One mistake I made during my debate with an atheist on the issue of morality was when I was asked about YHVH commanding the taking of certain lives in certain cases. My mistake was that I was attempting to juxtapose two examples:
1) My taking it upon myself to take the life of an innocent person due to my committing a robbery or some such thing—this is murder and is immoral.
2) A government body of some sort prescribing capital punishment for a guilty person—this is killing and in moral.
Yet, I accidentally said, “innocent” in both cases.
Now, the question referenced various books of the Bible and the issue is clearly a huge one, much too large to fit in detail into a short response to the audience during a Q&A.
Later, I thought about bacteria as a way to elucidate the issue.
Imagine that you are a scientist and design an experiment.
You culture bacteria.
You observe the bacteria.
You feed the bacteria.
You intervene in the bacteria’s life process in order to see how they react to certain stimuli: reactions to environmental pressures, reactions to medicines, what have you.
You, for all intents and purposes, created, care for, observe and intervene with your bacteria.
Now, when you are done with your experiment; have you no right to decide what is to become of them? Have you no right to destroy the bacteria?
Indeed, you do (we kill bacteria all of the time).
Compared to YHVH even calling humans bacteria is giving us far too much credit.
Indeed, YHVH has every right, as our creator, to decide when the experiment, or our part in it, is done.
Bill Cosby stated,
My father established our relationship when I was seven years old.
He looked at me and said,“You know, I brought you in this world, and I can take you out.
And it don’t make no difference to me, I’ll make another one look just like you.”
Furthermore, imagine now that the experiment is not going well, sort to speak. The bacteria are proceeding to consume each other, etc.
You make it known to them that you are their creator and want them to cease those actions; they do not. You speak to them but they do not heed your words.
You place certain bacteria amongst them to spread your message but the cultured bacteria consume them.
You send a written text but they ignore it.
Finally, you take drastic actions; you become a bacterium yourself, you enter the experiment, you enter the petri dish, you yourself present them your message.
Yet, they mock you, they spit on your, they beat you and they finally murder you.
Yet, you then rise from the dead in order to further evidence the truth of your message. The few that believed all along continue to do so and the new believers spread your message all them more even whilst being persecuted.
Finally, you tell them that someday you will return and the experiment will all be over.
This is exactly how we are as bacteria in YHVH’s sight.
Let us heed the words of the scientist of scientists.