Having previously reported on The Freedom From Religion Foundation’s Christmas present to Albuquerque; we will now consider the ad from the American Humanist Association titled, “On Slavery.”
Find this whole series here.
It presents another well-within-the-box-atheist-groupthink-talking-point-de-jour via a scare-pull-quote:
“If a man beats his male or female slave with a rod and the SLAVE dies as a direct result, he must be punished, but he is not to be punished if the SLAVE gets up after a day or two, since the slave is his property.”
EXODUS 21:20-21 (NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION)
“We are committed to treating each person as having inherent worth and dignity, and to making informed choices in a context of FREEDOM consonant with responsibility.”
HUMANISM AND ITS ASPIRATIONS
One wonders whether the word translated as “slave” is bold and capitalized in the Hebrew text.
Having written various times on this issue, I will simply direct the interested read to two essays:
Does God Command You to Beat Your Slaves?
Does the Bible and its God Condone Slavery?
They are committing many errors such as that slavery is not slavery always slavery; not the same thing in every instance. For example, indentured servitude, working to pay off a debt, is sometimes referred to as “slavery.”
The Exodus text comes from a section dealing with judicial issues and distinguished between what we call premeditated murder and manslaughter.
Also, see Rodney Stark from “The Victory of Reason” on the church’s opposition to slavery
Since of the $200,000 raised for the ad campaign thus far, $150,000 was donated by the Stiefel Freethought Foundation it may relevant to remake the ad with the words of a freethinker, Dan Barker, with regards to “each person…having inherent worth and dignity.” And, by the way, one can only wonder how “each person” has “inherent worth and dignity” in a God-free universe; inherent from what, the Humanist’s say so?
“You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt”
EXODUS 22:21
“Also you shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the heart of a stranger, because you were strangers in the land of Egypt”
EXODUS 23:9
YHVH “administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt”
DEUTERONOMY 10:18-19
“abortion is a blessing…a fetus that’s the size of a thumb that has, what, what would you put it in a little locket and hang it around your neck?”
DAN BARKER, DURING A DEBATE WITH DINESH D’SOUZA
For more dissections of fallacious atheist ads see: Atheist bus ads and billboards
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