Babysitting question

[atheist buddy]

Imagine you HAD TO leave your child with a babysitter. You HAD TO.

You only had two options.

Either you leave your child with Person A or with Person B

Person A is a member of the American Skeptic's Society and only carries out actions that he believes are rational and just on the basis of rational thought. That's all you know about the person.

Person B is a fundamentalist Christian who follows the edicts of the Bible to the letter and believes that God's law trumps man's law. That's all you know about the person.


Question for debate: Who do you leave your child with?


My answer: With the skeptic. This way there at least is a chance that he will not kill my child for misbehaving.

[Clownboat]

Imagine you HAD TO leave your child with a babysitter. You HAD TO.

You only had two options.

Either you leave your child with Person A or with Person B

Person A is a member of the American Skeptic's Society and only carries out actions that he believes are rational and just on the basis of rational thought. That's all you know about the person.

Person B is a fundamentalist Christian who follows the edicts of the Bible to the letter and believes that God's law trumps man's law. That's all you know about the person.


Question for debate: Who do you leave your child with?


My answer: With the skeptic. This way there at least is a chance that he will not kill my child for misbehaving.

The skeptic of course.

Could you imagine if there really were people that followed the edicts of the Bible to the letter! The horror.

I submit that if such a person were to exist, no parent would send their child to them. Not even a fundamentalist Christian.

I say this because fundamentalist Christians currently are not killing their children for misbehaving nor stoning anyone (leaving exceptions to the rule out of course).

[ttruscott]

The rational sceptic of religion if unbalanced enough to be just as unduly influenced by such as

A Modest Proposal
For Preventing The Children of Poor People in Ireland
From Being Aburden to Their Parents or Country, and
For Making Them Beneficial to The Public

By Jonathan Swift

as the unbalanced Christian by the bible...

IF they are rational and caring who cares if they are committed to an existential angst or not?

I would accept neither if this is the only criteria, it is a false distinction of trustworthiness so the answers say more about the commitment of the answerer to their personal position than to a method to determine trustworthiness.

[atheist buddy]

The rational sceptic of religion if unbalanced enough to be just as unduly influenced by such as

A Modest Proposal
For Preventing The Children of Poor People in Ireland
From Being Aburden to Their Parents or Country, and
For Making Them Beneficial to The Public

By Jonathan Swift

as the unbalanced Christian by the bible...

IF they are rational and caring who cares if they are committed to an existential angst or not?

I would accept neither if this is the only criteria, it is a false distinction of trustworthiness so the answers say more about the commitment of the answerer to their personal position than to a method to determine trustworthiness.

Well, if they follow the Bible's edicts to the letter they CANNOT be rational and caring.

If they follow the Bible's edicts to the letter, they will kill the child at the first sign of disobedience.

[bluethread]

If they follow the Bible's edicts to the letter, they will kill the child at the first sign of disobedience.

Citation please.

[atheist buddy]

If they follow the Bible's edicts to the letter, they will kill the child at the first sign of disobedience.

Citation please.

exodus 21

[Hamsaka]

Imagine you HAD TO leave your child with a babysitter. You HAD TO.

You only had two options.

Either you leave your child with Person A or with Person B

Person A is a member of the American Skeptic's Society and only carries out actions that he believes are rational and just on the basis of rational thought. That's all you know about the person.

Person B is a fundamentalist Christian who follows the edicts of the Bible to the letter and believes that God's law trumps man's law. That's all you know about the person.


Question for debate: Who do you leave your child with?


My answer: With the skeptic. This way there at least is a chance that he will not kill my child for misbehaving.

Actually, a very similar thing happened to me, exactly like this.

My kids' daycare provider went out of business and I was searching for a new one. I found one directly across the street from their grade school. It was a lovely house, clean and child-friendly. The children looked happy and DANG I couldn't beat that it was right across the street from their grade school.

When I was signing the kids up, it came to my attention that the daycare provider was a Christian (most of them were, Jehovah's Witnesses in particular). I asked her about this, and she shortly informed me that the children in her daycare were taught blah blah blah including how the wages of sin are Hell. I blinked and asked my question again as I couldn't believe what she said. She repeated herself. "I teach the children the gospel of Jesus Christ, that they must believe in him and follow his commandments or be cast into Hell. I run a Christian daycare and there are no exceptions."

I didn't know it then but I could have complained to DSHS (on who's list this provider was). I put down my pen and told her I would not be using her services.

Most Christians (person B) are just FINE and as long as they kept an eye on my kid, didn't drug or abuse them or let them escape the yard, I don't care what their beliefs are.

And then some self-proclaimed Christians are, in my personal experience, grossly inappropriate, and believe they are entitled by righteousness to step far past the bounds of decency and lay their crap on others. To do this to CHILDREN is a form of human evil, IMO, in that it lacks the barest hint of sensitivity or compassion.

Any child of mine will go to person A rather than a person B with that daycare provider's . . . predilections. Maybe person A will debate my child or use polemics and rhetoric and send my kid home questioning their yet-to-be-outgrown magical thinking processes . But they aren't likely to hold my child's gaze and tell them they are going to HELL if they don't 'beleeeeev' in a man who's been dead for 2000 years and his invisible compatriots.

[bluethread]

If they follow the Bible's edicts to the letter, they will kill the child at the first sign of disobedience.

Citation please.

exodus 21

Let me help you here with a proper citation. In a list of offences and judgments one finds; 15 "Anyone who attacks his father or his mother must be put to death" and 17 "Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death." Since you say, "they will kill the child at the first sign of disobedience", I presume that you believe that this chapter is calling for vigilante justice, even though due process is repeatedly commanded in HaTorah, ie, Deut. 21:19 ". . . his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town." Also, why do you believe that the call for due process in Deut. 17 does not apply?

[Zzyzx]

.

Let me help you here with a proper citation. In a list of offences and judgments one finds; 15 "Anyone who attacks his father or his mother must be put to death" and 17 "Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death." Since you say, "they will kill the child at the first sign of disobedience", I presume that you believe that this chapter is calling for vigilante justice, even though due process is repeatedly commanded in HaTorah, ie, Deut. 21:19 ". . . his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town." Also, why do you believe that the call for due process in Deut. 17 does not apply?

Do you agree that a child / person who curses or attacks their parents MUST be put to death after being brought before elders at the town gate and given due process (perhaps two witnesses)?

[sf]

If they follow the Bible's edicts to the letter, they will kill the child at the first sign of disobedience.

Citation please.

exodus 21

Exodus 21 begins with "Now these are the judgments which thou shalt set before them." (verse 1) Who is "thou" and "them" in this context?