Woman burned alive by mob for 'sorcery' in Papua New Guinea

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Most likely they were marinated in papaya,it's a natural meat tenderizer,it's in Adolf's meat tenderizer.Maybe coconut milk to baste with.Possibly wrapped in banana leaves,keeps the juices in.

The Christian Bible includes the Pentateuch and the rest of the Old Testament. Christians engage in selective literalism - they cherry-pick whatever Bible verses they can to justify their actions, so if someone wants to sacrifice their child, there are verses to justify that; if someone wants to enslave people of different skin color, there are verses to justify that; if a new nation wants to take land from people already living their by slaughter and genocide, there are entire chapters to justify that; and if a crowd of blood-thirsty Christians wants to watch a woman die in agony as her flesh is burned away, then there are verses for that, too.

Yes, I am an Elder. I've also been to seminary, and I have actually read the Bible in its entirety on several occasions. I suggest that you do the same. You might be shocked at what is in there...

For even Jesus said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." (Matthew 5:17).

Jesus did not abolish Old Testament law. He completed it by placing the stamp of His blood on it.

And Paul said, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness" (2nd Timothy 3:16)

There is no more painful rebuke for the sin of witchcraft that to be burned to death by one's accusers.

Thus, it is plain to see that the entire Bible is to be taken seriously by Christians, including those parts that encourage slavery, misogyny, and even murder. This makes Christians some of the most vicious and self-righteous hypocrites you could never want to meet.

Deal with it.

But when did Jesus ever advocate burning and killing anyone else?

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Here in the Netherlands there isn't any city with more than an million people. Even Amsterdam only has about 800k. I guess we're hunter-gatherers too.

Well, I guess we should be glad that not all Christians take the entire Bible seriously, and that not all Christians are literalists who take the Bible word for word.

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend The Netherlands - I was just trying to prove a point. Perhaps I should have worded that post better.

Most Christians have rewritten the Bible in their own heads to something that they can live with.

As far as I know, he didn't.

That God was an evil fecker though.

It has to be remembered, the perception of God was reflected in the times the Bible was written, and being written of. Desperate, xenophobic Bronze Age Hebrew tribesmen fighting tooth and nail with their Canaanite and Philistine neighbors are going to have a different picture of God than their later civilized descendants would have.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

Exactly.

He didn't have to. The laws and the prophets before Him did all of the necessary advocating. All he had to do was "Complete" the law.

Thus, we have the Inquisition, the persecution of Galileo, the Crusades, and the burning of witches.


It only takes a few.

Thus we have all of the above, plus pedophile priests ("Suffer the children..."), Jonestown, Branch Davidians, and filthy rich televangelists.


Most, if not all ...


Trying to excuse evil acts because of its cultural context is as bad as excusing evil acts by labeling culture in a "hunter-gatherer" context.

Both make assumptions about a culture or race in which the people simply "can't help it".

Evil is evil, no matter what the context.

Frederick Douglass told in his book "Narrative" how his condition as a slave became worse when his master underwent a religious conversion to Christianity that allowed him to "justify" slavery as the punishment of the children of Ham.

Mark Twain described his mother as a genuinely good person, whose soft heart pitied even Satan, but who had no doubts about the legitimacy of slavery, because in years of living in antebellum Missouri she had never heard any sermon opposing slavery, but only countless sermons preaching that slavery was God's will.

With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion.

Ecce Fidelis.

What about the "kill the gays" lot in Uganda and other places in Africa?

The bold is added for clarity - ie. its not doctrine.


The old testament is incredibly rough and difficult for us to relate to today, especially events like in Numbers and Joshua. What I find the most interesting though is reading the parts of Genesis dealing with the behaviors of the tribes of Jacob. It really reads like the movie 'Kids' just without the drugs - ie. about as lawless and Oliver Stone shoxploitation as you can get.

Similarly we in the west have grave difficulty understanding what things were like, ethically speaking, back in the times of Rome. Shows like 'Spartacus - Blood and Sand' seem to help at least pull on some corners of the debauchery that was in effect back then but reading the OT from a 2013 western perspective I found myself almost hating Yahweh in certain parts of Numbers, being sickened by the rote repetition in Judges of rise and fall without ever the problem of generational memory being addressed. However it starts getting clear, by certain highlight points in Jeremiah (speaking of the degree of slaughter Menasseh did or high places on every street corner) and then Ezekiel's visionary tour of the difiled holy temple including every shrine or high place imaginable within, pagan hookers trying to find the willing, and Ra/Horus worship outside; you start seeing that Yahweh wasn't dealing with a culture like ours.


The old testament law was his bowl of wrath on the cross - ie. he took it for everyone. Paul goes on to say repeatedly that the law is the way of death, Christ is the way of life, and that the law is specifically for those who cannot handle autonomy or putting the reason above the details. Christ is for those who are willing to seek a better way and ferret out their own sin and eliminate it as much as possible for the practical reasons and better living, as well as proximity and enhanced relationship with Christ/God, that doing such offers (ie. people who are much more interested in the carrot than the stick).

Really to sum the objections above you've noted that there are Christians and 'Christians', and historically there have been a LOT of 'Christians' out there. Part of the problem you see with any belief system under the sun is that when you have those truly seeking such belief system in it - they're the real deal. When you have it pressed in a top-down manner (such as the dark ages and middle ages in Europe) it gets reinterpreted through the lens of churlishness and what you have as a result is incredibly vulgar. That should be a warning to atheists as well - ie. I don't think you really want the whole world to go your way because if you do you'll have the same base people doing base things in the name of Epicurus, Spinoza, Dennett, Dawkins, etc..

... and many others, too numerous to list ... Ecce Fidelis.

biblepic by BrainDamage11, on Flickr