Baptist preacher: "Stop burning flags, start burning fags."

[General Mung Beans]

Even if it is a metaphor, how can you or anyone else possibly decide that you could know what it really meant? Once you open up the "metaphor" can of worms, you're heading down a road where you're going to eventually be forced to admit that the bible isn't reliable for anything.

If it says for instance "Thou shalt not kill" I think its pretty obvious.

[TithonusSyndrome]

Even if it is a metaphor, how can you or anyone else possibly decide that you could know what it really meant? Once you open up the "metaphor" can of worms, you're heading down a road where you're going to eventually be forced to admit that the bible isn't reliable for anything.

If it says for instance "Thou shalt not kill" I think its pretty obvious.

Don't be evasive, you goof; one unambiguous statement in a sea of ambiguous statements affects the context of that one statement, and therefore, the bottom-line reliability of the entire text. In any case, that's obviously not what you were trying to defend.

[General Zod]

Even if it is a metaphor, how can you or anyone else possibly decide that you could know what it really meant? Once you open up the "metaphor" can of worms, you're heading down a road where you're going to eventually be forced to admit that the bible isn't reliable for anything.

If it says for instance "Thou shalt not kill" I think its pretty obvious.

People back in those days actually did make distinctions between "murder" and "lawful killing" you know. If the law said someone had to be stoned for a crime, then stoning them as part of their punishment wouldn't be considered murder. Incidentally, the Ten Commandments specifically prohibit murder, not killing.

[eion]

If it says for instance "Thou shalt not kill" I think its pretty obvious.

That would depend who you ask. Some translate the phrase לא תרצח as either "thou shalt not kill" or "thou shalt not murder"

So no, it's not obvious.

[TithonusSyndrome]

Even if it is a metaphor, how can you or anyone else possibly decide that you could know what it really meant? Once you open up the "metaphor" can of worms, you're heading down a road where you're going to eventually be forced to admit that the bible isn't reliable for anything.

If it says for instance "Thou shalt not kill" I think its pretty obvious.

People back in those days actually did make distinctions between "murder" and "lawful killing" you know. If the law said someone had to be stoned for a crime, then stoning them as part of their punishment wouldn't be considered murder.

To wit, we nowadays don't punish or regard killing an animal as "murder." If, as many ancient civilizations including those responsible for the bible do, don't regard competing nationalities as being fully-qualified human beings, it wouldn't be "murder" to kill them. Jesus himself obviously regards Canaanites as dogs, and you can't "murder" a dog.