Sam Harris

“Is this really the “word of God” or the cruel thoughts of Bronze age warriors?

Did you know this was in the bible? If not then are you shocked? If you did know it was there then is [this] really about a healthy loving relationship or is it a case of the Stockholm syndrome?”

The article also asks if God is a criminal: http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/bill_schultz/criminal-god.html

“”... Go and smite the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead with the edge of the sword and; also the women and little ones…. every male and every woman that has lain with a male you shall utterly destroy.” (Judges 21:10-12)

“This is what the Lord says: Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass .... And Saul ... utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword.” (1 Samuel 15:3,7-8)

“The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their women with child ripped open.” (Hosea 13:16)”

I pulled out those quotes years ago in a discussion with some very Orthodox Jews. “If we found an Amelekite baby girl would you say a broucha and joyfully take your chance to obey a positive commandment or would you wimp out and let her live?”

Not one of them - and they included some real Black Hats - was ready to man up and smash its little skull.

telner - 01 December 2008 06:10 PM

I pulled out those quotes years ago in a discussion with some very Orthodox Jews. “If we found an Amelekite baby girl would you say a broucha and joyfully take your chance to obey a positive commandment or would you wimp out and let her live?”

Not one of them - and they included some real Black Hats - was ready to man up and smash its little skull.

That is exactly the response I would expect. Then the question becomes what part or parts of the Torah and Tanakh do they accept and why? Why do they accept some of the “words of god” and not others and what gives them the power to edit “god’s words”? When it comes right down to it no one seems to believe in the Torah and Tanakh. Furthermore what is practiced as “Judaism” has almost zero relation to what is in these canonized books. What we see as Judaism today is a disjointed, hodgepodge of cultural practices that developed long after the canonized scriptures were written in the 7th Century BC. Nothing wrong with that at all but why revere the Torah and Tanakh when it has basically been totally discarded. It as is if they are saying, “These are the words of god but we do not believe any of it.” OK then what do they believe and why? Pure Judaism, if it ever really existed which is doubtful, ceased to exist centuries ago. This is one of the reasons I left the religion of my youth. The “unchangeable word of god” was changed at every whim and political gust. It rapidly became evident that religion is merely a tool to control humans that has gone very wrong. To the religious I say, “I prefer the truth thanks.”