Try to enter my country and god says I can have your kids.......
After the US Attorney General, Jeff Sessions started quoting the bible to justify his department's policy on prosecuting everyone who attempts to illegally cross the border into the US, with the added bonus that their kids are taken from them, I began to wonder which other bible passages could be used to give provenance to government.
Why not go the whole nine yards and simply use the bible as a book of law?
So, to all the slave-owners out there, please be careful. Slavery in itself is fine within the bible but as a master, one must be a little careful on the smiting front, for Exodus tells us ;-
20 “When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged. 21 But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money."
So just be careful guys, don't hit them too hard
Hmmm but let's imagine I hit a pregnant woman causing her a miscarriage? Don't fret, a simple fine should suffice...
22 “When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine."
Sorted....
So, what happens if my neighbour catches me shagging his wife? Is that a fine too?
Sadly not, knocking pregnant women around is OK, but two consenting adults playing 'hunt the sausage' isn't if either one of them, or both are already married.
You have to die.
Die?
Yup. Leviticus clearly defines the punishment for this breach of a very serious law.
10 "If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbour—both the adulterer and the adulteress are to be put to death."
Much better to buy a few slaves, you can do whatever you want with them.
So, let's go back to Jeff's original quote from Romans 13.....
13 All of you must yield to the government rulers. No one rules unless God has given him the power to rule, and no one rules now without that power from God. 2 So those who are against the government are really against what God has commanded. And they will bring punishment on themselves. 3 Those who do right do not have to fear the rulers; only those who do wrong fear them. Do you want to be unafraid of the rulers? Then do what is right, and they will praise you. 4 The ruler is God’s servant to help you. But if you do wrong, then be afraid. He has the power to punish; he is God’s servant to punish those who do wrong. 5 So you must yield to the government, not only because you might be punished, but because you know it is right.
6 This is also why you pay taxes. Rulers are working for God and give their time to their work. 7 Pay everyone, then, what you owe. If you owe any kind of tax, pay it. Show respect and honour to them all.
So, does anyone reading this not think perhaps that the whole damn bible was made up by governments at the time to frighten its people into obeying their laws? Does this not show incontrovertible evidence between religion and government and their sole aim of control of the masses?
And Libertarians and Voluntaryists, many of whom I know are devout Christians, where does this leave you ? How do you justify your political beliefs in respect of your religious belief? Absolutely polar opposites, no?
At the end of the day, over 2000 children have been separated from their parents and held, in my opinion, illegally by the US government. Why they simply can't just send them back is beyond me. Whilst understanding there is a need to stop people entering the US illegally, surely in 2018 we can come up with a more humane way to discourage people who are simply trying to make a better life for themselves and their families than stealing their kids and locking them up.
As for quoting 1700 year old works of fiction as justification.....
In god we trust. Amen
The number of children taken is apparently into the multiple thousands.
It is clear that much of the text from 'the bible' was written for the purpose of enslavement. As I understand it, other later sections are more pointed towards a heart balance.. But I am no bible scholar.
Well, the quotes I used came from Exodus which is part of the old testament which forms the basis for all of the Abrahamic religions and whose origins are difficult to trace though I'd suggest were part of a system of control.
The new testament for the Christians is more fluffy and basically narrates the story of Jesus who was, as either an historical or fictional character, a more peaceful soul but still leaning on the teachings of the old testament and the god principle.
Either way, every problem in the world today can be traced back to a reliance of some form of religious teachings, give me a problem and I can give you a quote. Technically, Jeff Session was correct that all law is based on religious foundation
In 2018, I'd prefer to see a system of law and governance based on humanitarian philosophy and modern ethics. I find this sort of reliance on religion at this level frightening but hardly suprising.
PS Going back to your post on eternal life, one big advantage of this is that it would wipe the majority of religion out in one fell swoop due it being made redundant ;-)
while religions do generally tend to cause many problems and generally infer some kind of unloving and unhealthy control.. this control is also found in non religious people too and predates recorded history.
Since you did challenge me - how about the problem of the mind controlling the emotions, causing them to be coming denied and unconscious? I think that religion is something that has arisen from that dysfunction and not the other way around.
oh yes, actually connecting to spirit for real does have the tendency of us quickly agreeing that control systems are redundant and that it's much more useful to 'see the light' :)
Makes sense it's all worded to make us loyal slaves. But does it not say somewhere god is within us all therefore we are all god so technical we should all govern ourselves! Works better for me 💯🐒
You got a 23.68% upvote from @brupvoter courtesy of @nathen007!