many ad hock conclusions, reasons, or 'justifications'.

I have read many rationalizations for slavery. When I read these rationalizations from apologists, at least for me, seem to always fall in line with one of the (4)reasons I stated above.

The people who wrote the Bible asserted to advocate, allow, condoned, regulate, or whatever term one feels okay with using, for slavery.

If the "word' was God's chosen method for objective moral dictates, and million/billions can read the same words, and either reject them, create 1000's of differing denominations (all claiming ethnocentrism), or try to place their own injected deeper meaning into such black and white verses, what does this actually say about the claimed or stated God?

The Muslims do the exact same thing with their claimed holy text as well.

In conclusion, I assert that the Bible was written by humans, with no God help. Therefore, it is very easy to see why the Bible appears to represent some very 'jacked up' stuff, in which many apologists attempt to justify today.

Peace!

In my opinion you just spewed a great deal of uninspired unoriginal wrong minded opinions which missed responding to my post at nearly every point, leading me to think your response is a copy/paste canned response, hoping to tie me up for hours on end with subject matter I did not enter this discussion to discuss the inspiration of Scripture. Quoting a few cherry picked passages of Scripture and considering the notions therein of slavery as evil without even an objective basis to do so, is not sincere, if you are truly the subjectivist you claim to be, neither is it true to the epistemological uncertainty of skepticism.
 
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cvanwey

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In my opinion you just spewed a great deal of uninspired unoriginal wrong minded opinions which missed responding to my post at nearly every point, leading me to think your response is a copy/paste canned response, hoping to tie me up for hours on end with subject matter I did not enter this discussion to discuss the inspiration of Scripture. Quoting a few cherry picked passages of Scripture and considering the notions therein of slavery as evil without even an objective basis to do so, is not sincere, if you are truly the subjectivist you claim to be, neither is it true to the epistemological uncertainty of skepticism.

Thanks for the ad hominem attack. If you choose not to respond in a dignified manor, then that is fine. This is my own personal and honest assessment from the many answers read in this thread. Yours seem no different. Sorry.

So please carry on... It's fair to say that the many observations I expressed in post #355, will further align with post #355, as I read them moving forward.

Thnx
 
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devolved

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When I read such Bible passages, it seems fairly apparent it was written by humans, with no actual divine inspiration. It seems the Bible was written, in a time where such dictates benefited the many whom asserted these laws. It may have also been slightly more 'acceptable' 'morally' to the many whom followed such acts.

I think you'd first need to elaborate on what you would perceive as "divine inspiration" before you can make that claim.

I take an Existentialism viewpoint, and at any turn of history, the morality that we have IS a human consensus. There is no other way around it in terms of how we perceive it to be. But mere consensus is NOT ENOUGH to serve as a moral grounds for anything, because we are talking about moral pluralism, in which case there is no common ground for including minority opinion.

On top of that, in your case, you seem to ignore the continuum of development as to how you got where you are in the first place. You seem to be critiquing these issues from some vacuous elevated position of "present day morality" as though you've arrived there apart from any foundational development that took place over several millennia that you merely inherit.

If you can demonstrate that we got here apart from the Judeo-Greko-Roman-Christian moral foundation we have... you'd have a point.

The Bible also seems to over generalize some laws and dictates. 1) Apologists later appear to over analyze them, 2) place deeper meaning into them, 3) or maybe spin the verses to align more with their own acceptable moral compass, or also, 4) because they internally know these verses appear 'jacked up', and yet are trying to rationalize them.

Biblical laws, especially in OT ARE defined as contextual nuanced principles that define a legal system of a nation in context of whatever environment such nation existed.

The environment of the day was harsh, and you simply can't apply our modern-day "abundance-driven morality" to their day where such abundance was lacking. There would be different moral context if you had unlimited supply of water, as opposed to you have only enough water to sustain X number of people.

It's a much more nuanced reality, where moral dilemmas are not some hypothetical concept, but something that people would face daily. In such, what's "jacked up" is the environment that these people are against and have to claw and band together to survive. In such, the context of morality is quite different.

At the end of the day, I view the Bible as a man written book, written in a time when slavery, misogyny, anti-homosexuality, etc.. was the 'moral norms' of the day. It's fairly safe to say, if the Bible was produced within a few decades from today, and was also generated from American culture, I'm willing to bet many of the stuff all of us are debating about, would never have even been written and placed within it in the first place.

Of course. :) There's no question about it, but if America would be reduced to apocalyptic wasteland due to some event... then all of the "American morality" would be largely irrelevant to the context in which it existed in. It would be much more nuanced and unpredictable reality filled with moral dilemmas that constantly conflict moral ideals.

My grandmother survived Stalinist Holodomor, and she was telling horror stories about people who fed their dead children to their surviving children. Thus, you have little clue of what some people have to go through when it comes to picking one moral ideal over other.

My point, for this thread, was to demonstrate how morals are subjective; subjective to the time in which they were written. Meaning, if something is truly right - it never changes. If it ever changes, it was merely subjective to the time, place, and culture. Truth does not change.

