[quote]nighthawkz wrote:
[quote]opeth7opeth wrote:
Bloated buffoons can sneer and scoff. But they cannot argue rationally. How shocking.[/quote]
OK, I’ll play. But first we have to establish ground rules: namely, that I don’t believe everything that is written in the Bible is correct, especially the old testament. Because if you do, you can only argue about interpretations of scripture. That being said, look at a few non-religious reasons for staying with your first partner till death does you apart.
The old testament was written for an antique culture of goat herders and later city dwellers (I’m using none of these in a derogatory sense here) who had to establish firm ground rules for their society; an important one being hereditary customs. Just look at the story of Jacob and Esau. The tricky thing is that if you abandon monogamy, you’ll always have a pretty good idea who the mother is - the father, however, is harder to ascertain without modern technology.
A bit tricky if your concept of property depends on knowing just that. Put differently: while I believe that there is a higher deity up there, I also believe that the Bible is a book written by men, designed to establish social control in many instances and furthermore obscured by translation - seriously, there’s a reason scholars have been arguing (and killing people) about the finer points for two thousand years. If you choose to believe otherwise, fair enough. Just try not to rub it into people’s faces, otherwise they might feel the urge to rub back.
(Whether or not, from a social POV, having many sexual partners in life is a bad thing is an entirely different matter. I don’t agree with orion but he’s entitled to think the way he does - I get it.)[/quote]
Clearly your “higher deity” is an idol forged in the fires of your vain imagination (so much for your professed adherence to the ten commandments).
“Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them” (Psalm 115:2-8).
Methinks Jesus’ view of the Old Testament is a “bit different” than yours:
“And the Pharisees came near to Him, tempting Him, and saying to Him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every reason? But answering, He said to them, Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning created them male and female? And He said, For this reason a man shall leave father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So that they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let not man separate. They said to Him, ‘Why then did Moses command to give a bill of divorce, and to put her away?’ He said to them, In view of your hardheartedness, Moses allowed you to put away your wives. But from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, Whoever shall put away his wife, if not for fornication, and shall marry another, that one commits adultery. And the one who marries her who was put away commits adultery. His disciples said to Him, If the case of the man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. But He said to them, Not all make room for this Word, but those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who made eunuchs of themselves for the sake of the kingdom of Heaven. He who is able to receive, let him receive it” (Matthew 19:3-12).