The question I ask Xtian evangelists...

[Alex-db]

Exodus 21:
[ QUOTE ]
2 "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. 3 If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.
5 "But if the servant declares, 'I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,' 6 then his master must take him before the judges. [a] He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.


[/ QUOTE ]

Do you support slavery?

If not;
Was your omniscient God wrong? Mistaken? Did he have a change of heart he hadn't realised he was going to have?

This paragraph is basically the 11th commandment (Exodus 20 is the 10). Was it wrongly recorded by the human scribe, was the author mistaken? If so isn't it likely the previous 10 contained mistakes too? Thats pretty damn important when placing the success of your entire life project of getting to heaven on correctly following Gods rules isn't it?

Personally, I think it is possible, just, possible, that it was written by humans in a time when slavery was accepted. It is certainly evidence that we either should condone slavery or that the original author/source of the quote was not omniscient.

So would you accept that Christians have cherry picked the passages from the Bible that they liked (not forgetting the fact that these were the best bits cherry picked from a much bigger pool of text), essentially ignoring their only reference to the word of a God that they claim to hold in such high regard?

[goodsamaritan]

I think many conservative christians still believe black people should be enslaved

[Brainwalter]

[ QUOTE ]
I think many conservative christians still believe black people should be enslaved

[/ QUOTE ]

Get real.

[vhawk01]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I think many conservative christians still believe black people should be enslaved

[/ QUOTE ]

Well, he said many not most, and there are probably hundreds or thousands at least. But yeah, I think its sort of a silly, misleading statement.
Get real.

[/ QUOTE ]

[RayBornert]

[ QUOTE ]
Exodus 21:
[ QUOTE ]
2 "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. 3 If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.
5 "But if the servant declares, 'I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,' 6 then his master must take him before the judges. [a] He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.


[/ QUOTE ]

Do you support slavery?

If not;
Was your omniscient God wrong? Mistaken? Did he have a change of heart he hadn't realised he was going to have?

This paragraph is basically the 11th commandment (Exodus 20 is the 10). Was it wrongly recorded by the human scribe, was the author mistaken? If so isn't it likely the previous 10 contained mistakes too? Thats pretty damn important when placing the success of your entire life project of getting to heaven on correctly following Gods rules isn't it?

Personally, I think it is possible, just, possible, that it was written by humans in a time when slavery was accepted. It is certainly evidence that we either should condone slavery or that the original author/source of the quote was not omniscient.

So would you accept that Christians have cherry picked the passages from the Bible that they liked (not forgetting the fact that these were the best bits cherry picked from a much bigger pool of text), essentially ignoring their only reference to the word of a God that they claim to hold in such high regard?

[/ QUOTE ]

not the correct question to ask. it's unfair; it does not take into consideration highly devolved cultures.

at some point, one group of people will be willing to enslave another group if their cultural levels are too radically different.

if a group of cannibals moved into my neighborhood, i'd shoot first and ask questions later.

i'd be very willing to enslave the south pacific island culture described in the recent film "king kong" given a scenario where my culture was forced to co-exist with their culture. however, if they stay on their island and dont threaten my culture then i'd be quite happy with that arrangement.

you cannot reasonably transport modern ethics to a world of 4 or 5 millenia ago.

you can rightfully measure the advancement of any culture based on their science and their best definitions of god.

so i want you to do some research and get a complete picture of some of the ancient cultures that you're bemoaning and then describe a scenario where instead of transporting our modern ethics back in time 4k or 5k years ago, you instead transport that culture to the south side of your city or town ... then we can talk.

ray

[JayTee]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Exodus 21:
[ QUOTE ]
2 "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. 3 If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.
5 "But if the servant declares, 'I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,' 6 then his master must take him before the judges. [a] He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.


[/ QUOTE ]

Do you support slavery?

If not;
Was your omniscient God wrong? Mistaken? Did he have a change of heart he hadn't realised he was going to have?

This paragraph is basically the 11th commandment (Exodus 20 is the 10). Was it wrongly recorded by the human scribe, was the author mistaken? If so isn't it likely the previous 10 contained mistakes too? Thats pretty damn important when placing the success of your entire life project of getting to heaven on correctly following Gods rules isn't it?

