Can you be smarter than even “God”?

[Joy4Uall]

Would YOU have picked a mass-murderer (Moses) to give the most important message of all time (allegedly - the 10 Commandments) to? I assume that you are smarter than that?

You're assuming God did pick Moses to do this. I'm fascinated by your line of argument since 1) you are tacitly accepting there is an Abrahamic God, 2) Moses is guilty of "mass-murder" verses simply exercising the natural right of self-defense and 3) that Moses was given divine powers to commit such an act as parting the Red Sea or calling upon the Angel of Death.

I applaud you for address the specifics.
In a perfect world I'd preface every claim from the Bible with "assuming that the Bible is true....."
Moses' killing of the 3000 was not "self-defense"....he heard voices in his head ("god") so he had 3000 slaughtered. Scientific Humanists love people too much (also like Abraham who was going to kill his son because he heard voices in his head) to kill them if we hear voices in our head - we also are smarter than Moses/Abraham because we realize that voices in our heads are far far far more likely to be something that should land us in a mental hospital for help rather than "I'm so special that the creator of the entire universe is talking directly to me!".

We are a humble belief system.

 

[Joy4Uall]

Where have you specifically tackled each of the 4 (or even one!) points in the OP!? My guess is that you haven't because those 4 points are very true to the SH teachings (logical, reasoned, use common sense, and scientifically correct), so you can't refute them point by point. So could I suggest that SH might be a direction for you to go in your life since it would appear that Jesus has ill-prepared you to defeat Scientific Humanism. Keep in mind that we want to bring forward the best parts of the top 10 religions, so the truly great parts of the Bible are indeed a part of SH, such as our #8 of our Top 10 Commandments: "do charity/volunteer work". Center for Scientific Humanism: The Ten Commandments of Scientific Humanism

I haven't. How does that prove your claim that I cannot refute them? Are you accepting that absence of evidence is not evidence of absence or are you asserting that absence of evidence proves your point?

Refute each of the 4 claims, specifically, and then we can continue, my friend.

Why? As you've done with several posts, you not only make false accusations, but you cherry-pick your "facts" out of context, assert your beliefs upon them then stand back like a Sophomoric adolescent, fold your arms and say "Prove me wrong".

When you apologize for making false accusations against me and stop cherry-picking your "facts", I'll consider you rational enough to have an adult conversation on dogmatic religions and "Scientific Humanism".

Where specifically am I "cherry-picking"?
Wouldn't a book from god be so good that it could not be "cherry-picked" by mere humans?

 

[Joy4Uall]

Would YOU have picked a mass-murderer (Moses) to give the most important message of all time (allegedly - the 10 Commandments) to? I assume that you are smarter than that?

You're assuming God did pick Moses to do this. I'm fascinated by your line of argument since 1) you are tacitly accepting there is an Abrahamic God, 2) Moses is guilty of "mass-murder" verses simply exercising the natural right of self-defense and 3) that Moses was given divine powers to commit such an act as parting the Red Sea or calling upon the Angel of Death.

You would not have picked Moses (a mass-murderer, who even approved of rape of captured virgins, and killing all those women who were not virgins), correct?

 

[Divine Wind]

We like some of the philosophical teachings in the Bible, and urge people to read the Bible and all of the top 10 religions - lots of good stuff there. New Atheists tend to only bash, in a mean-spirited way, the Bible and other religions. They say mostly what they are against (Dawkins had a big "A" button on his lapel - he's Atheist - "a" means non, I'm NOT a theist). We like to spell out what we are FOR, mostly.

But ultimately we couldn't ethically bring forward into our belief system the immoral parts of the Bible (it's ok to beat slaves to death as long as the death drags out past a few days), so we have a more ethical belief system - the best of the best - than Christians have. Our children deserve the best! I'm sure that you love your kids too much to endorse a book (Bible/Qur'an) that says to KILL them if they turn out like god (allegedly) made them - say if they turn out gay.

Scientific Humanism:
No slavery.

