I’m getting a few requests for the PowerPoint slides Matt used for his talk on “God and the Genocide of the Canaanites”, which he gave this morning at the Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Philosophical Society (EPS) in Atlanta, Georgia, 2010. So here they are:
Click on the image to download them or click here: Slides: God and the Genocide of the Canaanites.
Don’t forget that Matt is speaking again tonight at the Annual EPS Session at the SBL Meeting, click on the picture for the details:
Matt’s talk in this panel discussion is entitled, “Divine Commands and Old Testament Ethics.”
RELATED POSTS:
Georgia on my Mind
Joshua and the Genocide of the Canaanites Part I
Joshua and the the Genocide of the Canaanites Part II
Did God Command Genocide in the Old Testament?
A Selection of Matt’s posts on Divine Commands
Tags: Atlanta · Canaanites · EPS · Genocide23 Comments
A common objection to belief in the God of the Bible is that a good, kind, and loving deity would never command the wholesale slaughter of nations. In the tradition of his popular Is God a Moral Monster?, Paul Copan teams up with Matthew Flannagan to tackle some of the most confusing and uncomfortable passages of Scripture. Together they help the Christian and nonbeliever alike understand the biblical, theological, philosophical, and ethical implications of Old Testament warfare passages.
Plantinga on the Bible…
Two quotes from Reformed apologist Alvin Plantinga – cited by Matthew Flannagan in his PowerPoint presentation that attempts to rescue Yahweh from charges of genocide against the Canaanites….
Not sure if you guys have seen this. Dawkins owns William Lane Craig: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqGtrpCvXiM
This offers an interesting perspective, to say the least!
http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2010/11/god-on-trial-verdict.html
@TAM and Paul
I fail completely to see how you could decsribe this as Dawkins owning Craig, you will need to explain why. I didnt think he actually said anything of substance.
Loftus suposedly was a Christian and knew something of the Bible, this film is seriously dishonest in its presentation of Israelte history and their understanding of what happened and why.
Loftus completely undermines any integrity he may have had in making his case with such a dishonest presentation.
The ignorant and the already decided may be impressed….
Genocide is too strong a word. Yahweh didn’t have the same blanket goals that Hitler pursued when he decimated the Jews. for the former, your life can be spared if you renounce the gods of canaan and become a proselyte of Yahwehism versus the latter which has no avenue of escape for the victim, Jews of all stripes were killed because of their blood irregardless of whether they were atheists or religious.
Just to show you that people believing in an ultra-secular vision of the world are more blood thirsty than some religious tyrant.
TAM,
Please outline how you think Dawkins owned Craig. From my count, Craig presented ten arguments and Dawkins presented none. He also refused to respond to any of the arguments proffered except by calling them appeals to emotion. In fact, among atheists and theists alike, you are the first person Ive seen who thinks that Dawkins “won” the discussion. Most atheists have said they talked past each other and some have admitted that Dawkins was rather poor. So please outline your thoughts, because I’m seriously interested in how anyone could make your claim.
@ Jeremy,
Firstly, TAM’s post is his to defend, I don’t claim anything about Dawkins comments.
Secondly, my take on my clip is this: To be angry at god, since there is no god, is really to be angry at oneself. This powerful soliloquy is at root, an expression of anger by the victim of injustice at himself for ever having believed in the goodness of god. If only he could take it all back, all that obsequious grovelling before that blood thirsty monster. What a fool he feels himself to have been.
He has the wisdom to stop short of judging god to be bad. He’ll go only so far as to say god is not good.
If his god is neither good nor bad, in that respect, he’s just like nature – a random force to contend with for survival.
His worst mistake is to imagine that god is his enemy. He assigns purpose to nature where there is none.
There is no god, and anger at yourself is pointless. You are alive now, in this moment, and you are free to be glad of it. Even there, even then, as Viktor Frankl attests: “…everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
@Paul
While i totally disagree with you on the existance of God, and i do believe that He is indeed good, your answer was well thought through and logical. I would have to agree with your conclusions given your premises.
I still think Loftus thoroughly misrepresents Jewish understanding of their scripture and history through a character who displays a knowledge of his history but no understanding of the nature of the Law, the Covenants, the nature of his God. What is portrayed is a person who was jewish in name only never in belief or understanding. Its also a typical case of projecting 21st C cultural understanding backwards on completely different times and cultures, eg individualism versus communal responsibility.
ETS/EPS Annual Meeting and Apologetics Conference…
I also attended a session at the Society of Biblical Literature on “Is Yahweh a Moral Monster?” This discussion was outstanding. It included New Zealander, Matthew Flannagan, Canadian, Randal Rauser, also, Paul Copan and Richard Hess….
An update in the wake of Atlanta (plus a bit on rape and child killing)…
The high point for me was listening to myself talk (bit surprise) along with three other smart guys (not just smart-assed like myself; I’m talkin’ the real deal, people with serious brains between their ears), more specifically Paul Copan, Matt Flannag…
Matt,
This may be of interest to you if you haven’t seen it already:
http://religionatthemargins.com/2010/11/the-joshua-delusion/
@Paul Bennett
You posted this all over, but I responded here: http://www.mandm.org.nz/2010/09/commonsense-atheism-and-the-canaanite-massacre.html
@ G Kyle Essary
I posted on various threads that appeared to relate, if I posted on any wrong ones my mistake.
I also posted as Madeleine had commented on the increased interest from the US to this site, no doubt because of Matt’s presentation in Georgia.
I thought it might add another perspective to the whole debate.
Highlights of the SBL…
I am back from Atlanta after attending the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. … I attended several sessions … the best was a meeting of the Evangelical Philosophical Society. The theme for the conference was: “Is Yahweh a Moral M…
Day 1 of SBL Atlanta…
Then I headed to the Evangelical Philosophical Societies discussion of the question, Is Yahweh a Moral Monster. I wanted to hear fellow biblioblogger Matthew Flannagan take a stab at the question. … I was struck most by the fact that Matt looks and sounds exactly like Dominic Monaghan who played Merry in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy…
[…] [HT Matt Flannagan] […]
I was so pleased to listen to your discussion from the last EPS. I have had several discussions with my uncle who is an athiest and one of his chief objections is the Canaanite genocide. I have waited patiently for 2 years and now I can continue the discussion. Fantastic!
Rick, Matt’s notes from his EPS talk and the additional material he researched but had to omit due to time constraints are currently being published on our front-page in a 3 part series. The first post is here – the links to the others are within the posts.
From Deuteronomy to Holocaust!
1. Jehova&Hitler!
2. Dtn.7:1.16.22.=Hitler!
God,s Genocide in Canaan!
1. This is religious legal Genocid!
2. Rape, War, Hate, Racism, Killing is legal.
3. Internetbible&Internetrape and Internetwar!
4. Biblepedophily&Internetpedophily-Legal!
5. Killing is legal.
Atheist!
Criminal Internet and legal Bibleviolence!
1. Internetbible of War, Pedophily, Hate, Racism and Genocide!
2. Genocide in jewish Old Testament
3. From Jericho to Auschwitz!
4. From Auschwitz to Falluja!
5. Criminal christian World of the Bible!
6. From God to Hitler!
7. Gaza+Falluja=Olympicgamein London!
Atheist!
War, Genocide, Hate of the Bible in Internet!
1. Angeline Jolie,s Bible!
2. Dencel Washington,s Bible
3. Barack Obamas Bible
4. Adolf Hitlers Bible
5. Britney Spears Bible
6. Childrens Bible
7. Military Bible
8. Nazi,s Bible
How many Hitlers we have today?
Atheist!
Mark do you have anything of substance to discuss?