Rebutting William Lane Craig's Genocide Apologetics Part 1

[RameR_Remar_]

To be clear it’s neighbor killing its neighbor.

[阳明子]

craig's view is so ridiculous and evil and it's a shame a man who can make these arguments is such a popular face in Christian outreach. Thank you for this series Dr. Rauser I'm eager to read your book.

[jonathansmith]

And Joshua says "We did that"

[goblintown]

Appreciate you continuing to address this most difficult of Biblical topics. You called out one of my comments on a prior pertinent video. One allusion I made was to Goliath and King Og of Bashaan and I had not seen nor heard a take from you on whether these giants of old were indeed 100% ontologically human. That is to say, was Goliath’s genome something altogether or even substantially different from David’s? Was Og’s enormous stature simply an OT case of giantism? I fully condemn rhetoric that would demote people made in God’s image to any “less than human” or “insectile” status, etc. But I truly am curious on whether the two exemplars I gave would be considered no different than you and me, save their enormous stature? I don’t have a problem with a Sethite view of Genesis 6 and I further think Heiser took some reaching liberties in his work. But I do not personally think those progeny in Genesis had human fathers- as conspiratorial-sounding as it may be.

[MattCofer-swif]

Randall’s comment sections remind me of Matt Dillahunty’s and Rationality Rules.

[tomfrombrunswick]

Craig advances an argument which has a bronze age sense of morality. In reality in a early Canaanite society there would be some people who had power. Men of a warrior class. Then there would be women who at the time had no agency. There would also be slaves who had no power either. Children of course in our society do not reach an age of criminal responsibility till they are ten or so. Children again would have no real culpability in the sorts of things that Craig has complained about. Child sacrifice various sexual practices.
For someone to think that everyone in such a society merits the death penalty is obscene. It shows total moral bankruptcy

[IamGrimalkin]

Ok since you're doing a point-to-point response I'll do one or your response:

3:12 No that does not follow from what he said. Even for Craig himself, who does have a more hardline view on this than others like myself, that isn't true.
You know that elsewhere Craig said that this it is only moral to do so when given an explicit command by god; and it is also clear that Jesus is the only way to the Father so the modern-day state of Israel does not know God to receive a command from him. For those like myself which take a more nuanced view than WLC but nevertheless would agree with his statement here, God would not command this today because of several reasons which mean this is no longer justifiable under any conditions (due to Jesus's life death and resurrection, the coming of the Spirit and the closing of the canon).

4:33 I feel like you're splitting hairs here. Craig was obviously just using a shorthand for 'view the bible as historical at this point'. I would be astonished if WLC actually disagrees with anything else you go on to say in this section. What is clear though, is WLC thinks the Deuteronomic history is clearly presented as historical in the bible, and I would tend to agree (and say also the archaeology backs this up).

8:47 In context, what I think WLC means here by 'resist' is 'refuse to leave', not 'throw rocks at them'.

9:38 No, if they were simply slow at leaving, they'd just wait until they manage to do so. Obviously.

11:18 I can see you are no longer explicitly doing this; but by your tone it's implicit. You're saying that because people falsely accuse people of these things it's always wrong to use as a justification. The Rwandans would not have been wrong to use pesticide in their land, the problem was that the people weren't cockroaches.

11:23 Again, this criticism doesn't follow from what WLC actually said here. Ok based on what WLC said elsewhere it was justified to destroy the Canaanites based purely on their evil with no outside context, but only because God explicitly said so, which was not the case in the Rwandan Genocide. For those with a more nuanced perspective, the moral inadequacy of the Canaanites is only relevant because a) they could influence the Israelites to do the same (as they did not have the Holy Spirit protecting the from corruption), b) it was critically important the Israelites became uncorrupted because they performed the sacrifices for the world's sin and would be the ancestors of the coming messiah and c) scripture would be written to use the Canaanites as examples against such sins. None of these apply to the Rwandans either (well, a might; but that is irrelevant without b).

One final thing which you don't really touch on (maybe you will later), is that your justification for opposing this is exclusively your moral compass (which WLC basically dismisses out of hand). I would not simply dismiss your (and my) moral compass, while it can make mistakes when it's signalling something this strongly it's worth listening to. But what it is signalling is that is is wrong to do so today (and God would not command it today). If you lived in the time of Joshua your moral compass would not be against it (or at least, not so strongly), because Jesus and the Spirit hadn't come yet and the canon was still open. So presumably, if we both lived in the time of Joshua, we would both be on the same page.

[johnchv]

Couldn’t make it past point one without a caricature. Bummer. Nice try though, 🤷🏽.

A thought provoking question you may wish to meditate upon: Was it wrong for God to pronounce, and carry out, judgement upon all the people in all the cities/lands of Sodom and Gomorrah?

[Hemocracy]

God Almighty said:
*Because of that We ordained for the Children of Isr*el that
if anyone killed a person not in retaliation of murder, or (and)
to spread mischief in the land - it would be as if he killed all mankind,
and if anyone saved a life, it would be as if he saved the life of all mankind.
And indeed, there came to them Our Messengers with clear proofs,
evidences, and signs, even then after that many of them continued to
exceed the limits (e.g. by doing oppression unjustly and exceeding beyond
the limits set by Allah by committing the major sins) in the land!.*
(Quran)

[SquekretGenius]

Randal, have you ever made videos on why you believe in God or even good reasons to believe there is such a being and what are your thoughts on the Shroud of Turin?

[GarthDomokos]

infants can offer resistance? must be in his new age, new English KJV bible. Mine does not say that. Then again, what does it not matter what it says, since you can add or omit what you want, and interpret it in any way shape or form. Intellectual pride at its finest.

[RobSed]

It is not about Willian Lane Craig, but the fact that today we have 1900 years of Christianity and are altogether self righteous about the morality or a moral belief of the pre Christian Era. And yet somehow today, I perceive that this channel would support a woman's pro choice to abortion. somehow there is more indignation for God's right to do what He commands with what is His than for us to have destroyed 60+ human beings for the so called "rights of women." This channel makes me think of the following scripture:
Job 40:8
_"Will you really nullify My judgment? Will you condemn Me so that you may be justified?"_ - God speaking.

[john-paulgies]

Not to defend Craig per se - certainly not to defend murder - but consider:

"But before they went to bed, the men of the city beset the house, both young and old, all the people together.
And they called Lot, and said to him: Where are the men that came in to thee at night? bring them out hither, that we may know them:
Lot went out to them, and shut the door after him, and said:
Do not so, I beseech you, my brethren, do not commit this evil.
I have two daughters who, as yet, have not known man; I will bring them out to you, and abuse you them as it shall please you, so that you do no evil to these men, because they are come in under the shadow of my roof.
But they said: Get thee back thither. And again: Thou camest in, said they, as a stranger, was it to be a judge? therefore we will afflict thee more than them. And they pressed very violently upon Lot: and they were even at the point of breaking open the doors." (Gen. 19:4-9)

Would this behavior and state of civilization justify God's use of violent forces to utterly destroy that civilization or not?

[eew]

I hope Craig gives you what you chased Ortlund for:
a tiny bit of attention to refute your silly arguments. Unfortunately he probably won't, since Runaway Randal won't face EEW challenging his positions. And I'm nobody. Yet he flees 😅😅