Agnosticism, Atheism, Christianity, Faith, God, Morality, Religion

Bloody Well Right

Nate

If God is love, how do we explain the Old Testament passages where he commands the Israelites to eradicate entire groups of people, even the children (Josh 9:24; Num 31; 1 Sam 15)? Sometimes people say it was to punish these people for their evil practices, like child sacrifice. Well, child sacrifice is certainly a terrible thing. But does it make sense to punish child sacrifice by killing all the children?

Let’s think about this for a moment. When cultures engaged in child sacrifice, it’s not because they just loved killing children — it’s because they believed it served as some kind of propitiation, appeasing their gods for the greater good. So if God didn’t approve of child sacrifice, what seems like the most rational way to deal with it: (1) kill everyone, including all the children you don’t want killed, or (2) make yourself known to these people as the one true god and tell them that child sacrifice is not what you want? Wouldn’t option 2 be a win-win scenario?

Here’s something else to consider. If God didn’t like child sacrifice, why did he command Abraham to offer his son Isaac as one? Granted, he stopped the sacrifice before the boy was killed, but isn’t this a weird command for a deity who despises child sacrifice? And what about Psalm 137, where the inspired writer is lamenting Babylon’s destruction of Jerusalem and says the following:

8 O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed,
     Happy the one who repays you as you have served us!
9 Happy the one who takes and dashes
     Your little ones against the rock!

Furthermore, if God wanted the Canaanites destroyed because of their heinous practices, why stop at Canaan? There were many cultures that engaged in terrible practices like this from time to time — why not send the Israelites to slaughter them all? Instead this “judgment” is only brought against people in the same geographic location that God wanted the Israelites to inhabit:

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying: 2 “Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—the children of Israel. 3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses. 4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your territory. 5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you. 6 Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.
— Josh 1:1-5

So they answered Joshua and said, “Because your servants were clearly told that the Lord your God commanded His servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you; therefore we were very much afraid for our lives because of you, and have done this thing.”
— Josh 9:24

How strange that these passages focus on taking the land from the Canaanites and not on their evil natures…

As a final consideration, even if the only thing left to do with these evil Canaanites was kill them all, does it make sense that God would choose the cruelest and most agonizing way to do it? Instead of speaking them out of existence, or immediately striking them all dead, he has them besieged by invaders. They’re forced to watch their loved ones being massacred before being hacked to death themselves. Would God really command this?

How does a god who would command genocide on this scale differ from the vilest despots of the modern era? What’s the difference between this god and bin Laden? What’s the difference between a god like this and a devil? Could a god this bloody be right?

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Published by Nate

446 thoughts on “Bloody Well Right”

  2. Ruth,

    From science we understand that it is the living who inherit their blessings or curses from past generations.

    Not surprisingly, the Bible teaches the same thing.

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  3. Silenceofmind,

    At what point in the evolution of man would he have become responsible for his actions? At what point would he have been mature enough to discern right from wrong? Was there a fall? Or was man created with the propensity to sin?

    Like

  6. Ruth,

    Just as the atheist is unable to differentiate between the just kill in self-defense or the defense of the innocent and wanton murder, the atheist is unable to differentiate between natural evil and the premeditated murder committed by man.

    As I wrote earlier, since all of life would not exist without suffering, natural evil, in the end, promotes the good.

    But evil committed by men is not natural evil since it is the result of human will.

    The atheist errs in anthropomorphizing God.

    God is God, not man. He has his own attributes and nature which are different from the attributes and nature of man.

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  7. Ruth,

    Life is necessary for evolution, not death.

    For only the living pass their seed to future generations.

    God, by annihilating evil, ensured a future of good for his people.

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  9. Ruth,

    We only know that our universe was born in cataclysm and that life is born of the same.

    The movement of tectonic plates causes a tsunami that slaughters 1000’s while on the other side of the world a healthy baby is born to a loving mother.

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  11. Silliness, RE: “We can imagine an eternal God who is beyond time and space.” – neither time nor space existed prior to the Big Bang, where was your god hanging out before that?

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  12. “You can lead a horse to water, Buana, but you cannot make it drink.” – you can lead a SOM to knowledge, but you cannot make it think.

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  14. “God was hanging out beyond time and space.” – and for just how long was he doing this?

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  15. Hizfan,

    I think the problem we have here is a communication barrier. I will leave you to your gods because I don’t understand a thing of what you write

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  17. Arch,

    I dont know why you relate the prayer with “death issue”.

    By much that you’ve said, I get the impression that you are a follower of Islam, which likely means that at least five times each day, …. …….. Think how much more time you would have, to hug your children, be with your family, just LIVE, if you didn’t feel compelled to follow what – to me – are such ridiculous rules?

    Actually, what is actually issue here?
    Prayer take about 5 minutes per times, it about 25 minutes per day. I have about 24 hours equal to 1440 minutes per day.
    It just a matter of time management and planning.
    Many human in this world were wasting time watching cinema, movies, getting drunk, smoking, getting tanned by the sun. Why don’t we banned this thing 1st?

    ridiculous rules?

    Prayer time occurs normally at early resting time and that time I can forget about my works, world, and problem. It can release my daily tension and bring peace in the heart by forgetting the world for a minutes. To sooth our heart when misery.
    It teach time discipline, daily management, enhance social community among ourselves, stretching muscle during resting, to have a STOP routine in our life after a buzy day. To keep clean our body at least 5 times a day by washing main part of “wudhu”. To keep remind ourselves by doing good every day. To remind and set our mind “To Be Success” in the world and afterlife.

    Of course, the main idea is still to remembering God and submit to Him.

    You look on the bowing action, etc. I look on overall concept of prayer. But…. the question is not related to the blog owner’s topic.

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  18. Your only access to this ‘god’ is via the fallacious text you call the Old Testament Torah, and in the case of Christians the New Testament.
    However, I am nothing if not a reasonable man and If you can demonstrate this text was directly inspired or directed by this god then I may reconsider my point of view and give your comment due respect.

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  19. Hifzan Shafiee,

    thank you for sharing a bit about what you believe,

    I agree with you that preparing to die is important, since we all cannot avoid it. Yet as you pointed out, none of us know when or where we will die, only God knows that. Every day is a gift. And I agree that life is not all about death, its about living 🙂 I believe its about loving people, and making genuine connections. I believe the most beautiful illustration of this is through Jesus Christ.

    If we can also work to make the world a better place for others in the small ways then that’s great. My conviction is that this can be done through loving God and loving people honestly. All we can do is try 🙂

    Hope your going well, and thank you again for your thoughts.

    SOM,

    I’ve noticed that your tone has changed a bit since we last spoke, its really nice to read actually, at least it seems that way to me.

    thank you for your kindness 🙂

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  22. First, how would you be aware of Yahweh if not for the Torah,and second how does one have a relationship with Yahweh if not via the doctrine of the particular church one belongs to?

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  23. ““God was hanging out beyond time and space.” – and for just how long was he doing this?’

    IN life there are rarely stupid questions but you happened to have found one. “How long” relates to the measurement of time in time

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  24. Ark,

    Christianity existed for centuries before there was a Bible.

    Christianity, the teachings of Jesus, were passed by Living Tradition, from one generation to the next.

    Remember that there was no printing press until 1500AD and before the Church published the first Bible at the end of the 4th century, there was all sorts of “Christian” literature floating around authored by God knew who.

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