Bible:
When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property. (Exodus 21:20-21 NAB)

"We"? I've noticed you've done this a few times. One might be a simple writing error, but multiple times proves you intended to say "we". Are you the official spokesperson for all "Scientific Humanists"? Is that an elected position or an appointed one?

Very valid question. When I say "we" I'm generally referring to the typical Scientific Humanist, but I have not been elected Pope of Scientific Humanism.

How about the High Priest of Atheists like Richard Dawkins?

 

[rightwinger]

Why I am smarter than God

My 10 commandments are superior to those written by God

What I would include in my Ten Commandments

1. Treat others as you prefer to be treated, look at the world from the perspective of others as well as your own


2.Thou shall not allow slavery. Moses led the Hebrews out of slavery and struggled to free them. Yet God does not even prohibit slavery in his ten commandments. I would prohibit slavery and order employers to pay an honest wage and order workers to give an honest days work

3 Thou shall be clean in thy person and thy environment. God could have saved hundreds of millions of lives with this one. Sanitation was a major killer of mankind. Keep yourself clean to avoid germs. Do not pollute your drinking water or your environment. Could have prevented the plague and other killer diseases

4. Thou shall not engage in War. War is a practice of man and not God. God should encourage peaceful resolution of conflicts and consider war an act against God

5. Thou shall educate yourself and others. A critical trait of man. Learning and the spread of knowledge. You should strive to learn your whole life and spread knowledge to others

6. I would expand the honor your father and mother to honor your family. Parents should honor their kids, make sure they are fed and clothed and protected. You should work hard to take care of your family

7. Leave the world better than you found it

8. Show concern for the well being of others. Strive to help those in need

9. Judge all persons on the basis of their character regardless of sex, race, religion or culture

10. Thou shall not be greedy

I'm so impressed with you.
You're arguably a Scientific Humanist, as your #8 is almost the SAME as SH's #8!
"8. Do charity/volunteer work."
Center for Scientific Humanism: The Ten Commandments of Scientific Humanism

Your (and our) top 10 is better for the world than god/Moses', so you need to tell the world about this! You just moved beyond even the #1 role model of all time for 2.1 billion people....just think about how significant that is. You also have more drive, and more faith in yourself, than those 2.1 billion people since you dared to improve on even "god's" top 10 commands!

The 10 Commandments were not God's best day. He wasted the first four telling people "you better worship me or else" It was the work of a very insecure God.

What always puzzled me was how Moses struggled to rescue the Jews from slavery and God could not even find room in his commandments to say slavery is bad. Coveting is bad....slavery? Not so much

We like some of the philosophical teachings in the Bible, and urge people to read the Bible and all of the top 10 religions - lots of good stuff there. New Atheists tend to only bash, in a mean-spirited way, the Bible and other religions. They say mostly what they are against (Dawkins had a big "A" button on his lapel - he's Atheist - "a" means non, I'm NOT a theist). We like to spell out what we are FOR, mostly.

But ultimately we couldn't ethically bring forward into our belief system the immoral parts of the Bible (it's ok to beat slaves to death as long as the death drags out past a few days), so we have a more ethical belief system - the best of the best - than Christians have. Our children deserve the best! I'm sure that you love your kids too much to endorse a book (Bible/Qur'an) that says to KILL them if they turn out like god (allegedly) made them - say if they turn out gay.

Scientific Humanism:
No slavery.

Bible:
When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property. (Exodus 21:20-21 NAB)

As a society, we are more ethical than the Bible

Our society has outlawed slavery, provided equal rights to women, recognized Civil Rights, accepted gays as equals, outlawed cruel and unusual punishment, protected children, many states have outlawed capital punishment

Things the Bible still endorses

 

[Joy4Uall]

Why I am smarter than God

My 10 commandments are superior to those written by God

What I would include in my Ten Commandments

1. Treat others as you prefer to be treated, look at the world from the perspective of others as well as your own


2.Thou shall not allow slavery. Moses led the Hebrews out of slavery and struggled to free them. Yet God does not even prohibit slavery in his ten commandments. I would prohibit slavery and order employers to pay an honest wage and order workers to give an honest days work

