Posted: Aug 19, 2013 9:10 am
Michael66 wrote:So why the extreme measures against those currently in Canaan. The view of scripture was that the evil of the people had been growing – earlier the people had been spared because “the sin of the Amorite [a Canaanite people group] has not yet reached its limit” (Gen. 15:16). But these people, we are told, were a people who sacrificed children to their God (Lev 18:20-30).
I find this harsh judgement against people difficult, even against evil people, but perhaps I am biased because I have led a soft life. Here is an extract from Paul Copan’s "Is God a Moral Monster?"
Thankfully the archaeological evidence suggests that such a genocide never happened. That the Canaanites seem to have been subsumed into Judaism. That the exodus never happened or that Moses never existed. And that these stories seemed to have been folk legend invented by people who wanted give reason as to why there were old Canaanite ruins.
But even had they existed pointing out that the Bible, hardly an unbiased source, says that they were "evil" and that they "sacrificed children" holds as much water as "blood libel".