God could've prevented them from mocking in the first place.
Hoops wrote:How so?
Something proportionate for mocking a man because of his baldness might, for example, be causing them to be mute for an hour.
If you were omnipotent, Hoops, what if anything would you have done to intervene?
1) But did they "mock" just for being bald? Is that what the text actually tells us? 2) So you are okay with God supernaturally intervening in these events? 3) Why an hour? Why not half an hour? Why not two hours? Are the offense measurably compatible in this way?
That the "little children" were about the same age as Elisha, for one.
I wrote they could be the same age, I believe.
Also, those who were mauled weren't children. Though the KJV translates their identities as 'small boys'. The Hebrew phrase here 'neurim qetannim', can refer to men from twelve to thirty years old. The soldiers in 1 Kings 20:14-15 are 'neurim qetannim'. Some people assume that Elisha was much older than them, since they called him 'baldhead', but he was actually in his mid-twenties himself, making him a 'neurim qetannim' as well.
Because that would indicate Your God was unnecessarily cruel and sadistic, you don't believe that do you?
If that's your position then you will have to define cruelty and sadism in the context of the story and tell us what is necessary cruelty and sadism. Then deleneate between the two. Then you'll have to explain why your position is better than mine. And a lot more. Are you prepared to do so?
That the "little children" were about the same age as Elisha, for one.
I wrote they could be the same age, I believe.
Also, those who were mauled weren't children. Though the KJV translates their identities as 'small boys'. The Hebrew phrase here 'neurim qetannim', can refer to men from twelve to thirty years old. The soldiers in 1 Kings 20:14-15 are 'neurim qetannim'. Some people assume that Elisha was much older than them, since they called him 'baldhead', but he was actually in his mid-twenties himself, making him a 'neurim qetannim' as well.
Drill down a bit more in this Hebrew and your apologetic falls flat. The Hebrew phrase is neurim qetannim. True, the Hebrew word neurim describes a male from early teens to adulthood. Similar to the English word adolescent. But qetannim is a diminutive adjective. Together, neurim qetannim indicates they were early teens, likely no more than age 15. So even if Elisha was in his mid-20s, lets consider who should have had the better judgment than to cause 2 she bears to tear 42 of them--the young teenagers, sort of like a Boy Scout troop--those boys to know not to tease someone else or elohim/jehovah and his mid-20s prophet Elisha. Bad call, elohim/jehovah, bad call.
Last edited by Guest on Sun Nov 06, 2011 3:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
You know, Hoops, a BEAR mauled people to death under the direction of your god, right?
Last edited by Guest on Sun Nov 06, 2011 10:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
In the face of madness, rationality has no power - Xiao Wang, US historiographer, 2287 AD.
Every record...falsified, every book rewritten...every statue...has been renamed or torn down, every date...altered...the process is continuing...minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Ideology is always right.
Because that would indicate Your God was unnecessarily cruel and sadistic, you don't believe that do you?
If that's your position then you will have to define cruelty and sadism in the context of the story and tell us what is necessary cruelty and sadism. Then deleneate between the two. Then you'll have to explain why your position is better than mine. And a lot more. Are you prepared to do so?
No, I'm not. But because I fear that would be against what your God would allow and He might send squirrels to gnaw on my secrets.
“We look to not only the spiritual but also the temporal, and we believe that a person who is impoverished temporally cannot blossom spiritually.” Keith McMullin - Counsellor in Presiding Bishopric
"One, two, three...let's go shopping!" Thomas S Monson - Prophet, Seer, Revelator
Drill down a bit more in this Hebrew and your apologetic falls flat. The Hebrew phrase is neurim qetannim. True, the Hebrew word neurim describes a male from early teens to adulthood. Similar to the English word adolescent. But qetannim is a diminutive adjective. Together, neurim qetannim indicates they were early teens, likely no more than age 15. So even if Elisha was in his mid-20s, lets consider who should have had the better judgment than to cause 2 she bears to tear 42 of them--the young teenagers, sort of like a Boy Scout troop--those boys to know not to tease someone else or elohim/jehovah and his mid-20s prophet Elisha. Bad call, elohim/jehovah, bad call.
As the citation mentions, the same phrase is used for a soldier. So your attempt to take the text in isolation and at its worst possible light falls flatter.
No, I'm not. But because I fear that would be against what your God would allow and He might send squirrels to gnaw on my secrets.
I suspect because you can not, not because you will not.
Think whatever keeps you praying to the God that sends bears to eat people when they mock baldness.
“We look to not only the spiritual but also the temporal, and we believe that a person who is impoverished temporally cannot blossom spiritually.” Keith McMullin - Counsellor in Presiding Bishopric
"One, two, three...let's go shopping!" Thomas S Monson - Prophet, Seer, Revelator
Hoops wrote:As the citation mentions, the same phrase is used for a soldier. So your attempt to take the text in isolation and at its worst possible light falls flatter.
In the best light, your God sent bears to eat 42 people for making fun of the physical appearance of a prophet.