If you don't think child marriage is morally acceptable, then we have been wasting a lot of time here.  My goal was not to attack Islam.  It was to attack the idea that child marriage could ever be legitimate.  In my opinion, it can never be.Quote Now let me ask you this if a little child was an orphan and the country you lived in had no such th…[Read more]

Tim,Apparently, Ed is greater than Abraham, because God could ask Abraham to kill, but is incapable of asking Ed to do so.Wait!  Maybe Ed is more powerful than God, since Ed apparently sets the terms of their relationship.

Why not, Ed?

Fine.  Under Islamic law child marriage may not be slavery, but in practice, (i.e. culturally speaking), it generally is.However, even if divorce is allowed, subjecting a child to a sexual relationship is still inherently abusive, because a child is not mature enough to be in a sexual relationship with anyone – much less a much older male.(If you…[Read more]

Quote (Ed J @ Sep. 17 2012,09:33)Quote (WhatIsTrue @ Sep. 17 2012,13:32)Quote (Ed J @ Sep. 15 2012,23:46)Hi WIT,Your question is like what is like to walk on the sun? That can't happen, so your 'what if' question is invalid as you would apply it to me.OK, Ed, I'll accommodate your nonsense.Why was Abraham's willingness* to kill Isaac acceptable?a)…[Read more]

Quote (Ed J @ Sep. 15 2012,23:46)Hi WIT,Your question is like what is like to walk on the sun? That can't happen, so your 'what if' question is invalid as you would apply it to me.OK, Ed, I'll accommodate your nonsense.Why was Abraham's willingness* to kill Isaac acceptable?a) Isaac was genetically polluted, so killing him was justified.b) God…[Read more]

bodhitharta,You continue to amaze me – not in a good way!Are you really incapable of seeing the difference between a marriage that is forced on a child – a permanent choice that the child will have to endure for the rest of her life! – and making your child go to school so that she will one day become independent of you?Let me spell it out for…[Read more]

Quote (Ed J @ Sep. 15 2012,16:33)Hi WIT,No dodge, God wouldn't tell “ME”(Ed J) to kill anyone.My question to “YOU” was – how would those in your scenario know if it was God telling them to kill or if it was satan telling them?    It you instead that is dodging my question to you  –  so please answer.Really, Ed?You think that by not answering my…[Read more]

Quote (Ed J @ Sep. 14 2012,22:42)Quote (WhatIsTrue @ Sep. 15 2012,00:42)Ed,So you would not “kill if God told you to”?Hi WIT,How would you know if it was God doing the talking and not satan?God blessEd J (Joshua 22:34)Nice dodge!My actual question was:So you would not “kill if God told you to”?I didn't ask you about voices, or visions, (or…[Read more]

Ed,So you would not “kill if God told you to”?

Quote (bodhitharta @ Sep. 14 2012,02:31)You would not Kill if God told you to? If you would not then you are not a believer.You have to admit, Ed. He's got a point there!I'm going to add that to my list of quotes about why religion is harmful.  It's a much more blunt version of Steven Weinberg's quote:”Good people will do good things, and bad…[Read more]

Quote (bodhitharta @ Sep. 14 2012,02:25)As your own view that Child Marriage equals Slaveryhow could it equal slavery anymore than any other type of Marriage?I define slavery as involuntary servitude – emphasis on involuntary.It is a fact that the vast majority of these child marriages are forced arrangements, (i.e. the child has no say in it…[Read more]

bodhitharta,First of all, I said nothing about my opinions on any of this until after you made your comments that included the image that you introduced into this discussion.Secondly, how does “ perverted and wrong for an older man to marry a child and the reason is 'sexual abuse'” equate to “the image of an older man banging on an underdeveloped…[Read more]

Quote Morality comes from YHVH.Who apparently can't make up his mind from one generation to the next about what is right and what is wrong.Oh well. Perfection is so hard to maintain!

By the way, Ed, are you suggesting that morals are relative and not absolute, (e.g. allowing for different ethical standards in different time periods)?

Ed,OK, I'll consider it.According to the bible, Israel was intended to be a shining light on a hill for all the world to see how good “God's” ways were versus the “ways of man”.  If slavery was part of that shining example – and it was – then I'd have to mark the whole thing down as a really bad example of how a “godly” society should behave,…[Read more]

Ed,Got it.The bible is filled with bad laws that made it necessary to amend it, just like the US Constitution needs amendments to correct the mistakes and oversights of the men who originally wrote it.Hhhmm, I wonder if that means the laws in the bible were really just written by ancient men with an ancient understanding of morality?Nah, it's more…[Read more]

Ok bodhitharta, if you want to play dumb, I will accommodate you – for now.Let's do some good old fashioned exegesis!What happens to a woman, who is married or engaged, who willingly has sex with someone who is not her husband?  And what happens to the man who sleeps with her.Deuteronomy 22:22:If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, [Read more]

Quote (Ed J @ Sep. 12 2012,16:08)Preventing outbursts in an assembly is hardly abusive, why would you think otherwise?Preventing outbursts or silencing women?If this passage is about “prevent outbursts”, why does it read, “Let your women keep silent…” as opposed to, “Let no one speak out of turn …”, or something along those lines?You're not…[Read more]

bodhitharta,Nice try, but you need to address the following before we continue discussing anything.You wrote:Quote Then you lied and said the image of an older man banging on an underdeveloped infant never crossed your mind and of course it did if it didn't you wouldn't assume it to be the case.I responded:Quote Before you accuse someone of lying,…[Read more]