Look, I’m really trying to give it up, OK? It was just going to be just one last click through a link on fstdt.<\/a> It was just for old times sake, really. I can take it or leave it.<\/p>\n

Too late. The fsdt quote should have warned me off but I was drawn like a moth to flame. And I think I may have stumbled on the motherlode.<\/p>\n

So whom does God wrong in commanding the destruction of the Canaanites? Not the Canaanite adults, for they were corrupt and deserving of judgement. Not the children, for they inherit eternal life. So who is wronged? Ironically, I think the most difficult part of this whole debate is the apparent wrong done to the Israeli soldiers themselves. Can you imagine what it would be like to have to break into some house and kill a terrified woman and her children? The brutalizing effect on these Israeli soldiers is disturbing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Is that a Freudian slip there? “Israeli soldiers”? This piece is supposed to be about the Israelites vs Canaanites. Wasn’t Israel established in 1948? <\/p>\n

Maybe he just assumes (on excellent evidence) that his fundy readers are too dumb to work out the parallel he’s implying: the biblical Israelites’ godly smiting of the Canaanites and the Israeli’s godly smiting of the Palestinians.<\/p>\n

You might have recognised this as being in the psychopathic raptard strand that sees dead Palestinian babies as lucky, not having to grow up in a “hate religion”<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Your irony meter will have already peaked at the last two words in that paragraph. Switch it off now. Background levels are becoming dangerous. The chap’s site is actually called “Reasonable Faith”<\/a><\/p>\n

Close examination of this site shows that this chap is so far into the dark side that he leaves the other morons stuck on a conceptual event horizon.<\/p>\n

He calls himself Dr Craig. He looks like a doctor on an ancient daytime Aussie hospital soap. In fact, he looks like a smug prat with an orange perma-tan and a superglued-on grin that doesn’t reach his eyes.<\/p>\n

His site also seems – how shall I put this? – less than 100% heterosexual, given the guy’s look and the pictures on the about us page. It even has a podcast with the title “Is it OK for a Christian to be a homosexual?” I try to listen for a laugh, although I am almost chewing my left arm off to distract me from the chirpy intro and the background music before the time he gets to his content. <\/p>\n

Back to the fsdt-featured page. It has a supposed question<\/p>\n

In the forums, there has (sic)<\/em> been some good questions raised on the issue of God commanding the Jews to commit \u201cgenocide\u201d on the people in the promise (sic) <\/em>land. As you have pointed out in some of your written work that this act does not fit with the Western concept of God being the big sugar daddy in the sky. Now we can certainly find justification for those people coming under God (sic)<\/em> judgement because of their sins, idolatry, sacrificing their children, etc… But a harder question is the killing of the children and infants. If the children are young enough along with the infants (sic) are innocent of the sins that their society has committed. How do we reconcile this command of God to kill the children with the concept of his holiness?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Stop right there, genocide was Ok because the Canaanites sacrificed their own children? This is somehow different from the child-sacrifice the Israelites did…<\/p>\n

…when God called forth his people out of slavery in Egypt and back to the land of their forefathers, he directed them to kill all the Canaanite clans who were living in the land (Deut. 7.1-2; 20.16-18). The destruction was to be complete: every man, woman, and child was to be killed. The book of Joshua tells the story of Israel\u2019s carrying out God\u2019s command in city after city throughout Canaan.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…. because god commanded it, dummy.<\/p>\n

How can He command soldiers to slaughter children?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well come on, Dr Craig. Stop dithering, what’s your answer?<\/p>\n

Since God doesn\u2019t issue commands to Himself, He has no moral duties to fulfill. He is certainly not subject to the same moral obligations and prohibitions that we are. For example, I have no right to take an innocent life. For me to do so would be murder. But God has no such prohibition. He can give and take life as He chooses. ….. God is under no obligation whatsoever to extend my life for another second. If He wanted to strike me dead right now, that\u2019s His prerogative.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Right, I’m calling Odin NOW. Oh mighty Odin, do some righteous smiting. <\/p>\n

God knew that if these Canaanite children were allowed to live, they would spell the undoing of Israel. The killing of the Canaanite children not only served to prevent assimilation to Canaanite identity but also served as a shattering, tangible illustration of Israel\u2019s being set exclusively apart for God.
\nMoreover, if we believe, as I do, that God\u2019s grace is extended to those who die in infancy or as small children, the death of these children was actually their salvation. …. Therefore, God does these children no wrong in taking their lives.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

See, Odin, you would really be doing this chap a favour. You’d certainly be doing no wrong by taking his life. Your version of heaven might come as a shock to him, but I bet he’d soon get into the swing of the carousing stuff.<\/p>\n

“.. Ironically, I think the most difficult part of this whole debate is the apparent wrong done to the Israeli soldiers themselves. Can you imagine what it would be like to have to break into some house and kill a terrified woman and her children? “<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tough job but somebody’s got to do it, right? <\/p>\n

This stuff defines psychopathy, surely. To feel nothing for murdered people, just feel sorry for murderers because it might have been a bit distressing for a non-psychopath to kill people. <\/p>\n

Ok, make sure your irony meter is really switched off now. Because it might go supernova, let alone critical with the next bit. Because he uses this farrago of gibberish, not just to insult atheists in general and Dawkins, in particular, in passing, but also to claim that it shows why islamic fundamentalists are wrong. <\/p>\n

As you might have gathered, it’s not because he has any moral problem with murdering people in the name of god, if so commanded, but because the islamic fundies have just picked the wrong god.<\/p>\n

Christians believe that God is all-loving, while Muslims believe that God loves only Muslims. Allah has no love for unbelievers and sinners. Therefore, they can be killed indiscriminately. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Toutatis, but I must be dense. Because I thought that’s exactly what the evil Dr Craig claimed the Israelis (sic) were doing in his bible story. Killing unbelievers and sinners. Indiscriminately.<\/p>\n

But, wait, wasn’t that the Israelite god? Where was the Christian God, then? He wasn’t born yet? Or if he’s the same godly personage as the Jewish god, why isn’t he making these raptards convert to Judaism? Or making all Jews become fundy Protestants? Surely, if he’s such a vengeful and jealous bastard god, he should have at least chosen his chosen people by now<\/p>\n

Obviously, only Odin has the power to smite these monotheist maniacs. Come on Odin. don’t make me think you’re not real.<\/p>\n

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