3 Thou shall be clean in thy person and thy environment. God could have saved hundreds of millions of lives with this one. Sanitation was a major killer of mankind. Keep yourself clean to avoid germs. Do not pollute your drinking water or your environment. Could have prevented the plague and other killer diseases

4. Thou shall not engage in War. War is a practice of man and not God. God should encourage peaceful resolution of conflicts and consider war an act against God

5. Thou shall educate yourself and others. A critical trait of man. Learning and the spread of knowledge. You should strive to learn your whole life and spread knowledge to others

6. I would expand the honor your father and mother to honor your family. Parents should honor their kids, make sure they are fed and clothed and protected. You should work hard to take care of your family

7. Leave the world better than you found it

8. Show concern for the well being of others. Strive to help those in need

9. Judge all persons on the basis of their character regardless of sex, race, religion or culture

10. Thou shall not be greedy

I'm so impressed with you.
You're arguably a Scientific Humanist, as your #8 is almost the SAME as SH's #8!
"8. Do charity/volunteer work."
Center for Scientific Humanism: The Ten Commandments of Scientific Humanism

Your (and our) top 10 is better for the world than god/Moses', so you need to tell the world about this! You just moved beyond even the #1 role model of all time for 2.1 billion people....just think about how significant that is. You also have more drive, and more faith in yourself, than those 2.1 billion people since you dared to improve on even "god's" top 10 commands!

The 10 Commandments were not God's best day. .......

His WORST day was committing genocide of humans, and even genocide of animals, in his horrific "flood". To be the best parents we can possible be, we Modern Secular humanist believe that we can create texts that don't bring forward approval of genocide, which the Bible does. Love your children more than that. They are our most precious resource. Give them better role models than those who commit genocide. Show them that love is the answer, not killing. Forgiveness is the way, not mass-murder. Your children deserve that - they deserve this love (that SH teaches.)

 

[Divine Wind]

You would not have picked Moses (a mass-murderer, who even approved of rape of captured virgins, and killing all those women who were not virgins), correct?

You're so funny. It's like watching a five year old blame a broken lamp on the dog.

In this case, your cherry-picking of events, false assertions and sophomoric arguments such as leading questions which say things like: "Moses (a mass-murderer, who even approved of rape of captured virgins, and killing all those women who were not virgins)"

 

[OZman]

In the following parable, Jesus approves of beating slaves even if they didn’t know they were doing wrong - and he never spoke against slavery (so we assume he fully accepted slavery):
The servant will be severely punished, for though he knew his duty, he refused to do it. “But people who are not aware that they are doing wrong will be punished only lightly. Much is required from those to whom much is given, and much more is required from those to whom much more is given.” (Luke 12:47-48 NLT)

A servant in this parable is not a "slave".

"Behold my servant shall deal wisely,
he shall be exalted and lifted up, and
shall be very high."—Is. lii. 13.

 

[Divine Wind]

As a society, we are more ethical than the Bible

Our society has outlawed slavery, provided equal rights to women, recognized Civil Rights, accepted gays as equals, outlawed cruel and unusual punishment, protected children, many states have outlawed capital punishment

Things the Bible still endorses

According to the OT. Again, more cherry-picking from religious partisans.

 

[Joy4Uall]

We like some of the philosophical teachings in the Bible, and urge people to read the Bible and all of the top 10 religions - lots of good stuff there. New Atheists tend to only bash, in a mean-spirited way, the Bible and other religions. They say mostly what they are against (Dawkins had a big "A" button on his lapel - he's Atheist - "a" means non, I'm NOT a theist). We like to spell out what we are FOR, mostly.

But ultimately we couldn't ethically bring forward into our belief system the immoral parts of the Bible (it's ok to beat slaves to death as long as the death drags out past a few days), so we have a more ethical belief system - the best of the best - than Christians have. Our children deserve the best! I'm sure that you love your kids too much to endorse a book (Bible/Qur'an) that says to KILL them if they turn out like god (allegedly) made them - say if they turn out gay.

Scientific Humanism:
No slavery.

