These arguments and discussions...

Submitted by Joshua (United States), May 26, 2007 at 20:21

...For that matter, Abraham had slaves and now that everyone knows that, let's transcend the legalistic and apologetic arguments.

Isn't the heart and it's intentions the real argument here?

Abraham had slaves but he treated them like family. Modern slaves are not treated so well. Slavery was not always held in the modern context.

So it's not that slavery is the issue here; it's taboo to imply that some slaves were happy being slaves but it's the truth. You will not find a modern example of a happy slave; but if you did find them all over the world, it might actually be an accepted practice by even (gulp) Christians who would use the example of Abraham.

What practices exist today that will be taboo 200 years from now? I don't know, but the practice of abusing or mudering a human will NEVER be accepted.

And the fact is that a large number of poeple in this world participate in perfectly acceptable practices behind the veil of a Holy book saying "this is O.K" when it's not the practices themselves that are wrong, but the intentions of the practitioner.

A couple of quotes from "The Week":

"If 50 million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing" -Anatole France

And

"There is nothing new under the sun, but there are lots of old things we don't know" -Ambrose Bierce

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".