Hard-gained Human Decency

For the moment, put aside what the Bible says.
Consider when the material was written.
It is not necessary to agree precisely when oral traditions
were written down, and became fixed written texts.
One can generously say that the Biblical materials
are two or three thousand years old. Nothing is newer
that about 1900 years ago. That is quite a while ago.

Does it make any sense to say that our lives
should be governed by what was known 2000 years ago?

I would hate to have the family life of ancient patriarchy,
even if I am male, and damned near old enough to be
a patriarch. Women were almost second-class citizens,
after rulers, and religious leaders, and all other males.

There was no democracy. There were slaves.
The king was considered to be somewhat divine.
No cell phones. No scientists. No antibiotics.
No social security. No public school systems.

It would be insane to want to live without medicines,
to believe that demons caused epilepsy, or headaches,
or stomach ulcers. Stoning women--that's right:
heaving stones at them until they die--for doing
what men do is not my idea of a moral life.

Nothing about living two thousand years ago lures me;
not the sanitation, not the belief systems, not the slavery
or racism or sexism or food restrictions. Nothing!
I don't want to be a wandering Jew, or a 1st century
Christian, or a 6th century Muslim. Escaping from
some of those beliefs has taken us centuries.

Loving one's neighbor is a fine idea, quite like
the exhortations to be good, or kind, or honest are,
but such ideas are hardly the property of Semitic
civilizations alone. They are hard-gained human decency.

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