Bible:
When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property. (Exodus 21:20-21 NAB)

"We"? I've noticed you've done this a few times. One might be a simple writing error, but multiple times proves you intended to say "we". Are you the official spokesperson for all "Scientific Humanists"? Is that an elected position or an appointed one?

Very valid question. When I say "we" I'm generally referring to the typical Scientific Humanist, but I have not been elected Pope of Scientific Humanism.

How about the High Priest of Atheists like Richard Dawkins?

Good one. Yes, some New Atheists have raised him to god-like status....ironic, no? Hehe. "Atheist Pope Richard Dawkins".

Fortunately, Scientific Humanists have moved beyond Dawkins to not create a mean-spirited belief system - Dawkins is often viewed as mean and condescending to no end. He also doesn't promote, as much, what he's FOR. In that photoshopped graphic it even shows the religious symbols crossed out, we don't do that, we bring forward the scientifically-correct parts that happen to be what's best for the world (Golden Rule, etc.). But no, like Dawkins, we know that science is more accurate than the unscientific parts of those religions' texts. Dawkins and Scientific Humanists are too smart to bring forward the dragons, and unicorns, and "angels" (and "jinns" in Islam) that the Bible mentions.
We have many things that we are FOR (see below).
The more one if FOR something, and less only AGAINST something, the better off it is for the world. A positive belief system, not a negative one.


The Ten Commandments of Scientific Humanism

1. Believe in freedom:
a. Political (secular democracy)
b. Religious
c. Freedom of speech (vs. being overly politically-correct, etc.)

2. Be extremely skeptical of all supernatural-related claims.
For the answers to Universe/Nature look to evidence-based scientific-inquiry (current and future progress,) and human reason.

3. Increase the overall happiness of society, by being very ethical, legal, and being good for the sake of being good.

4. Have love and compassion for everyone in the world brother/sisterhood, even people of different religious/political/societal beliefs, and your “enemies”. Treat others as you would want to be treated.

5. Treat people equally, regardless of gender, race, “caste”, sexual-orientation, etc.

6. Follow our '12 Best Steps to Wellness''

7. Work smart and hard.

8. Do charity/volunteer work.

9. Work for peace and harmony.

10. Help our environment.

 

[Joy4Uall]

As a society, we are more ethical than the Bible

Our society has outlawed slavery, provided equal rights to women, recognized Civil Rights, accepted gays as equals, outlawed cruel and unusual punishment, protected children, many states have outlawed capital punishment

Things the Bible still endorses

According to the OT. Again, more cherry-picking from religious partisans.

The OT is still in the Bible that Christians give their children - but not in Scientific Humanism (except for parts that might "rate" - compared to the best parts of Buddhism, New Atheism, Hinduism, etc.)

 

[Joy4Uall]

Why I am smarter than God

My 10 commandments are superior to those written by God

What I would include in my Ten Commandments

1. Treat others as you prefer to be treated, look at the world from the perspective of others as well as your own


2.Thou shall not allow slavery. Moses led the Hebrews out of slavery and struggled to free them. Yet God does not even prohibit slavery in his ten commandments. I would prohibit slavery and order employers to pay an honest wage and order workers to give an honest days work

3 Thou shall be clean in thy person and thy environment. God could have saved hundreds of millions of lives with this one. Sanitation was a major killer of mankind. Keep yourself clean to avoid germs. Do not pollute your drinking water or your environment. Could have prevented the plague and other killer diseases

4. Thou shall not engage in War. War is a practice of man and not God. God should encourage peaceful resolution of conflicts and consider war an act against God

5. Thou shall educate yourself and others. A critical trait of man. Learning and the spread of knowledge. You should strive to learn your whole life and spread knowledge to others

6. I would expand the honor your father and mother to honor your family. Parents should honor their kids, make sure they are fed and clothed and protected. You should work hard to take care of your family

7. Leave the world better than you found it

8. Show concern for the well being of others. Strive to help those in need

9. Judge all persons on the basis of their character regardless of sex, race, religion or culture

10. Thou shall not be greedy

I'm so impressed with you.
You're arguably a Scientific Humanist, as your #8 is almost the SAME as SH's #8!
"8. Do charity/volunteer work."
Center for Scientific Humanism: The Ten Commandments of Scientific Humanism

Your (and our) top 10 is better for the world than god/Moses', so you need to tell the world about this! You just moved beyond even the #1 role model of all time for 2.1 billion people....just think about how significant that is. You also have more drive, and more faith in yourself, than those 2.1 billion people since you dared to improve on even "god's" top 10 commands!

