Regarding taking war captives as slaves, this was the standard practice in the ANE. Slavery in the ancient world, from the earliest known recorded evidence in Sumer to the pre-medieval Antiquity Mediterranean cultures, comprised a mixture of debt-slavery, slavery as a punishment for crime, and the enslavement of prisoners of war. In Ancient Egypt, slaves …
Regarding kidnapping (stealing a person), the Bible expressly forbids it and it is punishable by death. [Exo 21:16 KJV] 16 And he that stealeth (gānaḇ) a man, and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death. [Deu 24:7 KJV] 7 If a man be found stealing …
To avoid equivocation, we need to drill down into the forms of servitude as mentioned in the Bible. One way to break down servitude is between voluntary servitude and involuntary servitude. Voluntary servitude includes debt servitude (bondservant), where a person under debt can not pay the debt back, so they work for someone for a …
wiploc wrote: otseng wrote: Yes, to be totally consistent in a secular worldview, there can be no such thing as objective evil.In case people misunderstand me, I’m not saying that objective evil does not exist in a religious worldview. I’ve never understood this, and I’ve never gotten a theist to explain it. What does evil …
KenRU wrote: How about the utter lack of miracles? All religions claim miracles (through prayer, etc). Yet never once have we seen the laws of nature broken or suspended. I would disagree that there is a complete lack of miracles, even in modern times. I think what you are asking is why are there not …
The Parable of the Pawnbroker wiploc wrote: It was reasonable to form a lightly-held belief that, of however many chains the man might offer me, none of them would be actual gold. I think it’s prudent for a pawnbroker (or anybody actually) to have this perspective. It might not exist in the customer’s pocket, but …
Divine Insight wrote: Well, because you concede that the Bible may contain contradictions. To clarify, I was careful to use quotes in contradictions. And I also explained how some contradictions can be resolved. What’s more important for me is truth claims that are logically contradictory with each other. For example, if the Bible had said …
Artie wrote: otseng wrote: Looks like this will be a very interesting thread… Bust Nak wrote: [Replying to post 1 by wiploc]Only one thing. The continual failure for theists to demonstrate the existence of any gods, for the past 6000 years. That is enough for me to shift from weak atheism to strong atheism. This …
Looks like this will be a very interesting thread… Bust Nak wrote: [Replying to post 1 by wiploc] 3. Theists make claims that they say are justified, but the consistently fail to provide that justification. Only one thing. The continual failure for theists to demonstrate the existence of any gods, for the past 6000 years. …
Read more “Start debating in justify the belief that gods do not exist”
dangerdan wrote: ↑Tue Nov 02, 2004 11:48 pm Ok, you’re probably wondering what Santa has to do with Christianity? bear with me here…. The topic of Santa was brought up in the thread “Everyone should be agnostic?”, and with it brought some interesting topics to do with belief systems, well worthy of a new thread. …
Read more “Santa, do Christians believe in him? If not, why not.”