[Newsbot]

Title: Virginia city official under fire after claiming that God, not government, ended slavery
Category: Religion
Posted By: Regina
Date: 2015-03-16 07:12:35

[uwish]

wow, the sky spaghetti monster isn't good enough, now he ended slavery! Well the way I see it, the celestial dictator has to be equally as responsible for all the evil in the world, not just the 'good' only seems fitting to me.

[Zipperfish]

The Christian God has no issues with slavery.

[BartSimpson]

Zipperfish Zipperfish:

The Christian God has no issues with slavery.

Neither do the atheists who have student loans.

[andyt]

So let's see, God "led men" to end slavery, but allowed it to go on for millenia, and in fact still allows it to go on today. He seems to only want to end some slavery at this time. Also, His Word, as written in the bible, seems very tolerant of slavery, just giving instructions of how they should be treated and how much you have to pay if you abuse one. Guess God at one time thought slavery was OK, then changed his mind and decided it wan't for the US. God must be a woman.

[PublicAnimalNo9]

Now why would God have screwed over all those good Christian slave owners?

[ShepherdsDog]

Just to throw it out. The biblical slavery and the slavery of the classical and Roman era is quite a bit different than what existed in the US. The slavery that existed prior, was more akin to indentured servitude or contractual employment. An educated or skilled person could sell themselves into slavery, the slaves of the rich and powerful were themselves rich and powerful, and could very well own their own slaves. The blacks in the US, even if born free or granted their freedom could never hope for equality with whites. Slaves in the classical period could buy their freedom, if they were enslaved for a debt, which was common. Also, the children of a slave weren't always born slaves themselves. They could be just another plebe.

Also an important fact to keep in mind. Although many used religion as an excuse as to why the blacks should be enslaved, the abolitionists were also motivated by their religious beliefs to end slavery. Funny how it was from the Republican Party that abolition, universal suffrage, the Social Gospel(in the US) and Prohibition sprang.....look what a gong show it has turned into today.

[BeaverFever]

I agree with Shep, with the caveat to any person considering slavery in ancient times "your experience may vary greatly". What he describes was very common in almost every part of the world throughout history, even in hunter-gatherer societies like the Aztec and Maya. But the torturous, horrific "brutal slavery" was also commonplace everywhere as well. Just depends on your individual circumstances.

[andyt]

Working in the Roman salt mines or rowing a trireme wasn't all shits and giggles either.

The Aztec and Maya were agrarian societies.

None of which addresses the point.

[ShepherdsDog]

The religion of the Aztec and Maya required even the rich and powerful to engage in bloody rites of self mutilation to appease their gods. No blood, and the harvests would fail.

$1:

The Aztec and Maya were agrarian societies.

That is up for debate, as they utilized slash and burn farming techniques and quickly exhausted the poor soil....The Aztecs were definitely on the cusp of becoming a fully agrarian society until the Spanish showed up. They depended heavily on what grew wild(flora and and fauna) to heavily supplement their diet.

[BeaverFever]

$1:

The Aztec and Maya were agrarian societies

I over-simplified but they were actually a hybrid society - they lacked the biodiversity to fully transition to agrarian (i.e. no large draft animals = unable to plow large fields) so hunting was still a major food source. I suppose they were more farmer than hunter but very different from Eurasian Bronze-age societies.

[ShepherdsDog]

BeaverFever BeaverFever:

$1:

The Aztec and Maya were agrarian societies

I over-simplified but they were actually a hybrid society - they lacked the biodiversity to fully transition to agrarian (i.e. no large draft animals = unable to plow large fields) so hunting was still a major food source. I suppose they were more farmer than hunter but very different from Eurasian Bronze-age societies.

There were several native societies that were transitional., including the the Iroquois and many nations to their south, all the way to meso-America. They grew certain crops and had semi permanent settlements. The more focused on agriculture they became, the more slavery became part of their culture....cheap labour.

[BeaverFever]

I thought their slaves were more like live-in domestic help

[ShepherdsDog]

Aztec or Iroquois?

[BeaverFever]

both