DISQUS

Richard Bennett · 1 year ago

You'd be hard-pressed to find a book with more violence, gore and debauchery than The Holy Bible.

Mike T · 1 year ago

True, but the Bible also tends to use those incidents as moral lessons about human behavior. Ironically, if people tended to appreciate just what the Bible says about human nature, it would probably upset them far more than any violent pulp comic or movie.

lippard · 1 year ago

"the Bible also tends to use those incidents as moral lessons about human behavior" -- that's the excuse often given, but rarely substantiated. Most of the violence, gore, and debauchery in the Old Testament is given without comment or moral lesson, and sometimes when there is a moral lesson given, it's not a good one. The Pharaoh decides to let the Hebrews go, but God hardens his heart and changes his mind. God tells Abraham to kill his child, and the fact that he was willing to blindly obey in the commission of an evil act is supposed to be a good thing. God and Satan have a bet over Job for which Job's life is destroyed even though he hadn't committed any wrongdoing. Noah's son Ham sees dad drunk and naked, tells his brothers, who cover him, and Noah curses Ham's son Canaan. God orders the Hebrews to commit genocide against several groups of people, often ordering the killing of all males and taking virgin women into slavery.

Adam Thierer · 1 year ago

And don't forget my all-time favorite from 2 Kings 2, when Elisha asks for God's wrath against a group of kids who make fun of his bald head. Out came two she-bears from the woods to rip 42 kids into pieces. I will never forget one of my nuns in high school trying to explain away that one.

MikeRT · 1 year ago

I think one of the reasons why society was less violent back then was that there was much less sympathy for people who harmed others and their property. That was back before it was socially acceptable to blame a person's destructive behavior on their environment.

A good example of how things have changed in how we deal with violence is the way that bullies are treated. back when my dad was in elementary school in the 50s, the principle didn't even think about sympathizing with the class bully when my dad beat him up one day. Today, you would have the parents self-righteously defending their little bundle of joy, professional agitators demanding action, and a school board ducking for cover--all to protect a violent kid from the consequences of his actions.

I would say that this change in our culture and legal system, not violent or debauched media, has contributed significantly more to the corrosion of morality than any other factor, if for no other reason than the fact that it's the only serious change in how we interact with violence as a society.

Marvin Tabernacle · 1 year ago

Do you really think it's a more violent world now than it was in the '50's, or any other time? We may have school shootings now, but at least we don't have lynchings. Maybe parents defend their bully son today, but that bully is probably not getting in too many fights. The consequences of a simple fist fight today are much more severe than they were in earlier times.