Personally, I think it is possible, just, possible, that it was written by humans in a time when slavery was accepted. It is certainly evidence that we either should condone slavery or that the original author/source of the quote was not omniscient.

So would you accept that Christians have cherry picked the passages from the Bible that they liked (not forgetting the fact that these were the best bits cherry picked from a much bigger pool of text), essentially ignoring their only reference to the word of a God that they claim to hold in such high regard?

[/ QUOTE ]

not the correct question to ask. it's unfair; it does not take into consideration highly devolved cultures.

at some point, one group of people will be willing to enslave another group if their cultural levels are too radically different.

if a group of cannibals moved into my neighborhood, i'd shoot first and ask questions later.

i'd be very willing to enslave the south pacific island culture described in the recent film "king kong" given a scenario where my culture was forced to co-exist with their culture. however, if they stay on their island and dont threaten my culture then i'd be quite happy with that arrangement.

you cannot reasonably transport modern ethics to a world of 4 or 5 millenia ago.

you can rightfully measure the advancement of any culture based on their science and their best definitions of god.

so i want you to do some research and get a complete picture of some of the ancient cultures that you're bemoaning and then describe a scenario where instead of transporting our modern ethics back in time 4k or 5k years ago, you instead transport that culture to the south side of your city or town ... then we can talk.

ray

[/ QUOTE ]

The question is completely valid. You are changing the topic. Is it or is it not okay for humans to enslave humans? According to the Bible, God says it is. If he was wrong then he isn't God. If he was right then modern Christians are heretics. Instead of God writing "Slavery for Dummies" he should have detailed the process of making a cure for AIDS or something that would support the all-loving, all-knowing description that Christians like to give him.

[RayBornert]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Exodus 21:
[ QUOTE ]
2 "If you buy a Hebrew servant, he is to serve you for six years. But in the seventh year, he shall go free, without paying anything. 3 If he comes alone, he is to go free alone; but if he has a wife when he comes, she is to go with him. 4 If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the woman and her children shall belong to her master, and only the man shall go free.
5 "But if the servant declares, 'I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,' 6 then his master must take him before the judges. [a] He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.


[/ QUOTE ]

Do you support slavery?

If not;
Was your omniscient God wrong? Mistaken? Did he have a change of heart he hadn't realised he was going to have?

This paragraph is basically the 11th commandment (Exodus 20 is the 10). Was it wrongly recorded by the human scribe, was the author mistaken? If so isn't it likely the previous 10 contained mistakes too? Thats pretty damn important when placing the success of your entire life project of getting to heaven on correctly following Gods rules isn't it?

Personally, I think it is possible, just, possible, that it was written by humans in a time when slavery was accepted. It is certainly evidence that we either should condone slavery or that the original author/source of the quote was not omniscient.

So would you accept that Christians have cherry picked the passages from the Bible that they liked (not forgetting the fact that these were the best bits cherry picked from a much bigger pool of text), essentially ignoring their only reference to the word of a God that they claim to hold in such high regard?

[/ QUOTE ]

not the correct question to ask. it's unfair; it does not take into consideration highly devolved cultures.

at some point, one group of people will be willing to enslave another group if their cultural levels are too radically different.

if a group of cannibals moved into my neighborhood, i'd shoot first and ask questions later.

i'd be very willing to enslave the south pacific island culture described in the recent film "king kong" given a scenario where my culture was forced to co-exist with their culture. however, if they stay on their island and dont threaten my culture then i'd be quite happy with that arrangement.

you cannot reasonably transport modern ethics to a world of 4 or 5 millenia ago.

you can rightfully measure the advancement of any culture based on their science and their best definitions of god.

so i want you to do some research and get a complete picture of some of the ancient cultures that you're bemoaning and then describe a scenario where instead of transporting our modern ethics back in time 4k or 5k years ago, you instead transport that culture to the south side of your city or town ... then we can talk.

ray

[/ QUOTE ]

The question is completely valid. You are changing the topic. Is it or is it not okay for humans to enslave humans? According to the Bible, God says it is. If he was wrong then he isn't God. If he was right then modern Christians are heretics. Instead of God writing "Slavery for Dummies" he should have detailed the process of making a cure for AIDS or something that would support the all-loving, all-knowing description that Christians like to give him.

