User talk:SouthWriter/sandbox/An atheist's objections/@comment-1777104-20100810203020

Good discussion, guys. I'm glad I provided this forum.

Riley, as one without knowledge (a-gnostic) you have mysteriously put your faith in knowledge (science). What you are saying is that sense God is unknowable, you will put what you DO know in His place. And then, you take the record of a sinful people - mostly the Jews - set in a context of judgment and holiness as "promoting" all kinds of social evils.

I will not spend the time here to refute claims of racism and sexism, but I will point out the reason for commands for "genocide" given to God's people. These commands - and that's what they were - concerned the punishment due to an evil people who had been given almost 500 years warning. In the days of Abraham, these people had been in contact with righteousness and had rejected it. They had such men of God as Melchisedek in their midst to point the way to God, but they rejected the message. And so, when God brought the Israelites into the land, it was supposed to be "Judgment Day" for this evil bunch.

There was redemption available even then (for example Rahab and her family in Jericho), but the basic message is that Judgment Day is coming. The same thing, on a universal scale, will come at the end of time as we know it. It is that truth which most atheists, and some agnostics, reject in turning to the fables which they call "evolution." I know that is harsh, but it is the truth. The preaching of the gospel is the warning - the same as Noah to the rest of the world, the same as Abraham to the peoples of Canaan, and the same as Moses to the people of Egypt. The Israelites were disobedient, failing to eliminate the evil in the land. This was "good news" to the evil in the land, but it turned out to be their downfall as they soon became as evil as those of the land. Finally, God would use other evil people to drive them from the land as well - after sending prophets to warn them, mostly to be preaching to plugged ears and hardened hearts.