Why did God kill Onan?

#maklelan2097

[IslandFenix]

What makes this even more hilarious is that the dead brother, Er, was struck down by God for being wicked.

[WDRhine]

Just remember: marriage has always been one man and one woman because that's god's plan. Except when it's one man, one woman, and another woman because that's god's plan too. Any questions?

[brockk]

The reason all this happened is because God first killed Onan's brother for some unspecified sin. It makes you wonder why God was personally involved to such a degree back then, and then has hidden himself for the last couple millennia.

[scienceexplains]

*Free will and **-Onan-** Tamar*
Tamar is never asked whether she wants to have sex or a child with Onan. The only “discussion” is Judah telling Onan to do it.

[scented-leafpelargonium]

I remember as a young teen being given a Christian book describing an "onanism" as an act of masturbation, or as they put it, "self-abuse". Indocrination often starts at a very young age. 🙃

[damien]

Interesting that so much revolves around keeping money inside the family. Or inside a branch of the family.

[OldMotherLogo]

The Catholic Church uses this verse as their justification for opposing birth control. It always seemed obvious to me Onan’s “sin” was that he did not fulfill his obligation. So ridiculous that the Catholic Church tries to impose outdated thinking on their members based on this story.

[Pandaemoni]

As the song says, "Every sperm is sacred, every sperm is great. If a sperm is wasted, God gets quite irate."

[funkatron]

Whenever apologists try to bring up "God allows free will" for all of the world's suffering, I like to bring this story up. Such a clear violation of Onan's free will.

[brasswirebrush]

Whereas today if you married your brothers widow, most people would probably just assume that the two of you had conspired together to kill him.

[LittleBitofHopeToo]

So a god who can supposedly create as many humans as he wants without effort, murders a guy because he pulled out.

[daleproctor]

This story was the central focus of one of my favourite classes when I used to teach Sunday school! 🙂

[dawnb]

I highly recommend Israel Anderson's work, in particular his video "2 gardens and a Snake". He makes the compelling argument for Yahweh being Satan which explain a lot! Would be a fascinating interview if Dan were to bring him on his channel. The mind maps he produces are excellent

[drlegendre]

If God wanted that woman to become pregnant so badly, why didn't he just take care of it himself - rather than involving an unwilling participant?

[nightwyrm]

After playing Crusader Kings, a dynastic game where inheritance and controlling who gets what is a big part of the gameplay, I can totally understand why Onan doesn't want to make more heirs to complicate the inheritance. 😆

[maskedsaiyan]

There is a lot of Biblical things that we ignore in modern times. Most people don’t follow much of Leviticus anymore.

[NielMalan]

Abraham banished all his concubines who had born his sons, to prevent them from inheriting with Isaac.

[Ciran]

Honestly, I never understood why this one was taken as a reason to deny self love; it seems pretty clear what the issue is.

[alexmcd]

Somehow this never comes up when people say they want biblical marriage 😂

[BillZBubb]

Not too long ago I was researching the biblical justification for banning abortion. I found an article arguing that this story was that justification. Somehow, Onan denying a child to his brother’s wife is why abortion is bad, mkay. Still scratching my head on that one.