sandy whitelinger said:
Morality is subjective as well as justification.
:sorry1: but isn't the bible a form of self-justication of the belief in the existence of a "one god"?
If you read the writings of the prophets Jeremiah, Ezekial and Isaiah not only prophecise the destruction of Israel's enemies, but also destruction of Israel or Judah, should the Israelites stray from him (god).
sandy whitelinger said:
My point here is that many try and slur God by claiming He's genocidal when the term doesn't fit. It's the abhorant nature of the term which people who hate god wish to impute to Him. It's pathetic.
How can it be a slur, if you can read all this in the bible?
If you believe that Samuel was indeed a prophet, then how can it be slur, if god communicated with Samuel, who ordered Saul to massarce the Amalekites, and quite clearly stated that even babies should not be spared.
Saul didn't obey completely, and was punished with madness in the form of excessive jealousy and paranoid. And according to this book, the madness was inflicted by god, via "evil spirit".
That's how the narrative of 1 Samuel was written. Whether you take the narrative literally or not, narrative is still clear what this god said and did, even if it is in the form of parable.