Christians, what atheists need to understand?

[plys]

Actually, for most of the "nations" (really more like tribes or city-states) that were destroyed, there is no previous mention that they had done anything wrong. And certainly no mention that they had been given an opportunity to stop whatever it is they weren't doing. Or that they had repeatedly refused. They were destroyed because they lived on land which God had promised to the Hebrews.

And don't say that wasn't the reason, because for most of them it is the specific reason given. Anything else is speculation at best.

Here's a hint: If you dismiss a reason that is specifically mentioned in favor of one which isn't, that is the epitomy of "claiming that it says something it doesn't."

[darvell]

"One thing they won't tell you is that these nations that God had destroyed consisted of wicked people who were given many years to repent. If they bothered to read the whole chapters, they would know that these people were practicing abhorrent evil"

God didn't destroy them, the old Hebrews did because (a) they were strangers and not part of the Hebrew in-group.(b) owned land the Hebrews wanted (c) owned water the Hebrews wanted (d) worshipped the wrong gods or the same god in a "different " way (e) were too small a group to defend themselves and some Hebrew psychopaths just felt like it. That's if it even happened.

The abhorrent evil was invented by the writers of the OT to justify these actions, in exactly the same way that the Nazis invented reasons to murder Jews and said they were doing God's work.

Your excuses for this are the stuff you might preach at illiterate peasants or infants in Sunday schools. It is precisely because of postings like this and one of your previous efforts that atheists think your particular religion is nonsense fit only for the mentally retarded.

[lathrop]

can you correct me on my "misinterpretation" of the bit that encourages fathers to sell their daughters as sex slaves please.

[hrafn]

If I refer to the beliefs and actions of one group of Christians Christians I am often accused by other Christians of distorting Christianity. Not at all - Christianity is just not a unified religion.

There certainly are many Christians - or, if you want to split hairs, people who call themselves Christians - who follow those Old Testament ideas. I am very glad that they were not in charge after World War 2. There were many who would have liked to slaughter the populations of Germany and Japan. After all, most of them had some idea of the horrible things done by their soldiers and went along with them. The Old Testament God would have murdered them wholesale. Instead, the victors did what they could to wean people off their horrible beliefs, to get them to become civilised.

Over the last 1000 years there have been many times when powerful people have drawn inspiration from the Old Testament. The crusaders, the witch burners, the people who fought the religious wars of the 17th century, the slave owners - they all quoted the passages in the Old Testament that you accuse atheists of misusing. If they were around now, they would accuse you of distorting Christianity.

[armin]

Apparently in the bible there was a man who had everything he could have every wanted. Satan then said to god that he only worships you because you have given him everything he wanted. God then has a BET with Satan saying that if takes everything away from said man he will still worship him. God then kills them mans faimily makes his crops fail and burns down everything he owns. Just to win a bet with Satan. If you god exists I don't want to meet him that's for sure. Also there was no giant flood thousands if years ago and if we all originated from two people we would all be inbred fu*ktards

[jolie95]

the only reason we atheists ridicule the bible is cos you christians will insist that we
believe in the bible if you didnt do that we wouldnt ridicule it