The 10 Commandments were not God's best day. He wasted the first four telling people "you better worship me or else" It was the work of a very insecure God.

What always puzzled me was how Moses struggled to rescue the Jews from slavery and God could not even find room in his commandments to say slavery is bad. Coveting is bad....slavery? Not so much

We like some of the philosophical teachings in the Bible, and urge people to read the Bible and all of the top 10 religions - lots of good stuff there. New Atheists tend to only bash, in a mean-spirited way, the Bible and other religions. They say mostly what they are against (Dawkins had a big "A" button on his lapel - he's Atheist - "a" means non, I'm NOT a theist). We like to spell out what we are FOR, mostly.

But ultimately we couldn't ethically bring forward into our belief system the immoral parts of the Bible (it's ok to beat slaves to death as long as the death drags out past a few days), so we have a more ethical belief system - the best of the best - than Christians have. Our children deserve the best! I'm sure that you love your kids too much to endorse a book (Bible/Qur'an) that says to KILL them if they turn out like god (allegedly) made them - say if they turn out gay.

Scientific Humanism:
No slavery.

Bible:
When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property. (Exodus 21:20-21 NAB)

As a society, we are more ethical than the Bible

Our society has outlawed slavery, provided equal rights to women, recognized Civil Rights, accepted gays as equals, outlawed cruel and unusual punishment, protected children, many states have outlawed capital punishment

Things the Bible still endorses

Scientific Humanists love their children ENOUGH, ENOUGH to have moved beyond putting those immoral crimes in our texts. We can be a great role model for those of other belief systems. We love them more than they love us - until they can find enough love in their hearts to jettison the parts of their texts that say non-believers deserve nothing but brutal torture in the "after-life". Let's lead them to a more ethical world. They just need to be shown a better way.

 

[Joy4Uall]

As a society, we are more ethical than the Bible

Our society has outlawed slavery, provided equal rights to women, recognized Civil Rights, accepted gays as equals, outlawed cruel and unusual punishment, protected children, many states have outlawed capital punishment

Things the Bible still endorses

According to the OT. Again, more cherry-picking from religious partisans.

Keep in mind that the NT says, in Romans, that gays can't get into heaven. Can we agree that our "love gays, equally" is far better for the world than saying gays are such scum that they will be tortured in "hell", and are not worthy of "heaven", Divine.Wind? Seems like the loving thing to do. We believe "when in doubt, choose love, not hate."

 

[Joy4Uall]

Why I am smarter than God

My 10 commandments are superior to those written by God

What I would include in my Ten Commandments

1. Treat others as you prefer to be treated, look at the world from the perspective of others as well as your own


2.Thou shall not allow slavery. Moses led the Hebrews out of slavery and struggled to free them. Yet God does not even prohibit slavery in his ten commandments. I would prohibit slavery and order employers to pay an honest wage and order workers to give an honest days work

3 Thou shall be clean in thy person and thy environment. God could have saved hundreds of millions of lives with this one. Sanitation was a major killer of mankind. Keep yourself clean to avoid germs. Do not pollute your drinking water or your environment. Could have prevented the plague and other killer diseases

4. Thou shall not engage in War. War is a practice of man and not God. God should encourage peaceful resolution of conflicts and consider war an act against God

5. Thou shall educate yourself and others. A critical trait of man. Learning and the spread of knowledge. You should strive to learn your whole life and spread knowledge to others

6. I would expand the honor your father and mother to honor your family. Parents should honor their kids, make sure they are fed and clothed and protected. You should work hard to take care of your family

7. Leave the world better than you found it

8. Show concern for the well being of others. Strive to help those in need

9. Judge all persons on the basis of their character regardless of sex, race, religion or culture

10. Thou shall not be greedy

I'm so impressed with you.
You're arguably a Scientific Humanist, as your #8 is almost the SAME as SH's #8!
"8. Do charity/volunteer work."
Center for Scientific Humanism: The Ten Commandments of Scientific Humanism

Your (and our) top 10 is better for the world than god/Moses', so you need to tell the world about this! You just moved beyond even the #1 role model of all time for 2.1 billion people....just think about how significant that is. You also have more drive, and more faith in yourself, than those 2.1 billion people since you dared to improve on even "god's" top 10 commands!

