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Replying to post 37 by JehovahsWitness]
I never claimed that the bible endorsed rape. It does however treat women like they are property and have to marry who men say they should marry.
Even with all your justifications the whole system is still clearly immoral and a loving caring god could have come up with a much better system that didn't involve women having to deal with their attackers for the rest of their life.
If God were to apply the golden rule, then how about devising a system where society supports women who do not have men supporting them? Surely that wouldn’t be difficult for a god to do even thousands of years ago. After all he is a “my way or the highway� type of God. You do what he says or you pay.
So why not implement systems where women are financially suppported? Like we do now?
And let’s not forget that women, even back then would have been capable of looking after themselves. They could have even worked together to support themselves. But no, the system back then would never allow that, would it? Women were expected to stay at home, look after the kids, provide sex and do the cooking and cleaning. That’s the system they were under, which could also have been changed if there was a loving caring god, giving guidelines and rules. It’s a system that could have changed if the golden rule was applied.
It just all reeks of primitive man to me. Men who saw women as their personal property to trade and do with as they wanted.
Was the girl forced to marry her aggressor?
No.
Where does the bible say that they could decline to marry their aggressor? And what woman in her right mind would marry him anyway, even under social pressure. It doesn't make sense at all and it's still highly immoral. A loving caring god would surely not incorporate such a horrendous system where women are pressured into marrying just to please everybody else.
The bible makes it quite clear that they can NEVER be devorced. They can never be free. That doesn’t sound like they have much choice in the matter. They are forced into it just as the rapist is. However for some reason it’s considered a punishment for the rapist but not for the victim.
I don't buy that even in those days women would prefer to be married to their rapists than be old maids. No matter how much of a struggle it might be.
unfortunately a rape victim had a lower chance of being viewed as a suitable wife
and so the girl risked having no means of support when her father died).
A clearly immoral system where women were forced into marriage if they wanted to survive.
The golden rule was not applied was is? ie If I were in a situation where I could not support myself, I would want to be helped. But in a way that does not throw me into a loveless situation where I have to relive the nightmares of my earlier suffering.
A god could easily have dictated rules so that women were not in a situation where they needed men to support them. But no, they were the property of men. They had few rights and had to do what they were told. So no wonder they were in that horrible position. They should never have been in it to begin with.
These days we know women can look after themselves without the need for fathers and husbands. Of course it would have been the same back then if they had been empowered to do so. But they weren’t.
In today's society, marriage is not important. A woman is quite capable of looking after herself and it's quite fine never to be married. Why would God have not made that quite clear to people thousands of years ago? “Hey people. You don’t actually have to be married. Just make sure that everyone is cared for no matter what.�
This is a god we're talking about. If he doesn't like something he orders things to change. Clearly this god didn't give two hoots about the golden rule.
All I see is a lot of justifications for a system that could have been way better if a god was in control, making the rules. There are no excuses for the horrors ancient men put on their womenfolk. There are no excuses for treating women like cattle.
If acceptable to her father that was always an option
Another example of how women were treated like property. It's all up to the father, not the daughter. She doesn't get any say.
also labelled the man a criminal of the worst kind
Where in the bible is this stated?
I find that claim hard to believe, when women were considered the property of men. From what I can see in the bible the thing with rape was "how dare you do that to my property? She belongs to ME!" Whicih is why adultery was such a huge deal. "Don't you dare mess with me wife! She's MY property!"
Otherwise who cared about the woman? They were the ones responsible for the fall of man in the Garden of Evil. They deserve to be under our thumb.
What I see these types of justifications being made for the bible is shows me even more that Christians have to compromise their own moral integrity to continue to believe.