[/ QUOTE ]

for typical cultures 4k - 5k years ago, the only real wealth anybody had was their labor and maybe some clothes and a tool or weapon (maybe). the only way to pay or trade for things was to contract yourself for a period of time as a means to transfer your wealth to get the thing you wanted.

so there was the servant/master institution which was really their version of employee/employer relationship except that they all lived in rather close proximity with each other much more like a family.

most of the slavery occurred as the result of losing a major land war; if you lost a war then your labor was forfeit to the winning tribe/nation/city/king/warlord etc.

so, since those were the major games being played out at that time, it makes sense that a culture would have a definition of god that was designed to help them win those games and not lose those games.

********
now let's get to the question you really want to ask:

what you really want to discuss is why you can or cannot extract quality of life from any given definition of god.

this is evidenced by your behavior of holding up the old testament definition of god as inferior based upon the ethics of slavery within that definition.

by todays standards and ethics and culture, the definition is inferior; but it was a pretty damn good definition given the conditions that existed back then.

edit: if charles darwin had a chance to advise moses on the best way to construct a definition of god such that the culture would be fit to survive in a seriously hostile world, would darwin have suggested an alternate definition instead of what moses created?

ray

[kurto]

[ QUOTE ]
you cannot reasonably transport modern ethics to a world of 4 or 5 millenia ago.



[/ QUOTE ]

The outdated ethics in the Bible are what modern Christians still support. My brother and I had this conversation. He is a born again. He said that if God supported slavery 'he must have his reasons.'

(he was also okay with the rape of slaves since that too was in the Bible.)

[ojc02]

So the bible is inappropriate to use as a guide for modern life?

[kurto]

This is funny...

[ QUOTE ]
so there was the servant/master institution which was really their version of employee/employer relationship except that they all lived in rather close proximity with each other much more like a family.


[/ QUOTE ]

Kind of like modern day work relationship...except that when you get hired, its because the corporation slaughters your family then forces you into bondage. And its very much like your family... subtle differences like: Your dad can rape you at any time and whip you so you can't stand for a day. And, of course, your kids can also be sold and you can be given away.

Ray-- this is what the Bible says is okay. This is the religion and the Book that Christians swear is the word of God. The age is irrelevent since Christians still believe its all true.

[ojc02]

[ QUOTE ]
The outdated ethics in the Bible are what modern Christians still support. My brother and I had this conversation. He is a born again. He said that if God supported slavery 'he must have his reasons.'

(he was also okay with the rape of slaves since that too was in the Bible.)

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow, that's seriously disturbing... I thought even the most fundamental of Christians just swept that stuff under the rug... Well, at least he's being consistent, but man, he needs some help...

[kurto]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The outdated ethics in the Bible are what modern Christians still support. My brother and I had this conversation. He is a born again. He said that if God supported slavery 'he must have his reasons.'

(he was also okay with the rape of slaves since that too was in the Bible.)

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow, that's seriously disturbing... I thought even the most fundamental of Christians just swept that stuff under the rug... Well, at least he's being consistent, but man, he needs some help...

[/ QUOTE ]

He believe I'm the one who needs help.

I'm still chuckling over the conversation. At least once a year he tries to show me the light. (I usually avoid the conversation because it annoys the whole family but its his duty as a Christian to save my soul.)

So he asks me what problem I have exactly with the Bible. I said its sexist and supports slavery and rape.

He laughed at me. No it doesn't. "I thought you read the Bible?" I said to him. He looked at me with this self-assured look.

I read him a bunch of verses. You could see he was speechless.

"You can't take verses out of context." I asked him to put it into context. He started to say that those were the rules of man. blah blah blah.

"I'm sorry, I thought you said the Bible was the word of God?" He pauses. It is.

"So, these verses about slavery... the word of man or God?" He thinks real hard. "God"

I then showed him how you could rape a slave so long as you sacrificed an animal afterwards. Then I showed him the verse where after invading a land and killing the men you could force a woman to be your wife.

