Quote:
Originally Posted by WanderingKnight
Okay, let's clear something up, and pronto:
The Bible was written by men. Anyone who doubts that is instantly barred from any kind of discussion possible. Likewise, even if you are a Christian, and even if you do believe in God over every other thing in this planet, you should realize that the Bible was written a long, long time ago, for people who had a very different set of values and tools with which understand and interpret the world. Though I'm wary of thinking that the main purpose of writing the book was simply "spreading the word of God" (isn't it too much of a coincidence that the word of God is spread by those in power?), either way, it's a book that was meant to be read and understood a very long time ago.
Now, let's go back to Israelites raping women in Canaan (I believe I was the one who mentioned that in the first place). If only you used your head, even for a bit, to think in historic terms, rape is something extremely common throughout several (if not all) ancient people. Thinking that there wasn't even a single rape committed during the invasion of Canaan is, at the very best, terribly naive. But, whether God or not had "ordered" it is completely irrelevant: such acts were automatically justified by the Bible in the idea that pursuing such a war was a God-given right.
Think, people, think. This is not about denying that God exists, this is about using your damn head for a moment. You're trying to literally accept the words of a book that was written by men more than 2000 years ago! Do you realize just how much has society changed since then? How difficult it is to understand how people of that era thought?
As someone said already, how would you know none of the current wars are divinely justified? How would you know that Bush was actually right and that the invasion of Iraq (with all its civilian casualties, and all the tortured Iraqi and American soldiers) was his God-given right?
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Oh how much you presume.
At least to Christians I know, the Bible was written by prophets, leaders, and men very close to God, all who wrote it according to His inspiration. Hence it being a Holy Book. Its not a simple work of mankind. At least not to us. Whether or not you want to believe that is your choice, but your view of the Bible isn't absolute.
I'm sure there were incidents of rape among the invaders. Not all of them were as dedicated as some like to believe. The Israelites spent more time disobeying God than listening to him, but that doesn't mean they were a group of marauding vikings torturing and pillaging everything in their path as some like to think.
What does that have to do with anything? How would we know? Probably through asking God, but that's something a lot of people here wouldn't accept. A little birdie told me the war in Iraq did have higher dealings, but that's an entirely different discussion in itself. Why not stay on topic.