From: dgraham@bmers30.bnr.ca (Douglas Graham)
Subject: Re: The Canaanites(was Re: Achilles heels for religion?)
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
Date: Fri, 10 Apr 92 05:59:55 GMT

In article <1992Apr09.221640.11430@watson.ibm.com> strom@watson.ibm.com (Rob Strom) writes:
>In article <1992Apr09.035618.15343@bmerh2.bnr.ca>, dgraham@bmers30.bnr.ca (Douglas Graham) writes:

>|> Well I think that the story needs a little more improvement for our
>|> time.  This has been one of the big causes of war throughout history.
>|> One group of people decides that it is more righteous than another,
>|> and decides that it is their duty to wipe out the immoral bunch.
>
>I agree.  We need modern commentaries which specifically
>counteract this very dangerous misinterpretation which,
>if not a cause of war, is at least used as an excuse
>to rally the masses behind wars.  

Perhaps much of the damage can be undone by adding commentary to
obfuscate the message in the original texts, but I don't think all
of it can be.  Presumably your intent is to teach your children to
be peaceful, tolerant people.  Do you really believe that using a
book filled with intolerance, bloodshed and warfare, all condoned
by God, is the best way to teach these qualities?  I think that
the Bible is an important cultural record, and should be studied
by "kids" when they're about 20 or so, and able to understand just
what it is, but as a source of moral teachings it fails miserably.

>|> The problem is that it is the righteous bunch who get to define
>|> "righteousness".  If Hitler had won WWII, our history books would
>|> speak of how the Nazis had rid the world of the evil Jews, and made
>|> the world safe for the righteous Nazis.  IMO, any decent moral teaching
>|> should emphasize that there is no such thing as righteousness.  Only
>|> self-righteousness.
>
>Here I disagree.  I believe there is such a thing as righteousness
>and I believe that there is not a moral symmetry between the
>position of the Nazis and the position of their victims.

I'm afraid that I really can't tell the difference between what
the Nazis did to the Jews, and what the Jews purportedly did to
the Canaanites.  If the Canaanites had managed to wipe out the
Jews instead, do you really think that their history books would
admit that they were unrighteous but won anyway?  I suspect it far
more likely that they would tell stories of how their god helped
the righteous to fight off the unrighteous invading barbarians.

I would like to know more about what you think is righteous.
For example, it seems that the Yahwists had some pretty major
hangups about sex.  I seem to remember more than one tale where
a bunch of people were slaughtered because they happened to
be more sexually promiscuous than the Yahwists approved of.
Do you think that sexual promiscuity is unrighteous?  If you've
read Huxley's _Brave New World_ you'll remember that people
were encouraged to sleep around as much as possible.  Was than
an unrighteous society?

Is our society more righteous than say, a primitive tribe of
aboriginal people running around naked in the Amazon jungle?
Were the Europeans more righteous than the native "savages"
of North America that they pretty much wiped out?
--
Doug Graham         dgraham@bnr.ca         My opinions are my own.