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OT: Rebelious reopening of locked topic 26-Aug-2010 At 10:28:41 PM Nooj

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On 26/08/2010 harold wrote:
>Also, just to clear up your confusion,
>the extreme rules that you quote came about when there were a million or
>so Jews wandering around in circles lost in the desert for 40 years camping
>in tents. I would assume the rules had a lot to do with maintaining social
>order. Its an interesting part of history (or not to some) but really
>has no bearing on daily christian life. The author didn't change his mind,
>its not picking and choosing, that's just how the whole thing reads.

Of course, there's no evidence that a million or so Israelites (Jews as a people only came about after the Babylonian Exile) wandered around in a comparatively small desert for 40 years. No evidence at all in fact that they ever left Egypt with big flashy disasters following at their heels, no evidence at all that they were ever slaves.

Even if you accept the claim that all these things happened the way the Bible says it did, the laws about stoning adulterers to death, parents executing their own children for being lazy louts, making rapists marry their victims are all laws for a state. Not for a bunch of wandering nomads. Why would there be laws about how to treat slaves when they were wandering around in a desert with no slaves to boss around? It's anachronistic stuff. It's obvious that the rules given in the book of Exodus were written into the fabled past by writers who were taking them from their own time.

The way Israelites lived their lives 3000 years ago may not have relevance to Christians nowadays, but the fact that it was God ordering the Israelites to live their lives that way has relevance to Christianity (and Judaism, but no one here seems to be arguing against them). Because Christians claim that God is good, just and unchanging - but then you hear about God ordering the Israelites to massacre this bunch of people and that bunch of people, and you start to realise what a gigantic wanker he is.