Morality of God

[Peregrine]

First, I don't think religion itself is a problem. Religion and related subjects can be discussed, and often produce interesting debate, if the people involved can keep it civilized. And actually try to have a meaningful debate, not simply restate their beliefs endlessly.

 

The problem comes in when you get people like hundinman in the debate. And no, I'm not picking him because of his religion, the other christians did a much better job of debating than him. But you can't have a debate when someone consistently ignores the conditions of the debate, uses flawed logic/poor debating topics, and ignores the other side's specific arguments.

 

If you insist on banning any form of religion debates, it's your forum. But you're losing a lot of interesting discussion over the poor behavior of a minority.

 

Likewise I don't want people debating that "such and such an action (i.e. war) is right because God said it is". Its a debate killer and cannot be debated without repitition of this thread.

 

If your only reason an action is right is because it says so in the Bible, don't bother posting.

 

I agree entirely. Religion can only be used in a discussion of religion. It is absolutely impossible to bring faith-based arguments into a debate of facts and evidence.

 

 

 

As for sacrifices...God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, only to stop him just as he was going to do it to prove Abraham's absolute loyalty and faith in God. I respect that, it should not be mocked. Hundinman's answer to your hypothetical question, Peregrine, was just and understandable from any Christian who knows this story well - I don't believe its right for you to question his faith just as its not right for Hundinman to think you any less of a human for not believing in his faith. Your signature DID lead the reader into believing Hundinman was some malicious child killer and did not explain the full hypothetical situation. Its changed now, with Hundinman's permission, so lets not see a repeat.

 

I made it very clear this was a completely different situation. There would be no last-second change of mind. And I even asked again, just to be sure it was clearly understood. But he still stated that he would commit an entirely evil act as long as his God said it was the right thing to do.

 

And yes, I do have a right to question his faith. His faith tells him that even in the most extreme cases of evil, the laws of humanity and society are subordinate to the laws of his God. His faith is the exact same kind of faith that has caused the death and suffering of countless people in the name of "God". We don't accept those historical cases, why should we do the same for potential ones?

 

I didn't claim he was a malicious child killer. I stated clearly that this was a case of "If God told you to," not what he would do by independent choice. And the fact that it involved children was a distant second in importance to this simple, but extremely dangerous argument:

 

"It's not murder if God says to do it"

 

This is one of the most evil arguments humanity has ever invented, and is responsible for some of the most evil acts in our history. Anyone who honestly believes it deserves to be criticized.