Subject:
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Re: This God thing...
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Mon, 17 Sep 2001 14:02:25 GMT
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Viewed:
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338 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Christopher L. Weeks writes:
> Hi all,
>
> There is a set of biblical questions that were written by someone and have been
> around the net a bit. They were written as a smart-assed foil for Christian
> belief. But surprisingly I haven't seen serious answers. So I'm reposting
> them below and hoping not so much to just poke fun at you as to draw out some
> kind of reasonable explanation for why the smart-assed points aren't valid. Or
> does this actually point to serious holes in Christianity?
Chris:
I can only give you my opinions as a Christian who doesn't believe in the
inerrancy of scripture. Also, your questions refer to ancient customs practiced
by an ancient people that have little pertinence to the modern practice of
Christianity (some will argue with that, but I stand by the statement and
believe that it is completely defensible from within the faith.)
> a) When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a
> pleasing odour for the Lord (Lev. 1:9). The problem is my neighbours. They
> claim the odour is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?
I imagine that an ancient Jew of the Levitical time would no doubt find it just
to smite a fellow Jew who didn't agree with the animal sacrifice. What they
would do to a gentile, I do not know.
>
> b) I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus
> 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?
Humanity's moral faculties have developed; the human race has only recently
developed an understanding of slavery's comprehensive evil. When I read
passages such as that I chose to read them from the
position that several thousand years of human moral development has furnished;
i.e. we know that selling people into slavery is wrong, and that if the Jews
thought that God condoned such things, they were just wrong. I'm not afraid to
read scripture with my mind as well as my heart.
> c) I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her
> period of menstrual uncleanliness (Lev. 15:19-24). The problem is, how do I
> tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offence.
In Levitical times, I doubt that it would have been socially acceptable to
approach women that you did not know. Relationships between the sexes were much
more separate in that culture, as they are today in any extremely religious
community or society. You might be beaten by a mob for inquiring into a whole
lot less than her menstrual cycle.
> d) Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female,
> provided they are purchased from neighbouring nations. A friend of mine
> claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify?
> Why can't I own Canadians?
Please see my conclusion at the end.
>
> e) I have a neighbour who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2
> clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him
> myself?
The New Testament gives a clear and easy answer to this one. I don't have a
Bible handy, so I can't quote you chapter and verse, but in a Gospel Jesus
addressed sabbatical questions, and said that the Sabbath was made for man, and
not man for the Sabbath. On several occasions Jesus was attacked by the
Pharisees for healing people on the Sabbath (their charge being that healing was
work, which was not allowed), and his response was that the Pharisees did not
understand the spirit of the law, and that well-doing is always just.
>
> f) A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an
> Abomination (Lev. 11:10), it is a lesser Abomination than homosexuality. I
> don't agree. Can you settle this?
Your friend should be directed to the book of Acts where Peter had a revelation
(a vision) at the home of the Roman Cornelius, in which Peter was shown by God
that all foods are clean. In this revelation a sheet was lowered from Heaven
containing all sorts of creeping and crawling things and Peter was told (off-
hand, I can't remember if it was by an Angel or by God) that he should "take,
kill, and eat." Three times Peter said that he could not because no unclean
thing had touched his lips, and the final response was that Peter should call no
thing unclean which God has called clean. If your friend is a practicing
Christian, then he has a scripturally-stated latitude to eat (or not to eat - an
issue dealt with by Paul) as his conscience dictates.
>
> g) Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a
> defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my
> vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?
Please see my conclusion at the end.
>
> h) Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around
> their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How
> should they die?
Please see my conclusion at the end.
>
> i) I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me
> unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?
Please see my conclusion at the end.
>
> j) My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different
> crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two
> different kinds of thread. (cotton/polyester blend) He also tends to curse
> and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of
> getting the whole town together to stone them? (Lev. 24:10-16) Couldn't we
> just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people
> who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)
Please see my conclusion at the end.
>
> I guess the question, when boiled down, is which parts of the Bible is it OK to
> disregard?
>
> Chris
While I appreciate your questions, I think that they are in a sense straw men to
the more pressing question; I think the real question is how practicing
Christians are to understand those parts of scripture that seem wicked or
absurd. Clearly, part of the issue is that the Pentatuch (spelling?) - Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Numbers - are the record of an ancient culture
that understood God in very different terms than we do today. I personally
don't believe in the inerrancy of scripture (i.e., that it is 100% accurate both
in literal and theological content), which liberates me to reject elements that
are incongruous with the character of God that I believe to have been revealed
in Christ. My approach is to build up from the core essentials of the faith. I
don't know which parts of the Bible that every Christian is absolutely
warranted/obligated to disregard, but it is a question that each believer that
has rejected inerrancy has to, in large measure, decide for him/herself. The
practice of the faith is in large part an exercise that Paul described in the
letter, if my memory serves me correctly, to the Phillipians. In it he said that
each believer must "work out their faith with fear and trembling." On a very
important level the practice of Christianity is a very personal practice that
requires a large measure of both basic common sense and the perspective of
personal experience that is unique to each person. There is no easy answer to
your last question, but neither are their easy answers to most of life's
important questions, and Christianity shares in that dilemna; if all of
Christianity's precepts were without contradictions, and the practice of
Christianity without sweat and strain then we might have good reason to suspect
it of being disingenuous, without relevance, and wholly alien to our experience
as humans.
james
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: This God thing...
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| (...) But some (indeed, many) would also argue that the "ancient customs" you cite aren't appreciably any more ancient to modern times than the ancient customs practiced by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. That is, it's all pretty darned ancient, so (...) (23 years ago, 17-Sep-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | This God thing...
|
| Hi all, There is a set of biblical questions that were written by someone and have been around the net a bit. They were written as a smart-assed foil for Christian belief. But surprisingly I haven't seen serious answers. So I'm reposting them below (...) (23 years ago, 17-Sep-01, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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