Yahweh, the Mosaic Law, and Christianity:

The Evolution and Relativity of Religious Morals

1. New Testament Morality
2. Old Testament Morality
3. A Sample Case of Christian Moral Evolution:  Onan and Semen
4. Comments
   

Christian morality is relative, de facto, being interpreted differently by individual Christians, different societies, and different eras. 

Do YOU have the same opinions on morality as the writers of the New Testament?

Examples of Christian morality debated today BY Christians:

1. Paul considered it immoral for a woman to pray with her head uncovered (1Cor 11:5), or for a man to pray with his head covered (1Cor 11:4).   “For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.  For the man is not of the woman: but the woman of the man.  Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man.  For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head, and because of the angels.” (1Cor 11:7-10).  According to Paul, even the angels care whether a woman covers her head.  Did the angels simply stop caring one day?  Do you agree with Paul and his moral absolutes?  Paul says further, “But if any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God” (1Cor 11:16).  Note also that Paul believes Jewish mythology about Adam and Eve.
2. 1Cor 11:14 – “Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?”  -  Do you agree with this morality?
3. 1 Corinthians 14: 34-35 – “Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the Law says.  If they want to inquire about something, they should ask their own husbands at home; for it is disgraceful for a woman to speak in the church.”  -  Do you agree with this?
4. 1Tim 2: 11-12 – “Let a woman learn in peace, fully submitted; but I do not permit a woman to teach a man or exercise authority over him; rather, she is to remain at peace.”  Many modern Christians disagree with this element of ancient Christian morality. 
5. 1Tim 2:9 – “Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments.”  I bet the majority of the Christian women in the U.S. would disagree with traditional Christian morality on this issue, though some stick to tradition.
6. Romans 13:1-7 – “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.  Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” (also, Titus 3:1; 1Peter 2:13)  Is that always true?  Even if Democrats make the laws?!?!
7. For Paul (Romans 1) and Yahweh (Lev 20:13) homosexuality was an abomination, but many modern Christians question this.
8. According to Galatians, Paul, Peter, James, and other Christians could not even agree for certain whether Gentiles had to be circumcised, or whether it was moral for Jewish Christians to eat at the same table with uncircumcised believers.  Paul allegedly condemned Peter for hypocrisy. (Acts tells a different, happier version.)  According to Galatians, James and many Jerusalem Christians considered it immoral to remain uncircumcised.  Most Christians today do not.
9. Slavery:  Neither the biblical Jesus nor the earliest Christians said that slavery was immoral, yet so many modern Christians do think so.  If the South had won the American civil war, more people would have persisted even longer in thinking slavery acceptable.
10. Divorce:  Mark 10:11 Jesus answered, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.”  The author of Matthew 19:9 wrote the dialogue differently (even though he was using Mark as his source) AND added that divorce was acceptable in cases of adultery.  Many modern Christians believe that there are many acceptable reasons for divorce.
11. Desire:  “I tell you that anyone who looks at a married woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”  Matthew 5:28-29.  Most modern Christians do not think this is to be taken literally, even if they do take literally the parts they like!  Also, some modern Christians don’t think it’s immoral to lust, as long as they do not act on it. 
12. Swearing oaths: “But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God's throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, … [or] by your head. Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”  (Mt 5:34-37).  Yet modern Christians believe it is okay to swear in a law court or to be sworn into public office.
13. Praying in Public:  “And when thou pray, do not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the assemblies and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But you, when you pray, enter into your closet”  (Mt 6:5-6).  Yet many modern Christians want prayer in schools, and they love to pray in public, at football games, on sidewalks at “See You at the Pole” events, etc.
14. Wives submitting to husbands as to masters:  1 Peter 3:1-6 “Likewise, you wives should be subordinate to your husbands so that, even if some disobey the word, they may be won over without a word by their wives' conduct when they observe your reverent and chaste behavior.  … the holy women who hoped in God … were subordinate to their husbands;    thus Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him "lord." You are her children when you do what is good.”  Many modern Christian women think that at least some parts of this are too extreme.  Many do not believe they are immoral when they don’t obey their husbands.
15. Many modern Christians think the biblical Jesus was exaggerating or not being “literal” when he said things like the following:
1. "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. (Mt 5:38-41).
2. "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Mt 5:43-44).
3. “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.  (Mt 5:29-30).
4. “But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.”  (Mt 5:22).
5. “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink; nor yet for your body, what you will put on.”  (Mt 6:25).
6. “Take no thought for tomorrow: for tomorrow will take thought for the things of itself.”  (Mt 6:34).
7. “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.”  (Mt 7:1).
8. “Ask and it will be given to you … For everyone who asks receives.” (Mt 7:7-8)
9. "Sell your possessions and give to the poor.”  (Luke 12:33 – not the passage where he’s talking to only one young man.  cf. Mk 10:21).
10. "Woe to you who are rich.” (Luke 6:24).  “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.  … It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”  (Mt 19:23-24).
11. "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26).
16. Should Christians keep the law of Moses?  According to the Jewish prophets in the Old Testament, the law of Yahweh given to Moses was to last forever, and even Gentiles would one day acknowledge it:  Isaiah 2:1-4; 8:20; 19:2; 42:1-9; 42:24-25; 51:4; 56:6-7; 60:1-22; 66:19-23; Jeremiah 33:17-18; Ezek. 37:24; Ezek. 40-48,; Micah 4:1-3.  Matthew 5 (written by a Jewish Christian whose community likely followed the law) presents Jesus as possibly agreeing with the Old Testament prophets, saying, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." In fact, here Jesus says, "not the smallest letter" nor "the least stroke of a pen" will by any means disappear from the law "until heaven and earth disappear."  In Mark and Matthew, Jesus often gives judgements that are even stricter than Mosaic law (Mt 5; Mk 10; Mt 19).  “Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:19-20). The rest of the NT says the opposite about the law.  Rom. 10:4: "Christ is the end of the law." Eph. 2:15: speaks of Christ " abolishing in his flesh the law with its commandments and regulations."  Heb. 10:1: "The law is only a shadow."  Gal. 3:24-25: "The law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law."  Col. 2:13-17: says that Jesus "cancelled the written code, with its regulations. . . . He took it away, nailing it to the cross." New Moon celebrations and Sabbath days were just "a shadow"  [making Isaiah 66:19-23 impossible to fulfill].  IF Yahweh’s law’s were not good enough and needed to be updated or amended or to be superceded by Jesus, then Yahweh’s morality CHANGES.  Such was the evolution of Christianity away from being a sect within Judaism and toward accommodating Greek and Roman beliefs.