"Things were different then." he says.

"But the Bible is still the unchanging word of God, right?"

"Of course."

"So if I invade a country I can rape a woman and force her to be my wife."

Looooong pause. "Yes."

"Let me get this straight. So you support this? Your fine with the Bible allowing forcible rape and slavery?"

"Yes. God must have his reasons."

It was a fun thanksgiving.

[She]

[ QUOTE ]
you cannot reasonably transport modern ethics to a world of 4 or 5 millenia ago.

[/ QUOTE ]

We're not talking about modern ethics. We're discussing God's moral standards. If God is the same yesterday, today and forever, could you please show me how this doesn't apply??

OP - Great question! I am anxious to find out if there will be a logical response.

(The only thing I can think of personally, is where in the NT Christ states that God "allowed" divorce because of the "hardness of man's heart" even though it wasn't his origional plan. I have no idea if this is a similar issue or not.)

[RayBornert]

[ QUOTE ]
This is funny...

[ QUOTE ]
so there was the servant/master institution which was really their version of employee/employer relationship except that they all lived in rather close proximity with each other much more like a family.


[/ QUOTE ]

Kind of like modern day work relationship...except that when you get hired, its because the corporation slaughters your family then forces you into bondage. And its very much like your family... subtle differences like: Your dad can rape you at any time and whip you so you can't stand for a day. And, of course, your kids can also be sold and you can be given away.

Ray-- this is what the Bible says is okay. This is the religion and the Book that Christians swear is the word of God. The age is irrelevent since Christians still believe its all true.

[/ QUOTE ]

kurt,

all of the abuses you describe are still present with us today even without slavery.

i'm not defending the old testament definition of god within our modern culture; i'm defending their definition within the culture in which they lived. i dont agree with those who want to drag the old testament definition into modern times. feel free to indict those types of fundamentalists as you will and be sure to point them toward my comments. at the same time i want you to be sure and not indict a 4k year old culture for creating a definition of god that allowed them to survive even to this very day.

they all faced life and death propositions almost on a daily basis (much like we dont). i'm reminded of the frank herbert novel - dune - wherein the sand people are said to have been very severe with their children in training them to not cry aloud by the time they reached the age of 2; the reason was that a single crying child could potentially wipe out an entire village of their people due to the harsh world in which they lived, if that child were to give away their position. the novel stops short of suggesting that the culture was willing to put a child to death if the child could not be trained; yes it's fiction but it serves the point rather well. harsh environments will produce hardened cultures able to survive.

i am in total agreement with you in that we dont need to worship a mount st. helen god to prevent that volcano from spilling it's wrath upon the north west again.

i want you to have mercy upon those that are still unable to find the freedom to explore a better definition of god.

ray

[kurto]

[ QUOTE ]
all of the abuses you describe are still present with us today even without slavery.


[/ QUOTE ]

But, if I was an abuser, I could find peace of mind knowing that what I did was okay as far as my faith is concerned.

Certainly the abuses exist... but most of us agree that they are wrong. Yet, they are okay according to the Bible. That is our point. For those who use the Bible as their measure of morality, they would have to agree that having slaves is okay, rape and marriage by force is okay, etc.

I take it you are not a Bible literalist so the issues don't perplex you. But if you were one of the many who thinks the Bible is the absolute word of God and quote scripture to justify things like attacking gays and such, then you would also have to agree that slavery is okay, rape is allowed, etc.

[ QUOTE ]
i'm not defending the old testament definition of god within our modern culture;

[/ QUOTE ] The problem is most Christians still follow the God as defined by the Old Testament... more accurately, they are what I call "Pick and Choose" Christians-- they pick the parts of the Bible they like and ignore the parts they don't like. Most don't support slavery or stoning people... that would be barbaric. But they decide its still okay to hate gays or oppose science when it contradicts with their eons old texts.

[ QUOTE ]
i want you to have mercy upon those that are still unable to find the freedom to explore a better definition of god.


