The Bible is an immoral bit of utter crap.

This is wrong on several points..." Someone saying that something is not moral does not make it not moral. "The Bible commands genocide, slavery, and rape..." The entire story of the Bible may not be our basis, but God has occasionally changed his laws. However, the Ten Commandments are. Additionally, Christianity was based on Biblical views, and the American government was based on Christian views. According to "The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Bible," "Biblical laws paved the way for democracy and political government," and "The Bible promotes human freedom." http://www.humanevents.com... "We are told to kill..." Those were the instructions for groups of people in the Old Testament. Things changed in the New Testament. None of your arguments come from there. "The book itself is a wonderful refutation from a Biblical standpoint that the absolutely immoral practice of slavery is very much supported by the Bible." There is a difference between "was" and "is". "Let's not forget DATCMOTO's points either... Thought crimes, rape, murder, slavery, genocide, and you have the audacity to suggest this is the core of our morality? That's what's actually offensive." Anger is not murder. How do you put together such a connection? That is not the part that we base our morals on. The Ten Commandments are the actual basis. "As for your definitions, I'm fine with most of them, but from context it's clear that I wasn't literally calling the bible feces. I was saying it was "'utter crap', to suggest that this is akin to saying it is extreme feces is wrong. It's worthless and immoral. It causes more harm than good and is immoral and suggests we conduct immoral behaviors. I didn't mean literally feces: it's paper, just paper, with horrible things written on it." Such a definition should have been mentioned in the first round, not the second. You don't really back up your "worthless" argument very well. At the very least, the Bible is paper and ink, which isn't worthless. Additionally, the book was where we got the Ten Commandments, and our current, successful democratic government. "I'll gladly concede to being blasphemy. It's a victimless crime. Religions can revere whatever they want. It doesn't suggest for a moment that those things are worthy of more respect. Speaking the truth should not be objectionable. The Bible is an immoral bit of utter crap. It condones atrocities, thought crimes, murder, hate, bigotry, and what little nuggets of wisdom are to be found buried in places are almost always unoriginal and taken from older religious traditions. I'm sure you could cite, do not kill and do not steal, as a moral backbone of the Bible (which suggests running into towns, killing the people and stealing their stuff) but those rules are found in every semicoherent set of laws from Hammerapi to 'ask some kid to make up rules to live by'." You concede that the Bible has a moral backbone, which means that it is not immoral. The Bible is part history, part morals, and the history is the part that is filled with what we now consider immoral actions. The moral parts, found mostly in Proverbs, are very moral. "These are the proverbs of Solomon, David's son, king of Israel. Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline, to help them understand the insights of the wise. Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives, to help them do what is right, just, and fair. These proverbs will give insight to the simple, knowledge and discernment to the young. Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser. Let those with understanding receive guidance by exploring the meaning in these proverbs and parables, the words of the wise and their riddles. Fear of the lord is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline." Proverbs 1.1-7 "The Lord detests the use of dishonest scales, but he delights in accurate weights. Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. Honesty guides good people; dishonesty destroys treacherous people. Riches won't help on the day of judgement, but right living can save you from death. The godly are directed by honesty; the wicked fall beneath their load of sin. The godliness of good people rescues them; the ambition of treacherous people traps them. When the wicked die, their hopes die with them, for they rely on their own feeble strength. The godly are rescued from trouble, and it falls on the wicked instead. With their words, the godless destroy their friends, but knowledge will rescue the righteous. The whole city celebrates when the godly succeed; they should for joy when the wicked die. Upright citizens are good for a city and make it prosper, but the talk of the wicked tears it apart. It is foolish to belittle one's neighbor; a sensible person keeps quiet." Proverbs 11.1-12 Those sound like very good morals to follow, in addition to many, many more. "You are not your religion. Why do you not feel displeasure and resentment when I insult your politics, or your opinion on the state of the economy? Why does your religion allow for offense? Further, why should saying true things about it be offensive. Supporting justifications for thought-crimes is absolutely immoral. While I understand that you are entitled to having paroxysmal responses to telling you the truth, your offense does not make something offensive in any proper understanding of the word. I am offended that you suggest the Bible is the source of morality for anybody today. If people followed the Bible as a moral guide, the world would be a reprehensible place of barbaric forms of injustice and the petty bigotry of small minds." I would feel displeasure and resentment if you called capitalism a failure, but the current economic state does not draw much of my attention. Religion is very important to many people, and offending it is, well, offensive. Also, whether your statements are true or not is very much controversial, and I disagree. Also, even the truth can be offensive. If I call someone fat, it can offend them, even (no, especially) if they weigh 1,000 pounds. "While I understand that you are entitled to having paroxysmal responses to telling you the truth, your offense does not make something offensive in any proper understanding of the word." It caused discomfort and resentment in me and many others, as you can see in some of the first Comments, so it fits the definition for the word "offensive." "I am offended that you suggest the Bible is the source of morality for anybody today. If people followed the Bible as a moral guide, the world would be a reprehensible place of barbaric forms of injustice and the petty bigotry of small minds." You think Proverbs are bad? You think the Ten Commandments are bad? Those are the parts of the Bible that are used as morals in the modern world, and the rest is quite literally history. We used Proverbs for our morals, and thus, we are a democracy. Israel wasn't barbaric, because times had changed since the beginning of the Old Testament. Thus, "Old." "The fact that the Bible supports, rape, murder, slavery, genocide, thought crimes, and hate doesn't mean that those things are moral. Rather those are all arguments which say that the Bible is an immoral bit of utter crap!" Say, you misquoted most everything you said from the Bible. That was not the Bible talking; that was God's instructions to a group of Israelites in the past. He was commanding them, in those times; there is nothing to suggest that God was laying it out as a law for the future! I say, don't misquote the Bible! You need an extra set of apostrophes to surround most of your quotes, which completely changes its implications. Thus, because the Bible does not actually support the aforementioned actions, my opponent's entire argument mostly falls apart. Thank you for responding. I still feel offended.