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Old Testament Morality

IF Yahweh is the God of the old AND new testaments AND modern Christians, then it seems that his moral rules were not absolute and have changed over time:

1. Polygamy:  In the Bible Yahweh never says anything against polygamy, and some of his most famous followers in mythology were polygamous (especially in the early mythology):  Abraham, Jacob, David, Solomon.  While the New Testament does not forbid polygamy, 1 Tim 3:2 demands that overseers/bishops be “the husband of but one wife,” and most modern Christians consider polygamy immoral despite the fact that in the literature, Yahweh and Jesus never said so.  Mormons have heavily debated this too.
2. Slavery:  The ancient Jews and their biblical Yahweh acknowledged the morality of slavery (e.g. Exodus 20:17; 21:1-7).  The Mosaic law supports it, even in the ten commandments, and the law of Moses was supposed to be eternal.  It was even acceptable to sell one’s own daughter into slavery (Exodus 21).
3. Beating slaves:  Exodus 21:20-21 – If a man beats a slave, it is acceptable as long as the slave gets up within 2 days and can continue his/her work.  Why?  Yahweh and Moses say that the slave is money/property.
4. Sabbath: Yahweh killed a man for collecting firewood on Saturday and was called "just" by worshippers (Num. 15:32-36). Today, Yahweh does not do such things or consider it immoral to collect wood on any day of the week, at least according to many Christians.  Did Yahweh give his approval for Roman Christians to change observance from the Sabbath to Sunday, from the 7^th day to the 1^st day. In 321 CE, the Pagan sun-worshiping Emperor Constantine declared that Sunday was to be a day of rest throughout the Roman Empire.  About 364 CE, the Church Council of Laodicea ordered that religious observances were to be conducted on Sunday, not Saturday. Sunday became the new “Sabbath.”  By 2000 CE, a majority of modern Christians no longer worried about what they could or could not do on the “Sabbath.”  Plenty of Christians consider Sabbath observance obsolete.
5. Yahweh sometimes ordered the killing of children (e.g. 1 Sam 15).  Most modern Christians consider that immoral.
6. Yahweh punished the descendants of Ham following Noah's curse, which was due to a minor incident involving being seen naked and perhaps mocked while drunk.  What did the descendants do wrong?  Many modern Christians would criticize such an action if performed by anyone but Yahweh.
7. Yahweh ordered the death penalty
1. for disobedient children (Deut. 21:18-21),
2. people with other religions (Deut 13:6-10; 17:2-5),
3. anyone who curses his father or mother (Lev 20:9),
4. homosexuals (Lev 20:13),
5. blasphemers (Lev 24:16),
6. adulterers (Lev 20:10),
7. and others. 

Many modern Christians would consider it immoral to kill another human for such reasons.  Plenty consider the death penalty immoral, period.