I would not say that morals are "subjective" as much that morals are contextual. These describe ideal paradigm of behavior based on context that such behavior exist in.

For example, a person would be considered a nutcase if they would all of a sudden began acting like a rock-star in the middle of ... let's say a funeral. If they are on a stage at a concert, then the context is more fitting.

Thus morality can be absolute in certain contextual setting of that absolute.

Likewise, morality and knowledge are not separate concepts. Morality is a subset of what we would consider knowledge, and it exists as a network of interrelated behavioral concepts. What we would describe as "morality", would be a subset of contextual concepts and principles that we consider to be of utmost importance for our survival.

Hence, you are confusing objectively best possible scenario given ALL KNOWN possibilities, and "best possible" contextual behavior in a scope of SOME known possibilities.

Likewise, there's some pragmatic concepts to consider like, what is morality for? The obvious answer would be to serve and direct our behavior in such a way that ensures our survival and flourishing.

Back to the example of my grandmother. Would it be immoral to feed your dead children to your other children? Well... nominally it would trigger an SJW Earthquake if that would happened in American culture today. But if you move context of a desperate mother trying to get her children through a winter where all of her food was taken away... it's a different context. It's a context horrors of which few people can possibly imagine.

Hence, there are nuances to consider that are not immediately obvious.
 
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cvanwey

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I think you'd first need to elaborate on what you would perceive as "divine inspiration" before you can make that claim.

I take an Existentialism viewpoint, and at any turn of history, the morality that we have IS a human consensus. There is no other way around it in terms of how we perceive it to be. But mere consensus is NOT ENOUGH to serve as a moral grounds for anything, because we are talking about moral pluralism, in which case there is no common ground for including minority opinion.

On top of that, in your case, you seem to ignore the continuum of development as to how you got where you are in the first place. You seem to be critiquing these issues from some vacuous elevated position of "present day morality" as though you've arrived there apart from any foundational development that took place over several millennia that you merely inherit.

If you can demonstrate that we got here apart from the Judeo-Greko-Roman-Christian moral foundation we have... you'd have a point.



Biblical laws, especially in OT ARE defined as contextual nuanced principles that define a legal system of a nation in context of whatever environment such nation existed.

The environment of the day was harsh, and you simply can't apply our modern-day "abundance-driven morality" to their day where such abundance was lacking. There would be different moral context if you had unlimited supply of water, as opposed to you have only enough water to sustain X number of people.

It's a much more nuanced reality, where moral dilemmas are not some hypothetical concept, but something that people would face daily. In such, what's "jacked up" is the environment that these people are against and have to claw and band together to survive. In such, the context of morality is quite different.



Of course. :) There's no question about it, but if America would be reduced to apocalyptic wasteland due to some event... then all of the "American morality" would be largely irrelevant to the context in which it existed in. It would be much more nuanced and unpredictable reality filled with moral dilemmas that constantly conflict moral ideals.

My grandmother survived Stalinist Holodomor, and she was telling horror stories about people who fed their dead children to their surviving children. Thus, you have little clue of what some people have to go through when it comes to picking one moral ideal over other.



I would not say that morals are "subjective" as much that morals are contextual. These describe ideal paradigm of behavior based on context that such behavior exist in.

For example, a person would be considered a nutcase if they would all of a sudden began acting like a rock-star in the middle of ... let's say a funeral. If they are on a stage at a concert, then the context is more fitting.

Thus morality can be absolute in certain contextual setting of that absolute.

Likewise, morality and knowledge are not separate concepts. Morality is a subset of what we would consider knowledge, and it exists as a network of interrelated behavioral concepts. What we would describe as "morality", would be a subset of contextual concepts and principles that we consider to be of utmost importance for our survival.

Hence, you are confusing objectively best possible scenario given ALL KNOWN possibilities, and "best possible" contextual behavior in a scope of SOME known possibilities.

Likewise, there's some pragmatic concepts to consider like, what is morality for? The obvious answer would be to serve and direct our behavior in such a way that ensures our survival and flourishing.

Back to the example of my grandmother. Would it be immoral to feed your dead children to your other children? Well... nominally it would trigger an SJW Earthquake if that would happened in American culture today. But if you move context of a desperate mother trying to get her children through a winter where all of her food was taken away... it's a different context. It's a context horrors of which few people can possibly imagine.

Hence, there are nuances to consider that are not immediately obvious.

All morals are subjective, unless you can demonstrate PROOF that not only God exists, but that God's dictates are actually objective. So as I stated, this is my own honest and personal assessment. I felt I was pretty clear... I claim no self identified hierarchy or self righteous moral superiority. I know this is just my 2 cents... :)

My request is very simple though.... Demonstrate the Bible was given, inspired by, dictated by, or other, by God. If you cannot, then you are merely attempting to justify the subjective opinions of books written long ago, and claiming objectivity.

Thank you
 
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