Replies

"...I do not believe anyone should propose slaughtering 1000's or millions of Muslims."

My wife is a better student of the Bible than I, but she tells me that God instructed the Jews to kill every man, woman, child and domestic animal when they conquered a land. They didn't and were punished for their stupidity. Are you second-guessing God?

I would second guess anything claiming to be a "god", that instructed me to kill every man, woman, child and domestic animal.

Such a creature would be evil.

My wife is a better student of the Bible than I, but she tells me that God instructed the Jews to kill every man, woman, child and domestic animal when they conquered a land.

Not true; they were commanded to drive out those they conquered, "those of them whom you leave shall be pins in your eyes and a thorn in your sides, and they will harass you upon the land in which you dwell." (Numbers 33:55)

They were, however, commanded to exterminate the Amalekites (Deut. 25:17) because of the Amalekites constant waging of genocide against the Israelites, a command BTW which King Saul did not have the stomach to fulfill.

My wife is a better student of the Bible than I, but she tells me that God instructed the Jews to kill every man, woman, child and domestic animal when they conquered a land. They didn't and were punished for their stupidity. Are you second-guessing God?

Hopefully there is a misunderstanding between oldfart and his wife. This commandment was limited to the Amalekites, a nation which no longer exists.

There are a small number of Jews who equate today's Palestinians with the Amalekites. Last I heard, there were two organizations of such Jews quite properly included on the U.S. State Department's list of terrorist organizations. Needless to say, I hope, is that their organizations are outlawed in Israel.

The relevance for this thread, if there is any, concerns the question of whether calling for civilians to be massacred should result in the poster being thrown off of FR. The answer is that it is a tough call. And the FR moderators have to make that tough call frequently and without a whole lot of time for back and forth deliberation. As far as I can see, the effective policy is to allow sarcasm and overstatement while stopping serious and considered support of mass murder. I like that policy, I appreciate the work the moderators do, and I don't see any possibility or need for moderators to be completely consistent.

"she tells me that God instructed the Jews to kill every man, woman, child and domestic animal when they conquered a land."

Not every land, but there were times when God did indeed instruct His people to do just that....whenever it was certain that allowing any to survive would in one way or another be destructive to them.