8. Yahweh thought it was immoral for a man to have sex with a woman during her period; if it happened, both were to be exiled (Lev 20:18).  Many modern Christians do not consider such sex immoral, even if they don’t all have such sex.  It certainly isn’t moral to exile someone for it.
9. Yahweh considered it immoral to wear clothing woven of two different kinds of material, or to sow a field with two different kinds of crops (Lev 19:19).
10. Yahweh considered it immoral to eat rabbits or pigs (11:6-7).  In the New Testament, he decided it was okay after all (Acts 10).  This is another case where Gentile Christianity won out over Jewish Christianity. 
11. Yahweh and ancient Jews (like many other cultures and their gods) considered women to be a men’s property and generally inferior. 
1. If you study the Mosaic law, you will see that it primarily addresses men.  Ex 20:17 lists a wife among a man’s possessions: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor`s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor`s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor`s.”
2. Also, if men were dissatisfied, they could divorce women (Deut. 24), but there was no provision for women divorcing men. 
3. If a woman gave birth to a female child, she was ritually impure for twice as long than she would have been for a male child (Lev 12:2-5). 
4. Many modern Christians do not believe that women actually belong to their husbands, or that female children are more impure. 
12. Yahweh says he punishes the children and grandchildren of sinners for crimes they didn’t even commit. “I Yahweh your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generation” (Exodus 20:5; 34:7; etc.).  In the minds of many modern Christians, God only punishes people for their own sins.  Yahweh was immoral by most modern standards.
13.  “But if any harm follow, then you must give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe” (Exodus 21: 23-25).  The Jesus in the gospel of Matthew seemed to think his “father,” Yahweh, was a bit harsh in this, and that there was a better morality (Mt 5:38-41).

It should be obvious from the above examples that while Christians and other religious people may claim that their morals are absolute and unchanging, such is a lie and an expression of ignorance.  Each individual Christian seems to create his/her own form of Christianity.  And since no personal, super-human God ever actually speaks for himself in a way that is fair, straightforward, and open to all, religious morality is always human morality, invented by humans who merely claim divine authority.

A Sample Case of Christian Moral Evolution:  Onan and Semen:

Genesis 38:8-10 – “Then Judah said to Onan, "Lie with your brother's wife and fulfill your duty to her as a brother-in-law to produce offspring for your brother." But Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so whenever he lay with his brother's wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from producing offspring for his brother. What he did was wicked in the Yahweh’s sight; so he put him to death also.”

·      Is it immoral for the brother of a dead man not to impregnate his sister-in-law?  In the Bible (Genesis 38:8-10), Yahweh kills Onan for spilling his semen and not impregnating his dead brother’s wife.  That would make it seem to be an important moral, would it not?  Why does Yahweh later change his mind about such an important moral absolute?  Evidently morality is relative for him too. 

·      Is it immoral for a man to have sex with his wife just for fun, even once, and not try for a child every time he has sex? Ancient Jews and Christians believed that in Genesis 38:8-10 Yahweh killed Onan for letting his semen fall on the ground.  [For Judaism, see Babylonian Talmud, Niddah 13a.]  Clement of Alexandia (c.150-211/216) expresses the early Christian view of the abhorrence of spilling semen: “Because of its divine institution for the propagation of man, the seed is not to be vainly ejaculated, nor is it to be damaged, nor is it to be wasted.  To have coitus other than to procreate children is to do injury to nature” (The Instructor of Children 2:10:91:2, 2:10:95:3). Jerome (c. 347 – 420), an early Christian apologist and creator of the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Bible, wrote, “But I wonder why he the heretic Jovinianus set Judah and Tamar before us for an example, unless perchance even harlots give him pleasure; or Onan, who was slain because he grudged his brother seed. Does he imagine that we approve of any sexual intercourse except for the procreation of children?” (Jerome, Against Jovinian 1:19).  It is clear from history that early Christians considered it immoral to have un-procreative sex.  Many modern Christians consider this ridiculous, although some may try to abide by it.  [Hence Monty Python’s glorious song, “Every Sperm Is Sacred” from the film The Meaning of Life (1983). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47P59ha9k9s ]

·      Is it immoral to use a condom or other contraceptives?  According to 1,500 years of Christianity as well as the modern Roman Catholic Church, it is.  Other Christians and plenty of Catholics themselves disagree.

·      Is it wrong to masturbate?  I was told so in Sunday school growing up.  Early Christians thought so, as described above.  Other Christians think this is foolish, and that masturbation is natural.  Furthermore, a male’s body will force him to have sexual dreams and nocturnal emissions of semen.  “If such things were wrong, why would God have made humans this way?” a modern Christian might ask.

In an average, healthy ejaculation, there are anywhere from 20 to 900 million sperm [20–150 million sperm per milliliter (mL), 1.0–6.5 milliliters (mL) per ejaculation; according to WebMD http://www.webmd.com/infertility-and-reproduction/guide/semen-analysis?page=2 ].  Why so wasteful?  Does this sound more like natural evolution or the doing of the kind of god Jerome and other early Christians imagined?

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Repeated from above: 

There are a few pretty good, helpful ideas in old Judeo-Christian morality, like "Love your neighbor."  But reason, science, and Life are far too important for us to go ignorantly spouting off about unchanging "moral absolutes."  Our success, health, wellbeing, our very survival will depend on our ability to reason and adapt.

If Jerome and other church fathers were wrong about morality, why did God allow them to be wrong?  Why did the Holy Spirit not guide them? 

When Christians disagree with each other about moral issues, why does no God intervene and explain to them the right thing to do? 

Why does their God never speak like he does in their old storybook? 

Why do they get confused if the “Holy Spirit” of “The Living God” is really dwelling inside them? 

Probably because their religion is rubbish.  But, sad to say, they are psychologically dependent on it and are unable to question it without deep anguish from cognitive dissonance.  I know I sound harsh, but I love them, and I want to see them free from their old chains.