May Gos forgive me...

....but I'm on a roll now.

Dawkins asks the excellent question; Have those who claim moral authority for the Bible actually READ it?!

Here's some stuff about women from http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/dt/wom_list.html

My "favourite" biblical quote from the list below is number 10:

If a betrothed virgin is raped in the city and doesn't cry out loud enough, then "the men of the city shall stone her to death." 22:23-24

But let's not put words into God's mouth. Here's the full section in the Bible: Deuteronomy 22:23-24:

"If within the city a man comes upon a maiden who is betrothed, and has relations with her, you shall bring them both out of the gate of the city and there stone them to death: the girl because she did not cry out for help though she was in the city, and the man because he violated his neighbors wife."

On Yahoo Answers, Tom asks this very reasonable question:

How can you reconcile stoning a women because she was raped with a just and loving god?

1) For anyone who says "the old testament doesn't apply any more", I am aware christians believe that. However, if you believe that the god of the old testament is the same god as the god of the new testament, then you worship the god that, for thousands of years, commanded the death of raped women. That argument doesn't work.

2) For anyone who says I have taken the verse out of context, please explain the context in which stoning a woman because she was raped is the morally correct thing to do.

Additional Details

So, if the woman was gagged, so couldn't scream, that makes it consensual? Or was too terrified? Isn't screaming = rape / no screaming = consensual a bit hit and miss for a god with perfect judgement.

Isn't commanding stoning for many crimes, then adding "but only sinless people may do it" centuries later a massive oversight on the part of god?

It does indeed seem impossible to justify the stoning to death of a rape victim but The Lion of Judah does just that!

Critics of the Bible must be careful not to impose their present day moral system upon that of an ancient culture found in Scripture and then judge Scripture as though it is inferior to their own subjective morality. The above verses were written 3000 years ago in a very different culture and location. Sexual purity was very highly valued, unlike today, and when a man would marry a woman, her virginity was critical. In ancient times a dowry was paid to the father of the bride and the rightful expectation was that the bride would be a virgin.
In the culture of the time it was the father who was charged with the covering, care, and well-being of his daughter. Her sexual purity was was representative of the fathers ability to raise her according to the laws God. Therefore, in that culture, a man's reputation, as well as the family's reputation in the community, could be adversely affected by the fornication of his daughter. If his daughter had been promised to a man to be married, and a dowry had been paid, there was every expectation from the bridegroom that she would be a virgin. If the contrary was discovered after the marriage, then the implication is that there had been a deception in which the father could be implicated, or it would mean that he was unaware of her sin and this would bring great shame the family and the community, not to mention it being a display of outright rebellion against God's law. In this case, to insure the integrity of the family, and to remove the evil of adulterous/fornication from the community, stoning was advocated.
Finally, she was not stoned for not being a virgin, but for carrying out a deception in trying to appear as one.

 

Oh well, that's ok then, I'm glad we've cleared that up!


"If any man takes a wife and goes in to her and then turns against her, 14 and charges her with shameful deeds and publicly defames her, and says, ‘I took this woman, but when I came near her, I did not find her a virgin,’ 15 then the girl’s father and her mother shall take and bring out the evidence of the girl’s virginity to the elders of the city at the gate. 16 "And the girl’s father shall say to the elders, ‘I gave my daughter to this man for a wife, but he turned against her; 17 and behold, he has charged her with shameful deeds, saying, "I did not find your daughter a virgin." But this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity.’ And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city. 18 "So the elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him, 19 and they shall fine him a hundred shekels of silver and give it to the girl’s father, because he publicly defamed a virgin of Israel. And she shall remain his wife; he cannot divorce her all his days. 20 "But if this charge is true, that the girl was not found a virgin, 21 then they shall bring out the girl to the doorway of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death because she has committed an act of folly in Israel, by playing the harlot in her father’s house; thus you shall purge the evil from among you," (Deut. 22:13).

Insults to Women in Deuteronomy

1. Don't covet your neighbor's wife or ass -- or any thing that belongs to your neighbor. You see, in the eyes of God, women are the possessions of men. 5:21

2. Three times a year all of the males are to appear before God. The females he never wants to see. 16:16

3. In the cities that god "delivers into thine hands" you must kill all the males (including old men, boys, and babies) with "the edge of the sword .... But the women ... shalt thou take unto yourself." 20:13-14

4. If you see a pretty woman among the captives and would like her for a wife, then just bring her home and "go in unto her." Later, if you decide you don't like her, you can "let her go." 21:11-14

5. Rules for those who have two wives: "one beloved, and another hated." 21:15

6. When a man dies, his sons inherit his property. Wives and daughters get nothing at all. 21:16

7. Women are not to wear men's clothing -- it's an "abomination unto the Lord." 22:5

8. If a man marries, then decides that he hates his wife, he can claim she wasn't a virgin when they were married. If her father can't produce the "tokens of her virginity" (bloody sheets), then the woman is to be stoned to death at her father's doorstep. 22:13-21

9. If a man be found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both of them die. 22:22

10. If a betrothed virgin is raped in the city and doesn't cry out loud enough, then "the men of the city shall stone her to death." 22:23-24

11. If a woman is raped in the country, then only the man shall die (since there was no one to hear her if she cried out.) 22:25

12. If a man rapes an unbetrothed virgin, he must pay her father 50 shekels of silver and then marry her. 22:28-29

13. God says not be bring any whore into the house of the Lord. For "these things are an abomination to the Lord."  23:17-18

14. If a man marries a woman and later finds "some uncleanness in her," then he can divorce her and kick her out of his house. If another man marries her and then dies, the first husband cannot marry her again. "For that is an abomination before the Lord." 24:1-4

15. If a man dies before his wife has a child, then the widow must marry her husband's brother -- whether she likes him or not, and whether she wants to or not. 25:5

16. If two men fight and the wife of one grabs the "secrets" of the other, "then thou shalt cut off her hand" and "thine eye shall not pity her." 25:11-12

17. "Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife, because he uncovereth his father's skirt." (Why?) How does having sex with the father's wife uncover the father's skirt? Well, I guess it's because the father owns his wife. So the offense is against him, not her. 27:20

18. "The tender and delicate woman" will be forced to eat her own children "that cometh out from between her feet." 28:56-57