| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"" |
| Date: |
28 Aug 2007 05:01:50 AM |
| Object: |
sin as reason for genocide |
Sin as a reason for genocide
Another approach to defending biblical genocide centers on the charge that
the Canaanites deserved it because they were sinful. Glenn Miller provides
such a rationale in a lengthy blog post titled: How could a God of Love
order the massacre/annihilation of the Canaanites?[38] Specifically,
Miller says that the Canaanites deserved the killing of their women and
children because they engaged in these activities:
* Child sacrifice
* Homosexual sex
* Incest
First, let's recall that the very notion that "sin" and sexual depravity
can justify genocide is also similar to Hitler's rationale in combating
miscegenation: "To bring about such a development is, then, nothing else
but to sin against the will of the eternal creator." [39] Hitler, it
should be observed, also wanted to eliminate homosexuality, something that
marks him again as more similar to some biblical authors (e.g. Leviticus
20:13) than he is to Darwin.
Moreover, Miller assures us that God treats everyone the same for such sins:
And God allowed no double standards. When Israel began to look like
'Canaanites', God judged them IN THE SAME WAY...and 'vomited' them from
the Land as well. This expulsion was also accompanied by the harsh
measures of warfare faced by the Canaanites.[40]
However, the Israelites were not treated the same as the Canaanites. The
Canaanites were to be completely annihilated (Deuteronomy 20:16: "you must
not let anything that breathes remain alive") not just expelled from the
land. There is no similar punishment that demands that, when a Hebrew
commits a sexual sin, all Hebrew women and children should be killed so
that nothing is left of them.
If incest is a reason for genocide, it does not appear to be so in the
case of Abraham, regarded as of the most blessed man on earth, despite the
fact that he married his half-sister (Genesis 20:12), and had multiple
sexual partners (Hagar and Sarah in Genesis 16).
Moreover, incest with a sister or a half-sister is to be punished by death
according to the Mosaic law (Leviticus 20:17), which would have applied to
Abraham, who married "the daughter of my father but not the daughter of my
mother" (Genesis 20:12).
So Miller ends up trying to convince us that a whole city, including
children, should be burned in Sodom (Genesis 19) because God did not like
certain sexual acts to be performed, but yet God blesses a man that
commits sexual acts that are explicitly prohibited in the Mosaic law. If
the objection is that the Mosaic law was not in effect at the time of
Abraham, then we should note that it was also not in effect at the time of
Sodom's demise. God is the biggest moral relativist of all in biblical
literature.
.
|
|
|
Related Articles |
|
|