[/ QUOTE ] I agree with you. (and I also enjoyed Dune! Though its been well over a decade since I read it) Though how better to educate those unable to explore a better definition of God then by confronting them with the ignored passages of the text they claim to follow?

[txag007]

[ QUOTE ]
Do you support slavery?


[/ QUOTE ]
No.

[ QUOTE ]
If not;
Was your omniscient God wrong?

[/ QUOTE ]
No.

[ QUOTE ]
Mistaken?

[/ QUOTE ]
No.

[ QUOTE ]
Did he have a change of heart he hadn't realised he was going to have?


[/ QUOTE ]
No.

[ QUOTE ]
This paragraph is basically the 11th commandment

[/ QUOTE ]
No, it's not.

[ QUOTE ]
Was it wrongly recorded by the human scribe, was the author mistaken?

[/ QUOTE ]
No. And no.

[ QUOTE ]
If so isn't it likely the previous 10 contained mistakes too?

[/ QUOTE ]
No.

[ QUOTE ]
Thats pretty damn important when placing the success of your entire life project of getting to heaven on correctly following Gods rules isn't it?


[/ QUOTE ]
That's not my life project, and that's not how the Bible says that you get to heaven.

[ QUOTE ]
It is certainly evidence that we either should condone slavery or that the original author/source of the quote was not omniscient.

[/ QUOTE ]
No, it isn't.

[ QUOTE ]
So would you accept that Christians have cherry picked the passages from the Bible that they liked (not forgetting the fact that these were the best bits cherry picked from a much bigger pool of text), essentially ignoring their only reference to the word of a God that they claim to hold in such high regard?

[/ QUOTE ]
No, I wouldn't.

[madnak]

You're very good at denial, txag.

[vhawk01]

The next time someone asks me if I'm a hypocrite I'm just gonna say no. And then if they show me how I'm being a hypocrite I'll just say, Nope, that doesn't make me a hypocrite. Txag, are you sure you didnt want to end your post with "I'll leave it to others to expound."

[txag007]

The quoted passage doesn't say what you think it says.

[arahant]

[ QUOTE ]
So the bible is inappropriate to use as a guide for modern life?

[/ QUOTE ]
Actually, if you read what he wrote, he doesn't seem to have much a problem with slavery. I think the next step should be asking about stoning adulterers, and after that, maybe a call to the authorities. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[arahant]

[ QUOTE ]
The quoted passage doesn't say what you think it says.

[/ QUOTE ]
Yes it does.

[arahant]

You took this TOTALLY out of context.
For example, I've got 2 Hebrews now...I've had them both about 4 years. Can I sell them for full value (less age-related depreciation) or do they only have 2 years left on them?

[JayTee]

Did the church create an automated message board denial program? That would really save you some time.

[NotReady]

[ QUOTE ]

Do you support slavery?


[/ QUOTE ]

When you show what research you've done on this question other than parrotting the SAB or some other doofus atheist web site, if you still don't get it, I'll help you out.

[kurto]

[ QUOTE ]
Quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So would you accept that Christians have cherry picked the passages from the Bible that they liked (not forgetting the fact that these were the best bits cherry picked from a much bigger pool of text), essentially ignoring their only reference to the word of a God that they claim to hold in such high regard?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


No, I wouldn't.

[/ QUOTE ]

Txag wouldn't but anyone examining the evidence would likely conclude otherwise.

[Alex-db]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]

Do you support slavery?


[/ QUOTE ]

When you show what research you've done on this question other than parrotting the SAB or some other doofus atheist web site, if you still don't get it, I'll help you out.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know what the SAB is. I was in a hotel room and there was nothing good on TV, so I started reading the Bible from page 1. (What more do you want than that?!)

I thought the Tower or Babel bit was fairly silly, but the slavery bit proves the church (and all Christians that disagree with slavery) does not believe it is the word of God, so how can I accept it?

[txag007]

Rest assured, the Church is AGAINST slavery and yet still believes Exodus 21 IS the Word of God. Perhaps there is something you aren't considering?

[madnak]

Keep reading, and keep your eyes open. There is no better way to get a solid understanding of Christianity and Western religion in general than to read that book. Don't even bother with the atheists sites until you've read it and interpreted it in its entire context. I'm confident a rational person will tend to react with either horror or incredulity, or both.

