God's violent ways

[OnceConvinced]

The god of the bible tends do deal with sin and evil in very violent ways. Ie, wiping out cities, sending floods, ordering violent deaths, ordering the slaying of animals for sacrifices, sending curses and plagues, etc.

Can you point out any instances in the bible where God deals with sin and evil in non-violent ways?

And I mean God here. Not Jesus.
And there are times God showed mercy and didn't deal with the sin and evil, sure. But when he did, were there non-violent methods used?

[ttruscott]

Do you really believe that acts of gencide are necessary?

IF GOD has the authority and right to pass sentence and execute a criminal for his crimes then what does it matter if two criminals die in the same judgement? IF true justice is served, what is the point of a limit upon the numbers of criminals it is served upon in any event?

All death comes only to sinners, those found guilty of a capital crime. Why would it be ok for humans to bring justice to criminals but not for GOD to do so?

[Tcg]

Do you really believe that acts of gencide are necessary?

IF GOD has the authority and right to pass sentence and execute a criminal for his crimes then what does it matter if two criminals die in the same judgement?

Two? Here is the definition of genocide:

• gen·o·cide
  
  noun
  noun: genocide; plural noun: genocides
  the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation.

What ethnic group or nation consists of two people?


Tcg

[ttruscott]

No it doesn't. Read again:
ANY of the wild animals.
Cursed ABOVE ALL lifestock and wild animals.

It is clearly putting this snake in the category of wild animals.

Not at all...the animals and the serpent are combined only in one way - both were cursed by GOD, with the serpent cursed a bit harsher.

[OnceConvinced]

Nowhere does Christ suggest or encourage His sheep to 'become lost; to be stubborn; to be susceptible or gullible; or to be victims', etc.

It is implied if you are to be like sheep.

I would actually see what Tam is describing are attributes of faith. So indeed, Christ is suggesting just those things, bcause faith envelopes those things.
Well the stubborness and gullliblity anyway.

[OnceConvinced]

Do you really believe that acts of gencide are necessary?

IF GOD has the authority and right to pass sentence and execute a criminal for his crimes then what does it matter if two criminals die in the same judgement? IF true justice is served, what is the point of a limit upon the numbers of criminals it is served upon in any event?

All death comes only to sinners, those found guilty of a capital crime. Why would it be ok for humans to bring justice to criminals but not for GOD to do so?

You may see all babies as being evil due to having existed pre-birth, doing evil. I don't. I do not see babies as worthy of being slain along with the evil people.

And I certanily don't see animals as being worthy of death along with the evil humans.

It just seems to me you are attempting to justify extreme immorality and malevolence.

I cannot believe a loving god would be as evil and cruel as you and others are implying.

I flinch when I think I used to try to justify the bible in this manner. It bothers me that Christianity can cause someone to compromise their own moral integrity.

[ttruscott]

So every one who sins deserves to be torn apart by bears?

Everyone who sins is under the penalty of suffering and death... is how they die material?

And the same is still true today. Any one who breaks the smallest part of the God's law is guilty of breaking the whole law. You may say this is unfair,

I say more than that. I say it's immoral. Civilised society sees it the same way. It's why a person who say shop lifts gets a lighter sentence than say a murderer. It seems only people who follow old outdated barbaric ways would see it as moral and just.

This teaching is now one of the reasons I can't take the bible seriously and I cannot in all good conscience accept it as a moral guide.

The crime of every sin is not only found in the act done but in the anti-GOD impetus driving every sin, the rebellious spirit of every sinful act. Human limitations force us to judge by the severity of the act upon the victims but GOD ALSO judges all sin by one standard, is it in accord with HIS character or is it against HIS character. All our choices against HIM as the standard of morality are capital crimes. As sinners we understand these choices to be natural and human but they are not as we were created to be. They are the result of a free will decision to disobey GOD and to reject HIM as our moral authority. Most Christians accept so called civilized society to be corrupt to the core....the only civilized people in creation are the holy angels.

[OnceConvinced]

No it doesn't. Read again:
ANY of the wild animals.
Cursed ABOVE ALL lifestock and wild animals.

It is clearly putting this snake in the category of wild animals.

Not at all...the animals and the serpent are combined only in one way - both were cursed by GOD, with the serpent cursed a bit harsher.

That makes no sense at all. That would make all the animals guilty of evil as well. What did they do?

If you look at the chapter, God is addressing each offender one at a time and issuing them a punishment. Where does he issue a punishment to the wild and domestic animals? He only addresssed and punished the snake (and it seems all snakekind). There would be no reason at all to punish the other animals.

If it's as you calim then the verses would read:

Genesis 3:1
Now the serpent was more crafty than any creature the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?�

Genesis 3:14
So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this I'm going to curse you even more than I've cursed the livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.

Nowhere in this tale is it even implying that the snake is an angel. It's a nonsense comparison being made there if the snake was an angel.

If this was an angel then these verse would say:

Genesis 3:1
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the angels the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?�

Genesis 3:14
So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all angels!

But no, it doesn't say anything like that, does it?

Imagine if I were to tell you that Albert Einstein was the most intelligent human who ever lived. How would I say that?

Einstein was more intelligent than any of the other wild and domestic animals.

Of course I wouldn't say that. It's nonsensical. I would say:

Einstein was more intelligent than any of the other humans

If the snake was Satan or Lucifer, surely the story would make that quite clear wouldn't it? The book of Job refers to Lucifer, not a snake. Even the guys who came up with this story (The Jews) don't believe it's Satan. This is a retrofit made by Christians trying to create a new religion where the Hero is Jesus and there is an evil villain named Satan who needs to be vanquished. And they're making out Satan was around in old testament times.

[OnceConvinced]

So every one who sins deserves to be torn apart by bears?

Everyone who sins is under the penalty of suffering and death... is how they die material?

Of course it is. It shows us the immorality and cruelty of the judge/executioner. It shows us just how violent they are.

That's why we more civilised societies have moved away from such barbaric practises as hanging, stoning and the electric chair and moved to more humane methods like the injjection. In fact most civilised societies balk at even that! These days its not considered moral to put anyone to death but to chose more humane ways of dealing with them.

The manner of death is most definitely a key factor. The more cruel, the more evil the execution. The more evil the judge for imposing it.

So you have a god there who chooses barbaric and cruel methods of executions when he could easily just erase the perpertrators of existance with a spoken word.

As for the rest of your post, you are just getting into preaching mode there and its irrelevent to this thread. Let's stick with the topic.

Why does God choose barbaric and cruel methods over more humane methods?

[ttruscott]

Two?

Surely to be honest to morality, the death of a million psychopathic condemned prisoners who are not able to be rehabilitated should be preferable to the death of only one.

[Zzyzx]

.

Two?

Surely to be honest to morality, the death of a million psychopathic condemned prisoners who are not able to be rehabilitated should be preferable to the death of only one.

Where does one find "a million psychopathic condemned prisoners who are not able to be rehabilitated"?