Moses

well that's kinda what we're dealing with because the us is a multitude of different cultures with different levels of crime and poverty.

do you think your position would change if the crime rate was 10x higher than it is around you? or if there were break ins and shootings in apartments...

just say you want to take our guns already. let the bootlickers show themselves.

i checked the past two pages of this thread and the only proposed solution outside of the empty moralizing was this: 1) how much more extensive? in wh...

It's not hard for me to imagine myself talking with e.g. a donkey or winnie the pooh. If you told me that you talked with God I would have questions. ...

I don't understand the focus on fulfilling preferences. If a couple of racists tell you to grab them a beer do you do it because it fulfills the prefe...

But what if your family/children are happy? Or you see a higher purpose in your suffering? How does that compare to someone who's content but without ...

The solution is to concentrate more power in the hands of the state. We need policemen to take away the guns so that only the good guys like cops and ...

Interesting difference in our positions though. You say that you have no delusions that God communicated the Torah to Moses on Sinai. My position I th...

Ok, we agree the Babylonian exile happened? so when the Babylonian exile ended in 538 bc the jews went back to Jerusalem and rebuilt it. that's basica...

Have you read the OT cover to cover? If the OT is propaganda for the Israelites, why is a good portion of the OT prophesying destruction for the Israe...

How about book of ezra? book of nehemiah? do you believe that the babylonian exile happened? do you believe nebuchadnezzar existed? i don't currently ...

I don't even know what that would look like. Do you believe that God ever spoke to Moses? If not, do you believe that Moses existed? If the book is a ...

I disagree. Completely. How do we process that experience? That is everything. The brain processes things; the mind is not an empty receptive vessel f...

I don't know the pagan gods so you'll need to teach me on this. how do the pagan gods view disability? how about the poor? do they get the big issues ...

Thanks for the post. You bring up a lot of different points here so I'll try to address a couple more in detail. I prefer substance over breadth. Let ...

I don't know about happiness (what exactly do we mean by that?), but God does care about the individual well-being of Moses which he demonstrates in E...

You ought to read Ecclesiastes; it'll challenge your own intuitive value judgments. Humans have no idea how the world ought to be or whose better off ...

That last sentence is just a contradiction. I don't know what you're talking about. When you say "a get out of jail free" card you're already passing ...

More thoughts on reconstructionism vs. orthodox judaism. Let's take homosexuality; orthodox judaism is against while reform/conservative/reconstrictio...

More on God: I've heard God described as essentially good, and you'll hear Jews describe him as good but not benevolent too often. We have basically n...

Not sure how to take your statement. Are you asking me whether there are things more important than truth? Yeah. a lot of rhetoric is bullshit. It cou...

this was ennui's position, not mine. :up: i think we'd have to better define rhetoric so no comment. the bullshitter is unconcerned with truth/more in...

When I mentioned bullshit I was referencing Harry Frankfurt's conception of the term. Bullshit is "speech intended to persuade without regard for trut...

What do we keep and what do we throw away? You imply that having "moved on" is a good thing but you clarified that you're a moral nihilist so moral ad...

Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you . You will be uprooted from the ...

More on humanistic judaism according to wikipedia: -Ethics and morality should serve human needs, and choices should be based upon consideration of th...

It depends what you call "religion." Typically religions have God/s, but Buddhism is defined as a religion yet there is no central creator figure. No ...

AFAIK Jews often don't describe God as benevolent, at least to the same extent that Christians often do. In the OT he can be quite brutal and even sta...

One can find practicing their religion worthwhile (maybe it fits social needs), but it could still be bullshit (intellectually). I can't wrap my head ...

:chin: Humanism: noun an outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters. Humanist beliefs...

Do you have a better defense against autocracy? What, in your view, is the best defense? Could you provide me with the theological roots of rights the...

I'm not dealing with all of these but I'll deal with a couple. Homosexuals being put to death is no longer applicable because there's no longer any su...

I was going to say the same thing -- their wives wouldn't let them.

Why do you have to rely on John? God forbid you actually read the thing. I'm not going to debate the Bible with someone who hasn't read it. You can't ...

It's a shame you shrug it off like that. There are some verses I disagree with but there's so much good in it such as grounding the moral worth of the...

I agree on this one, if we're just going by human subjectivity then we can't possibly compare existence vs. non-existence. I think experience can lead...

I don't think you understand my position. We're probably closer than you imagine. I agree with this. We don't always know if God agrees with every act...

You don't know anything about evil. What even makes something evil? Is it just that you don't like it? Do you have any sort of alternative conception ...

Evil ought to be destroyed in its entirety. God makes it clear his view on these Canaanite tribes who occupied Canaan before the Hebrews in Leviticus ...

It is both a matter for society and the individual. The question is, a) what are an individual's philosophical beliefs and b) Is s/he actually acting ...

You're right, but I'm going to say that societies that don't value human life and normalize suicide are just objectively terrible societies. That's ba...

Then go be extinct. Don't procreate. Commit suicide when you have a bad day (don't actually do this, but if you're living out this philosophy then you...

The answer you're looking might be that the world would be empty if everyone stopped procreating. But God intended for the world to be populated; he c...

Necessarily, no. Generally speaking, yes. I disagree with this. Your culture and ideals are at risk if you don't procreate. In the OT people are conce...

Have you actually read the OT in its entirety? The OT does not advocate or describe blind worship. Of course obedience is important but that obedience...

They'd still procreate on a non-divine/theological level. Sex is fun and a bigger population is generally a good thing.

While I agree with this, this isn't exactly how I interpreted God's punishments towards the Israelites in Exodus. Basically what's happening is that a...

I agree with some of this post but I don't know where you're getting the "ascend into heaven for eternity" bit. The OT says next to nothing about the ...

There are instances in the OT where God demands the men, women, children, and animals of a people be destroyed. The reason God gives the Promised Land...