This is also a very fair test - if the Bible is a revelation from God, then there should be no better way to reach a position of faith than to read it. If it is not a revelation from God, then there should be no better way to reach a position of disbelief than to read it.

And if the Bible is the word of God and is the spiritual "meat and drink" it's sometimes referred to as, then we can expect that most who read the Bible will find God, and that reading the Bible will, in any case, generally lead to an increase of belief in God. If, on the other hand, the Bible is in fact a book of myths written by a bloodthirsty culture, then reading it will generally lead to a decrease of belief in God.

[kurto]

[ QUOTE ]
Rest assured, the Church is AGAINST slavery and yet still believes Exodus 21 IS the Word of God. Perhaps there is something you aren't considering?

[/ QUOTE ]

I love when Txag gets all mysterious. He keeps alluding to some answer hidden under the surface. When revealed, its usually some answer that's usual some fun mental gymnastics logic defying reason that attempts to make sense of senselessness.

When the simple answer is... the Bible was written by men thousands of years ago. They supported slavery. The Bible supports slavery and all sorts of barbaric behaviour. Christians now have to make up all sorts of convulated rationalizations to explain away the barbarity of the Bible. Anything but admit the obvious... it was written by men who were, by today's standards, somewhat barbaric.

[txag007]

[ QUOTE ]
the Bible was written by men thousands of years ago. They supported slavery...it was written by men who were, by today's standards, somewhat barbaric.

[/ QUOTE ]
1. Put this in the correct historical context as it relates to the Bible.

2. Exactly how does this translate to today?

[kurto]

Txag - instead of asking people to try to work out your view, just come out and make your statement.

Regarding your assignment, I think its been thoroughly done.

The Bible was created by man thousands of years ago.

It really shouldn't translate today. The obvious answer is to look at the Bible as what it is- the mythologies and superstitions of people from around 2000 years ago. Wise people today would look at it as a cultural artifact. Interesting as a historical creation but to follow it is as sensical as dedicating your life to the worship of Odin.

The creators of Christianity were sexist, thought nothing wrong about slavery, rape, genocide, etc. Translated to today we see that its a Superstition that should have disappeared ages ago as well its outdated morality.

[txag007]

Are you talking about the writer of Exodus or the founders of Christianity? They're separate people, separate cultures, hundreds of years apart.

Did you know that 50% of Roman culture in the first century was some type of slave labor? What do you know about how women were treated in Roman culture? Christianity was the greatest thing to happen to women and slaves of that period in time!

[NotReady]

[ QUOTE ]

I don't know what the SAB is.


[/ QUOTE ]

Ok, I'll accept you aren't just grabbing something from Sceptics Annotated Bible or a web site to attack the Bible. You decided there wasn't that much controversy or diffiulty (other than a little silliness) in all the other material you read until you came to the this passage. Fair enough.

First, read the passage again and quote me the part where it mentions slavery. You might also want to define slavery first. For instance, is a performer or athelete a slave because he's under contract?

You might also want to look at

this post (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=0&Board=scimathphil&Number=71 00039&Searchpage=1&Main=7098562&Words=%26quot%3Bsl avery%26quot%3B+NotReady&topic=&Search=true#Post71 00039) and the link referred to.

[kurto]

[ QUOTE ]
Are you talking about the writer of Exodus or the founders of Christianity? They're separate people, separate cultures, hundreds of years apart.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm referring to the writers of the Bible.

BTW- the number of years apart and different cultures is really irrelevent. According to most Christians I encounter the Bible is the inerrant word of God.

[ QUOTE ]
Did you know that 50% of Roman culture in the first century was some type of slave labor?

[/ QUOTE ]

Cool. Not really relevent to the point of the Bible supporting slavery but thanks for the info.

[ QUOTE ]
Christianity was the greatest thing to happen to women and slaves of that period in time!

[/ QUOTE ]

Cool. I mean, you could still rape them and beat them so they couldn't stand for a day but you weren't supposed to kill them. What a blessing.