Evolution and Creationism

[Varthikes]

And for this they deserved to be murdered to the last man woman and child?

They were in defiance of God. They had the opportunity to turn around as did Rahab and the Gibeonites, who both demonstrated faith in Him.

So, mass murder is an acceptable punishment for defending your city against aggressors is it? You could use a similar argument to say that every non-Catholic on the planet (all 5 billion of them) should be executed if they don't convert.

First, I'm not Catholic, nor am I belonging to any of Christendom's religions.

Second, their crime was not that they were defending their city. Their crime, as I mentioned before, was turning to lifeless statues for worship and what they did in their worship of those statues. Sacrificing their children among other "things". "Things" that are all right in their natural use and intended place, but inappropriate in worship.

Capital punishment for childish disobedience? This doesn't strike you as a tad excessive?

It wasn't mere childish disobediance. It was outright rebellion and greed and it affected the entire nation of Israel.

What rebellion? I was reffering to the Cpl's point about the Bible stating that children should be stoned if they disobeyed their parents.

I was assuming he was referring to a certain account that took place after Jericho where some of the Isrealites secretly took plunder that was slated for destruction.

Kendall: Perhaps you could point out the passage you had in mind about the stoning?

[Captain Seafort]

First, I'm not Catholic, nor am I belonging to any of Christendom's religions.

Fair enough.

Second, their crime was not that they were defending their city. Their crime, as I mentioned before, was turning to lifeless statues for worship and what they did in their worship of those statues. Sacrificing their children among other "things". "Things" that are all right in their natural use and intended place, but inappropriate in worship.

Apart from the business of human sacrifice, explain how any of this is immoral, compared with the act of mass-murder. To an extent you could argue that the Israelites themselves worshipped a "thing" - the Ark of the Covenant.

[Aaron]

I can't find the passage about the stoning but here's a few about killing your kids for various offences:

Whoever strikes his father or mother shall be put to death. (Exodus 21:15 NAB)

If one curses his father or mother, his lamp will go out at the coming of darkness. (Proverbs 20:20 NAB)

All who curse their father or mother must be put to death. They are guilty of a capital offense. (Leviticus 20:9 NLT)

*Edit: Found the stoning verse:

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 (NIV): If a man has a stubborn
and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will
not listen to them when they discipline him, his father and mother
shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of
his town. They shall say to the elders, "This son of ours is
stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a profligate
and a drunkard." Then all the men of his town shall stone him
to death.

[Granitehewer]

Its shocking, that proponents of various faiths, can shrug off acts of genocide because 'the creator ordained it' and 'we cannot comprehend the mysterious ways of the divine, so who are we to impose our values on his wishes?' etc
Appreciate, i probably just sound like a disney-addicted drama queen here, but so many religions loudly clamouring the sanctity of life and releasing doves of peace, seem so inadvertently contradictory or blatently deceptive...