Belief in the word of the bible is incompatible with modern morality

Thank you for your response. "The Ten Commandments Even if someone"s an atheist, most of the Ten Commandments can apply to them. -Honor your father and mother -You shall not murder -You shall commit adultery -You shall not steal -You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor -You shall not covet" Of course you can find some laws in the bible which back up our twenty first century morality. Most of these are of course useful, however even with these there are problems for instance you only mention six of the commandments this is because the others are not applicable to modern society, either legally of ethically. In the ten commandments there is the commandment to not covert. The definition of covet I have is "yearn to possess (something, especially something belonging to another).". This is the foundation of capitalism is the want to possess that which you do not currently own, this is the most basil form of wealth creation. So the ten commandments may not be incompatible with modern morality but they most certainly incompatible with capitalistic economics and the strive for an increased standard of living. Notice here in the ten most important commandments there are no commandments against child abuse, genocide, rape or slavery. The four commandments you choose to omit are "Thou shalt have no other gods before me.", "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.", "Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;" and "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.". Do you not think that those commandments would do well to be replaced by commandments against child abuse, genocide, rape and slavery? I would guess the reason that there is no commandment against child abuse, genocide, rape or slavery is because they are all explicitly sanctioned by Yahweh [1] [2] [3] [4] "First off, there"s a difference between God"s law and the laws of Moses and others in the Bible. Many of the verses you provided came from people in the old testament. Those people made the laws, not necessarily God. Why did they do this? Back then, there were few books except for the Bible. These laws were included in the Bible so that the many tribes could keep track of laws wherever they were. So, these laws aren"t necessarily directed to you and me, they were directed at the people of the old testament. Now, to address the death penalty point. Yes, the laws of the old testament were harsh. But there are several reasons as to why they are so harsh. First, back then it was much easier to do bad things. Think about robbing a house today. A thief would have to watch out for security cameras, alarms, dogs, guns" in the old testament, robbery would be fairly easy because of the lack of technology. A simple way to discourage bad things would be to raise the penalty to death. That way people would think twice of doing those things. Also, the world was crazy at this point in time. Child sacrifice and other terrible things were happening and God and the old testament authors didn"t want their people to start doing these things. Moreover, jail was fairly uncommon. Again, most people in the O.T. traveled in caravans and were unable to put criminals into jail. Death was an easier option Again, these laws were the laws of Moses designed to keep the Israelites in order. They are not directed at you and me." I'm willing to accept more or less all of this. My problem with the death penalty is the crimes that it is prescribed for, actions we would not consider crimes or even immoral at all for instance homosexuals [5] and unbelievers [6], while you can dismiss the killing of homosexuals as written by men (specifically straight men) but Exodus 22:19 was dictated to Moses in the same conversation that Yahweh passed the decalogue down to him. The punishment of unbelievers is not moral and I think you accept that, at the very least you haven't threatened to kill me yet. "You mentioned that the Bible allows slavery. Slavery in those days was very different than people think. The most recent slavery usually was inducted onto people of the same race, I.E. African Americans in the 1800s. The Bible definitely does not condone racial slavery. In the O.T., the Israelites (God"s people) were enslaved by the Egyptians simply because they were from Israel. This was racial slavery. How did God feel about this? Read about the Egyptian plagues that God used on the land of Egypt. Safe to say, God an the Bible does not condone racial slavery." First I have a question for you, is indentured servitude ever justified? The bible allows indentured servitude for Israelites [7] (though as this is the bible of course there are almost no restrictions on the enslavement of women [8] and Exodus 21:7-11 puts women in a position of slavery not indentured servitude, the bible also allows for virtual sex slavery in the same verses). In regards to slaves the bible says "you may purchase male or female slaves from among the foreigners" [9], this is descriptive of the worst kinds of slavery in history. These slaves are also degraded to the status of property "the slave is his own property" [10], this idea that slaves are to property of their owners came directly from the mouth of god, again in the same conversation as the ten commandments. "Genocide is something born out of hate. When the Israelites attacked Canaan, they weren"t committing genocide. Saying this would be like saying Americans committed genocide in WW2. Canaanites were actually very evil people. They constantly sacrificed children and were deeply involved with incest and murder." There is a significant difference between american actions in WW2 and the Israelite actions in Canaan and that is: The Americans didn't wipe out entire cities or purposely kill children, the Israelites did this when they attacked Canaan "you must destroy them totally" [11]. Even if you think you can somehow justify the slaughter of the Canaanites there are so many other verses in the bible which call for genocide "you must attack that town and completely destroy all its inhabitants, as well as all the livestock" [12], "Not a single person survived or escaped." [13], "They completely destroyed everything in it " men and women, young and old, cattle, sheep, donkeys " everything" [14] "putting to the sword the inhabitants of the city, the livestock, and all they chanced upon." [15], "one hundred and eighty five thousand" [16], "Phinehas thrust the spear all the way through the man's body and into the woman's stomach." (isn't this abortion) [17], " whose people were peaceful and secure. They attacked and killed all the people and burned the town to the ground." [18], "Completely destroy all the males and every woman who is not a virgin." (from the mouth of Yahweh) [19], "Only the young girls who are virgins may live; you may keep them for yourselves." [20], "the city shall be taken, houses plundered" [21]. I could go on but I think you get the point. "So why are you so hard on the Bible? It"s an old book filled with some old and outdated laws. However, there are still many laws in the Bible that are pure and worth learning about. That"s why I"m a Christian: I can see through the shrouds of doubt and realize that the Bible is a book worth dying for. Like I showed you at the beginning, the Bible says not to steal, murder, commit adultery, etc" The Bible is still compatible with today"s morality." The idea of this debate wasn't to show that Christians are immoral, the idea was to show that the scripture you follow has commandments you cannot follow precisely because you are moral. I know there are very good bits in the bible for instance Exodus 23:1-2 is far before its time in moral standing however the majority of the biblical commandments, especially but not exclusively in the old testament. I see belief in the word of the bible as incompatible with modern morality. [1] Hosea 9:11-16 (child abuse) [2] Joshua 6:20-21 (genocide) [3] Judges 19 23-30 (rape) [4] Leviticus 25:44-46 (slavery) [5] Leviticus 20:13 [6] Exodus 22:19 [7] Exodus 21:2-6 [8] Exodus 21:7-11 [9] Leviticus 25:44-46 [10] Exodus 21:20-21 [11] Deuteronomy 7:1-2 [12] Deuteronomy 13:13-19 [13] Joshua 8:1-29 [14] Joshua 6:20-21 [15] Judges 20:48 [16] 2 Kings 19:35 [17] Numbers 25:1-9 [18] Judges 18:27-29 (approved by Yahweh in Judges 18:6) [19] Judges 21:10-24 [20] Numbers 31:7-18 [21] Zechariah 14:1-2 (this one is contestable)