The 10 Commandments were not God's best day. He wasted the first four telling people "you better worship me or else" It was the work of a very insecure God.

What always puzzled me was how Moses struggled to rescue the Jews from slavery and God could not even find room in his commandments to say slavery is bad. Coveting is bad....slavery? Not so much

We like some of the philosophical teachings in the Bible, and urge people to read the Bible and all of the top 10 religions - lots of good stuff there. New Atheists tend to only bash, in a mean-spirited way, the Bible and other religions. They say mostly what they are against (Dawkins had a big "A" button on his lapel - he's Atheist - "a" means non, I'm NOT a theist). We like to spell out what we are FOR, mostly.

But ultimately we couldn't ethically bring forward into our belief system the immoral parts of the Bible (it's ok to beat slaves to death as long as the death drags out past a few days), so we have a more ethical belief system - the best of the best - than Christians have. Our children deserve the best! I'm sure that you love your kids too much to endorse a book (Bible/Qur'an) that says to KILL them if they turn out like god (allegedly) made them - say if they turn out gay.

Scientific Humanism:
No slavery.

Bible:
When a man strikes his male or female slave with a rod so hard that the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. If, however, the slave survives for a day or two, he is not to be punished, since the slave is his own property. (Exodus 21:20-21 NAB)

As a society, we are more ethical than the Bible

Our society has outlawed slavery, provided equal rights to women, recognized Civil Rights, accepted gays as equals, outlawed cruel and unusual punishment, protected children, many states have outlawed capital punishment

Things the Bible still endorses

So apparently the OP is indeed correct - that we can indeed be "smarter than god".
You seem wiser and more ethical than Jesus. But we have a lot of work still to do as "No" is beating "Yes" by 7:4. The world needs our help.

 

[rightwinger]

In the following parable, Jesus approves of beating slaves even if they didn’t know they were doing wrong - and he never spoke against slavery (so we assume he fully accepted slavery):
The servant will be severely punished, for though he knew his duty, he refused to do it. “But people who are not aware that they are doing wrong will be punished only lightly. Much is required from those to whom much is given, and much more is required from those to whom much more is given.” (Luke 12:47-48 NLT)

A servant in this parable is not a "slave".

"Behold my servant shall deal wisely,
he shall be exalted and lifted up, and
shall be very high."—Is. lii. 13.

Since the Bible was not written in English, it is difficult to say whether the interpretation of servant or slave is correct. Servant implies wages and being free to leave at any time...I don't think this was the case
In either case, beating and killing is not warranted in any ethical society

 

[Joy4Uall]

You would not have picked Moses (a mass-murderer, who even approved of rape of captured virgins, and killing all those women who were not virgins), correct?

You're so funny. It's like watching a five year old blame a broken lamp on the dog.

In this case, your cherry-picking of events, false assertions and sophomoric arguments such as leading questions which say things like: "Moses (a mass-murderer, who even approved of rape of captured virgins, and killing all those women who were not virgins)"

I don't claim to know everything about the Bible, but I can educate you here that Moses was a mass-murderer (based on one's religion - kind of like ISIS) - and Scientific Humanists believe in our children so much that we feel they deserve better role models than that. We dearly love Christians, and can show them a better way.

Exodus 32:25-28 (NASB)
Now when Moses saw that the people were out of control—for Aaron had let them get out of control to be a derision among their enemies—then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, “Whoever is for the LORD, come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him. He said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Every man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his neighbor.’ ” So the sons of Levi did as Moses instructed, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day.

