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Re: matt's take
On Mon, 31 Dec 2001, The Mattrix wrote:
> > > Does a parent who spanks her brat deserve to be called a child
> > > abuser?
> >
> > Depends how she spanks the brat, obviously.
>
> Well, okay then. If the brat is spanked for no good or valid reason, or
> to the point of bruising or death, that's child abuse. However, if the
> brat is less severely spanked so as to correct an errant or potentially
> harmful behavior via negative reinforcement, that is not.
>
> God once punished the whole human population of the planet, save Noah
> and his family. But he didn't wipe us out. He didn't bruise us.
Eh? You don't think that wiping out the entire human race (to say nothing
of all animal lifeforms) with the exception of between two and seven
fertile members of each species constitutes a punishment "to the point of
bruising or death"? (There were eight humans on the ark, but I don't
think anyone has ever claimed that Mr. and Mrs. Noah had more children,
thus, there were only six humans on the ark of child-bearing age.)
> He did what was necessary, for good reason, to eradicate unrighteous
> behaviors that were putting the ENTIRE species on the road to
> self-destruction.
Actually, if you follow the myth closely, you'll find that the key problem
was the inter-breeding of angels and humans. For more on this, see an
essay I wrote several years ago on giants in the Bible, especially the
following section:
http://peter.chattaway.com/articles/giants.htm#IIIa
> > > More than likely, though, He's just givin' us a large- scale
> > > spankin' in the examples you've cited. What doesn't kill you, (the
> > > species as a whole) makes you stronger, ya now?
> >
> > This is one of the key problems we modern folk tend to have with the
> > Old Testament right there -- the way people are looked at
> > *collectively* and not *individually*, at least in cases like Joshua,
> > etc.
>
> Ah, but God told Abraham that He'd spare Sodom if he could find ONE
> righteous man.
Well, even if that *was* true, it would show that God was still treating
Sodom as a *group* of people. But as it is, in Genesis 18:32, God
actually says he will spare Sodom for the sake of *ten* righteous men.
--- Peter T. Chattaway --------------------------- peter at chattaway_com ---
"I detected one misprint, but to torture you I will not tell you where."
Winston Churchill to T.E. Lawrence, re Seven Pillars of Wisdom
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