Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Yahweh And Abortion


The following is from the Yahoo group, Xianity, March 2014. My comments are in blue:

Till's point is well taken, that the stance taken by the Hebrew/Christian god Yahweh in the OT is contrary to what fundamentalist Christians believe about abortion. Exodus 21:22 is noteworthy because it is a law given to the Israelites BY Yahweh, that if a pregnant woman is accidentally injured when two men are fighting has a miscarriage as a result, the penalty for such depends on whether the fetus is developed enough to survive. If the fetus is "imperfectly formed", i.e., not viable outside the womb then only a fine is levied. But if the fetus is "perfectly formed", i.e, viable outside the womb then, depending on the severity of the injury, "he shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe." (Septuagint).

Till accurately sums up the situation in the following quote from the article:

"In other words, the law was apparently recognizing the difference in the death of an unborn child in the early stages of pregnancy, when it had not had time to form "perfectly," and the death of one in the later stages of pregnancy, when it had had time to form perfectly. The way this law was worded seemed to recognize a difference in the importance of an embryo that had not yet taken human form and one that had. An injury that caused the death of the former was punishable by just a fine, but an injury that caused the death of the latter called for imposition of the eye-for-an-eye-law or, in other words, imposition of the death penalty. This passage, then, certainly is not friendly to the often heard pro-life view that abortion at any stage of pregnancy is the same as murdering a person, because Hebrew law, which fundamentalist Christians believe was God's law, extracted a lesser penalty for the killing of an embryo in its early stages than was extracted for the killing of an embryo that had advanced far enough to be fully formed. One could say, then, that this law was consistent with modern court rulings that allow abortions in the early stages of pregnancy but restrict them in the latter stages."

The trial by ordeal of a woman who is suspected of infidelity is also particularly telling concerning the Yahweh of the OT for his uncaring attitude toward a fetus in such a situation. Of all the ways that he could have chosen to show the guilt or innocence of an accused wife, he chose a barbaric ritual common to other primitive people who were neighbors of the Israelites. One in which, if such rituals actually happened, caused the deaths of untold numbers of fetuses at all levels of maturity. The procedure is found in Numbers 5:11-31. Till's comments from the article, again, are accurate:

"This passage describes a trial by ordealwhich was a primitive way of determining guilt or innocence. As the article linked to explains, this type of "judgment" usually involved fire or water. An accused person, for example, would have to walk through fire or retrieve a stone from boiling water or experience some similar trial. If the "ordeal" caused no injury or just slight injury or if the injuries healed quickly, the accused was judged to be innocent. Otherwise, he was considered guilty. The premise of the trial by ordeal was a superstitious belief that the gods would protect the innocent from harm during trials by ordeal. That the Bible contains an example of trial by ordeal commanded by the Hebrew god Yahweh should be proof to rational people that it is not the inspired, inerrant 'word' of an all-knowing, loving, merciful deity but is instead a collection of writings that simply reflected the beliefs of the primitive, superstitious times in which it was written. Enlightened people today would understand that the reaction of women to a trial by ordeal like the one described above would depend on the individual strengths and weaknesses of their immunity systems and not on their actual guilt or innocence. No doubt, many innocent wives were condemned by the results of this trial by ordeal, and likewise many guilty wives with stronger immune systems were "exonerated" by it. Christians today, then, who demand that "biblical principles" be imposed on society at large, are really crusading to turn the clock back to a time when morality was determined by cultural superstitions and taboos rather than by rational considerations.

Be that as it may, the passage quoted above described a trial by ordeal that women had to submit to when their husbands suspected unverifiable infidelity. This particular ordeal required the suspects to drink a "water of bitterness" that was concocted by mixing "holy water" with dirt from the tabernacle floor. As the ordeal was described, some women would experience 'bitter pain,' 'discharge from the womb,' and a dropping of the uterus. Of course, those who experienced such effects were 'determined' to be guilty of the infidelity of which their husbands had accused them. As noted above, any rational person would know that grievous effects like those described in the trial by ordeal could in no way determine actual guilt. That, however, is irrelevant to the reason why I introduced this passage into the controversy. We could imagine that over the course of the centuries that the Hebrew culture existed, this trial by ordeal was used many times when men suspected that their wives were guilty of infidelity. We could also imagine that in at least some of those cases, the accused wives were pregnant, either from sexual intercourse with their husbands or from the adulterous relationships they had been accused of, so just think seriously and, if possible, unemotionally for a moment. If pregnant women were subjected to an ordeal that could cause 'bitter [abdominal] pain' or 'discharge from the womb' or a fallen uterus, they would surely have aborted the fetuses they were carrying. If, then, abortion is the horribly immoral act that Christians believe their god is so opposed to, why would he ever have commanded a trial by ordeal that would have resulted in the abortion of at least some unborn children?"

The Yahweh of the OT didn't seem to be too concerned about children outside the womb either, evidenced by his orders to kill all the children, even babies of the Amalekites and Midianites (except of course the young virgin girls of the Midianites. They were to be saved for the pleasure of the Israelite men)--not to mention the innocents who would have been drowned in the alleged flood. Yahweh, what a sweetheart, certainly a God who is merciful and full of compassion!


 

Friday, April 14, 2017

The Problems in Bradford's Complaint


An excellent article by Farrell Till comparing the logical, empirical-based presuppositions of naturalists versus the illogical, unsupported suppositions of supernaturalists. From *The Skeptical Review*, Sept-Oct. 2001:

by Farrell Till
Mr. Bradford seems sincerely convinced that I have a prejudice that will not allow me to see that supernatural presuppositions are just as logical as naturalistic ones. Because of his apparent belief that I won't listen to any arguments in the articles he submits to me, I am asking another person to reply to his attempt to prove the existence of God. It will be published in a later issue, although the subject is not really suitable for The Skeptical Review.In the very first  issue of TSR, published in January 1990, I specifically stated that the paper would not debate the issue of God's existence, but if I had declined to publish Mr. Bradford's article, he would have accused me of being too prejudiced to give consideration to attempts to prove the existence of his deity by scientific argumentation. What Mr. Bradford doesn't seem to realize is that he doesn't really argue his positions. He just asserts them and then vents his frustration when we refuse to fall in line and accept his assertions without questions.

