So the bible is wrong then? Because God advocates murder plenty of times.
However, you are failing to acknowledge an important point. Your bible states that anybody of a different religion (or none) is an enemy that must be destroyed. Your holy book advocates the murder of these people.
Actually, Jesus uses the example of the Samaritan, who were despised by His people, in giving the example of who is “good” in the parable He told.
It is understandable to conclude that God commands the destruction of enemies based on the OT. What Jesus does is defy xenophobia by hanging out with Romans and Samaritans and all sorts of ostracized; He defies our natural tendency to ingroup/outgroup thinking.
Yes, I will go so far to say that when it comes to genocide, of which the ancient Jews were just as capable of as any other people, they got the wrong message, it was not specifically God who commanded them to carry it out. Instead, it was their nature that commanded such, their own need to survive. They saw a resource they needed, and they took it away. Nations still do it today, do they not? Oh, except nowadays nations go raid other ones “for their own good”
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I don’t know. What difference does that make? Are you playing the No True Scotsman now?
“No True Scotsman” is not a blanket fallacy. There is such thing as Catholic in Name Only, just as there are Atheists in Name Only. Affiliation does not mean adherence. Christians are commanded to love one another, and when we do not, we are not “True Scotsmen” so to speak. To err is human. To rationalize is human. To lump one Scotsman with the rest, is human.
Wow. You have a picture of Hitler looking at a bust of Nietszche. I wonder if there are any pictures of Hitler meeting a Pope? WOW! There are loads of them!! Why would an atheist be fawning all over a pope if he was really an atheist?
And of course, it’s well known that the Vatican supported the Nazi party.
Some of this discussion is a bit superficial, but I think this article may be worth a quick look:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_and_Nazi_Germany
Excerpt:
In early 1931, the German Bishops issued an edict excommunicating all Nazi leadership and banned Catholics from membership.
This is hardly “Vatican support”. And the 1800 priests from Poland who died in Nazi concentration camps, well, don’t you suppose it is a bit insulting to imply that there was some kind of collaboration going on between the Vatican and Nazi Germany? If there was money being sent, perhaps that was more a matter of protection, and it certainly did not work.
I am gathering that you are feeling a bit of resentment toward theism. I have none for atheism, but I understand the emotional reactions in both directions. Generally speaking, I am not very fond of philosophy because our minds are so heavily influenced by our guts, and gut reactions are the core of so much argument. I understand and respect your gut reactions. The rest of what we construct, well, it is on the foundation of the gut.
I am interested in your reaction to my post #13. I know, it is not near as much fun to engage in discussion with someone who is open-minded to your posts, but there is a lot to be gained by really getting to the root cause of people’s sins. When we understand
and forgive people’s sins, including murder, we can gain a better grasp on the value of all people, which is an understanding that people like Hitler and Stalin sorely lacked.
Can you forgive “theists” for rationalizing their behaviors?
