Morality is not just an obligation equal in importance to the cult or religious obligations of Israel, but that morality is perhaps superior to the cult. The crimes that are denounced as being utterly unacceptable to Yahweh, infuriating Yahweh to the point of destruction of the nation of Israel, are the kinds of crimes we see around us everyday, taking bribes, improper weights and balances, lack of charity to the poor, indifference to the plight of the debtor. Injustice is sacrilege, the ideals of the covenant are of utmost importance. Prophets were sent to Israel, these prophets are called the standard bearers of the covenant, harking back to the covenant obligations. And without these, without the ideals of the covenant, the fulfillment of ritual obligations in and of itself is a farce. What Yahweh requires of Israel is morality and not cultic service. The prophets raised morality to the level of an absolute religious value, and they did so because they saw morality as essentially divine. The essence of Yahweh is his moral nature. Moral attributes are the essence of Yahweh himself, one strives to be Yahweh-like by his moral actions. Read more thatlifeyahwehhas blogspot
Biblical scholar Raymond Schwager:
“… has found 600 passages of explicit violence in the Hebrew Bible [a.k.a. Old Testament], 1000 verses where God’s own violent actions of punishment are described, 100 passages where God expressly commands others to kill people, and several stories where God irrationally kills or tries to kill for no apparent reason. Violence … is easily the most often mentioned activity in the Hebrew Bible.” 6
See more in my thread: Is the OT the barbaric and savage scripture in the world.
[QUOTE=Surya Deva;56597]Biblical scholar Raymond Schwager:
“… has found 600 passages of explicit violence in the Hebrew Bible [a.k.a. Old Testament], 1000 verses where God’s own violent actions of punishment are described, 100 passages where God expressly commands others to kill people, and several stories where God irrationally kills or tries to kill for no apparent reason. Violence … is easily the most often mentioned activity in the Hebrew Bible.” 6
See more in my thread: Is the OT the barbaric and savage scripture in the world.[/QUOTE]
That stuff is a trip, it is interesting how people in them days had their own god or gods; but what the people living on Yahweh’s land, seems they should have known who owned that land that was promised to Abraham.
The following crimes genocide, rape, stoning to death and burning alive innocent people, infanticide are not justifiable under any circumstances. Yet, these are crimes which are ordained by Yahweh in the bible or by the prophets.
Are you not glad you live in a society where genocide, rape, stoning to death innocent people and infanticide etc are recognised as crimes? If not, would you rather like in a Talibanized state?
Crazy things this world is and has been, one could say evil is on mans hands.
Indeed, but the answer to this craziness is humanity’s ignorance and low state of development. Compare the society you live in today to the society Abraham lived in, it is by far not perfect, but it is a damn sight better. In our modern society a woman will not get stoned to death just because she has not been found to be a virigin on the day of marriage or 32,000 women and children would not be massacred.
You have to recognise that the day the OT was written in was at a time when humans in the place and period were at a very low of level of moral development. What they wrote in the OT reflects their level of development. What can we more highly developed humans of the modern age who have such institutions as the UN charter, Geneva conventions, human rights, civil rights, animal rights, possibly learn from the OT? Do you want us to regress?
Good points, to regress, no, seems man made religion would want people to regress so they can control them. What about mans desire to control one fellow, maybe that control could lead to a lot of hurt.
Man wants to control others, because he wants control of himself. Man is torn apart from within by desires, worries, anxieties, fears. So he projects these onto the world, blaming others for his problems, and seeks solace by exerting his control on others. For another human being to rape another human being, is not because they are inherently evil, it is because they are a highly troubled mind and are suffering immensely within themselves and don’t know how they can control it, so they control others. Rape is an extreme form of control of another.
The solution is for man to learn how control his own internal state. For this we have the technology of Yoga. Yoga is nothing more than a collection of techniques to gain control of ones own mind.
The battlefield is in the mind, and what a battle it is sometimes, thanks for all your insights, good learning, thanks.
[QUOTE=newnature;56596]Morality is not just an obligation equal in importance to the cult or religious obligations of Israel, but that morality is perhaps superior to the cult. The crimes that are denounced as being utterly unacceptable to Yahweh, infuriating Yahweh to the point of destruction of the nation of Israel, are the kinds of crimes we see around us everyday, taking bribes, improper weights and balances, lack of charity to the poor, indifference to the plight of the debtor. Injustice is sacrilege, the ideals of the covenant are of utmost importance. Prophets were sent to Israel, these prophets are called the standard bearers of the covenant, harking back to the covenant obligations. And without these, without the ideals of the covenant, the fulfillment of ritual obligations in and of itself is a farce. What Yahweh requires of Israel is morality and not cultic service. The prophets raised morality to the level of an absolute religious value, and they did so because they saw morality as essentially divine. The essence of Yahweh is his moral nature. Moral attributes are the essence of Yahweh himself, one strives to be Yahweh-like by his moral actions. Read more thatlifeyahwehhas blogspot[/QUOTE]
Yawn* Uncivilized desert mentality garbage.