aiki, that you actually believe that you can reliably test a woman's virginity by examining her hymen leads me to think you probably believe in spontaneous combustion theory as well.
Actually, I asked you a
question about this "test" of virginity; I didn't make any
statement about it pro or con.
The presence of a hymen usually indicates virginity; the frightening part is that the inverse is not true, and so it is impossible to prove that someone is not a virgin, or at least in the time period of the OT.
Uh huh. Generally, however, while this is not the best method of ascertaining virginity, it was, among the ways to do so at the time, likely the least unreliable. There were in the OT obviously none of the advantages of modern medicine available. You may, from your present position on the continuum of medical and scientific advancement look back and scoff at the means by which the OT Israelites tried to confirm virginity; but in doing so, you appear to expect unreasonably that the Israelites had the same benefit of modern medicine that you do and simply chose to ignore it.
So god knew very well that hymen-testing was the most common method for "testing" virginity (with all others being possibly worse), and that therefore millions of innocent girls would be getting horribly stoned to death for "crimes" they did not even commit.
THere is no historical record that indicates that
millions of girls were stoned to death as a result of God's law. In fact, I don't know of a single instance in all of OT Scripture where this particular law was enacted against a woman. And this was, at least in part, what the law was intended to do: curb sexual promiscuity and marital infidelity. It seems to have worked quite well. Perhaps if God's OT law to the Israelites was more broadly applied and enforced
today, millions of promiscuous woman would die, but the rampant sexual immorality of today did not exist when God issued His laws to Israel. In light of these things, your objection rather fizzles out.
This is still ignoring the fact that God ordered rape victims to be stoned to death if they did not cry out (lol wut?)
Because it was assumed the woman was silent because she was a willing participant in the sexual act rather than a victim of it. What woman being raped would not cry out - especially if she were being raped in a place where others would have heard her cries and come to her rescue? The woman's proximity to aid was a major consideration of the law. If calling out would not have helped her, if she were raped in some secluded place, then her not being heard to cry out did not count against her. Thus, under a law taking proximity to aid into account, a woman who was being raped somewhere her cries would have been heard had double motivation to cry out (in alarm and under the threat of the law), which, it seems to me, would have given a would-be rapist serious cause to think twice about sexually assaulting a woman (in addition to the death-penalty if he were caught). His victim would be powerfully motivated by her natural alarm
and the dire threat of the law to scream her head off, alerting everyone in the near vicinity to what he was attempting to do to her. Of course, this would mean rapists would not be looking to rape women in populated areas. And the women, obviously, would realize this, too. They would expect to encounter such evil men in more secluded areas, which you can bet the women avoided when they were alone like the plague! Thus, the law made women very prudent and circumspect with men and would-be rapists extremely put off by the difficulty and risks of trying to rape a woman.
and the total genocide of entire tribes
Which I already explained.
and the killing of homosexuals
God still judges and condemns homosexuality today. He doesn't expect us to mete out His punishment upon this sin on His behalf today, however. Instead, God reserves executing His judgment upon the wicked for Himself, which He will do when, after their death, they meet Him face-to-face.
Homosexuality was a perversion of God's intended design for sexuality in the time of OT Israel and it remains a sexual abomination in God's eyes today. You may not see a problem with homosexuality, but this doesn't necessarily make your view on it a moral one.
and people who work on sundays.
I explained this one, too.
Selah.