 

[rightwinger]

Behold, atheists' new Ten Commandments - CNN.com


1. Be open-minded and be willing to alter your beliefs with new evidence.
2. Strive to understand what is most likely to be true, not to believe what you wish to be true.
3. The scientific method is the most reliable way of understanding the natural world.
4. Every person has the right to control of their body.
5. God is not necessary to be a good person or to live a full and meaningful life.
6. Be mindful of the consequences of all your actions and recognize that you must take responsibility for them.
7. Treat others as you would want them to treat you, and can reasonably expect them to want to be treated. Think about their perspective.
8. We have the responsibility to consider others, including future generations.
9. There is no one right way to live.
10. Leave the world a better place than you found it.

 

[Joy4Uall]

In the following parable, Jesus approves of beating slaves even if they didn’t know they were doing wrong - and he never spoke against slavery (so we assume he fully accepted slavery):
The servant will be severely punished, for though he knew his duty, he refused to do it. “But people who are not aware that they are doing wrong will be punished only lightly. Much is required from those to whom much is given, and much more is required from those to whom much more is given.” (Luke 12:47-48 NLT)

A servant in this parable is not a "slave".

"Behold my servant shall deal wisely,
he shall be exalted and lifted up, and
shall be very high."—Is. lii. 13.

Since the Bible was not written in English, it is difficult to say whether the interpretation of servant or slave is correct. Servant implies wages and being free to leave at any time...I don't think this was the case
In either case, beating and killing is not warranted in any ethical society

rightwinger, as effectively a Scientific Humanist, I'm 100% sure that you can answer "yes" to this question (Christians won't answer "yes", so we need to help them see a more ethical way): "would you, if you had Jesus' alleged all-powerful skills, have pointed out which of the OT verses are immoral - especially if you were a self-proclaimed moral teacher like Jesus was?"

Since Jesus didn't do that (or else of course many of the 1321 cruel and violent verses in the Bible would not be there anymore - Christians would find their morality), people are left to wonder "is slavery and killing and beating ok, or is the OT wrong?"

You answer "yes", right, uh, rightwinger?

 

[Joy4Uall]

Behold, atheists' new Ten Commandments - CNN.com


1. Be open-minded and be willing to alter your beliefs with new evidence.
2. Strive to understand what is most likely to be true, not to believe what you wish to be true.
3. The scientific method is the most reliable way of understanding the natural world.
4. Every person has the right to control of their body.
5. God is not necessary to be a good person or to live a full and meaningful life.
6. Be mindful of the consequences of all your actions and recognize that you must take responsibility for them.
7. Treat others as you would want them to treat you, and can reasonably expect them to want to be treated. Think about their perspective.
8. We have the responsibility to consider others, including future generations.
9. There is no one right way to live.
10. Leave the world a better place than you found it.

Great. And you believe that humanity can IMPROVE on these 10 commandments, eventually, in the future, right? If so, they you have more faith than Christians do - more faith in HUMANITY, that is! Faith in humanity is a good thing. Faith that invisible people that fly around with wings on ("angels") is less good - and quite hypocritical for a parent who demands that their children do well in SCIENCE class, obviously. Let's be intellectually consistent.

 

[OZman]

In the following parable, Jesus approves of beating slaves even if they didn’t know they were doing wrong - and he never spoke against slavery (so we assume he fully accepted slavery):
The servant will be severely punished, for though he knew his duty, he refused to do it. “But people who are not aware that they are doing wrong will be punished only lightly. Much is required from those to whom much is given, and much more is required from those to whom much more is given.” (Luke 12:47-48 NLT)

A servant in this parable is not a "slave".

"Behold my servant shall deal wisely,
he shall be exalted and lifted up, and
shall be very high."—Is. lii. 13.

Since the Bible was not written in English, it is difficult to say whether the interpretation of servant or slave is correct. Servant implies wages and being free to leave at any time...I don't think this was the case
In either case, beating and killing is not warranted in any ethical society

Parables are not meant to be taken literally. Servant in this parable implies "spiritual" servant, imo.