Although I am leaving the "God part" of Bradford's article for someone else to answer, he made some personal remarks about himself and me that I will reply to in this issue, because no one else would really be qualified to speak on some of the accusations he made about me.

Do I resort to "subjective ridicule rather than logic and evidence"? I have to answer this charge with both yes and no. Yes, I do ridicule the inability of biblicists to think rationally. Perhaps I should not do this, but it is somewhat difficult not to do it when a biblicist persists in clinging to an irrational belief when he has seen mountains of evidence that the biblical inerrancy doctrine just cannot be true. When biblicists argue that "soon"or "at hand" didn't really mean soon or at hand when they are shown New Testament promises that the return of Jesus was to happen imminently, it is difficult to be patient with their intellectual dishonesty or irrational determination to make faith more important than common sense. On internet forums, I have often said that a time comes in debates with biblicists to call a spade a spade, and when an inerrantist keeps trying to defend a position that has been shown to be untenable, I think it is time to say without apology that the inerrantist is allowing allegiance to an irrational belief to overrule his/her common sense. In a letter on page 15 of this issue, Tom Broom expressed wonderment that I have the patience to discuss biblical minutia with the likes of some inerrantists whose articles appear in this paper. Believe me, it isn't easy, so when I do at times show a lack of patience and resort to ridicule, it should be understandable. Anyway, if I am guilty as Bradford charges, his complaint would be a case of the pot calling the kettle black, because look at his own subjective remarks about me. Saying that I resort to subjective ridicule rather than logic and evidence isn't exactly a compliment.

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Archaeological Proof? (2)


From the Errancy Discussion list, 5-4-97:

TILL
The more I read of Amateur Apologist's (AA's) archaeological evidence, the
more I wonder if AA isn't Aubrey Matthews. Does anyone know? Anyway, my
response continues from where I left off.

AA
Another stone inscription discovered in the temple of Pharaoh at Thebes 

in Egypt which mentioned an invasion by the Egyptians against Israel 
confirming the presence of Israel at the time of Joshua which was accused 
by many critics of the Bible as fiction. 

TILL
AA speaks only of "another stone inscription," but he doesn't tell us 

what this inscription said, so there is no way that we can evaluate it. 
If he will post the text of the inscription, we can then react to it.

Let's suppose, however, that there is an inscription on a temple in Egypt,
which mentions an Egyptian invasion of Israel at the time of Joshua. Unless
the inscription mentioned Joshua, this would not prove that Joshua was an
actual historical person, and it wouldn't confirm that Joshua parted the
waters of the Jordan River as recorded in Joshua 3, and it wouldn't confirm
any of the exploits attributed to Joshua unless the inscription gave
corroborating references to those exploits. As usual, AA is reading
entirely too much into alleged archaeological discoveries.


AA
The countless books written criticizing the Bible were rendered as obselete
and worthless, and had to be removed from the scholarly accounts of history. 


Tuesday, April 4, 2017

Archaeological Proof? (1)


From the Errancy Discussion list, 5-4-97:

TILL
Amateur Apologist, whom I will refer to as AA, has regurgitated the same
apologetic tripe about archaeological evidence that has been repeatedly
discredited. I will resume my response to his "evidence" where I left off.

AA
Today biblical personalities that were denied for hundreds of years like...
King David can be confirmed by the study of the science of archeology 

as 100% true and accurate. King David for example was considered to 
be a myth by many universities. Yet in 1993 archeologists dug out a 
stone tablet at Tel Dan in Israel clearly refering to the "house of David" 
(Bait Daveed), identifying him as king of Israel. This was the first inscription 
outside the Bible dated to about the ninth century B.C. 

TILL
If the Tel Dan inscription referred to the house of David so "clearly," then
why has this inscription been a point of considerable controversy among
biblical scholars? If AA has followed the controversy in *Biblical
Archaeological Review,* he would know that some contend that it has been
mistranslated by "archaeological maximists," who seize even questionable
archaeological evidence as confirmation of the biblical text. Furthermore,
this was not the first extrabiblical inscription that allegedly referred to
David. The Moabite Stone, which AA refers to later, also contained a
statement that some have said is a reference to David, although it too has
been disputed.



Saturday, April 1, 2017

More Problems For Bibliolators

From *The Skeptical Review*, 1991/May-June:

by Farrell Till
Bibliolaters want us to believe that the Bible is a work so harmoniously perfect that only divine inspiration can explain its existence. They never tire of preaching this theme from their pulpits. As we have repeatedly shown, however, this is a false claim. Try as they may, bibliolaters cannot harmonize the Bible without resorting to scenarios so preposterously far-fetched that only the very credulous can believe them.

Let's consider, for example, a statement in 1 Kings 15:5, where it was brazenly asserted that "David did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, and returned [sic] not aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite." We know, of course, what "the matter of Uriah the Hittite" was, but to say that this was the only offense against God that David committed all the days of his life is flagrantly contradictory to other things that the Bible says about David.

Both 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21 clearly depict David as having sinned for taking a census of the Israelites. David himself said on this occasion, "I have sinned greatly in that which I have done" (2 Sam. 24:101 Chron. 21:8). But conducting this census had nothing at all to do with "the matter of Uriah the Hittite."