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The Instigator
Zerosmelt
Pro (for)
Losing
35 Points
The Contender
Tatarize
Con (against)
Winning
38 Points

According to the Bible people who work on the Sabbath should be put to Death!! Lord have Mercy!

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Started: 8/6/2008 Category: Religion
Updated: 3 months ago Status: Voting Period
Viewed: 489 times Debate No: 4922
Debate Rounds (3)
Comments (32)
Votes (15)

 

Zerosmelt

Pro

Pretty simply,

Exodus 31:14; 35:2; Numbers 15:32-36

Exodus

31:14 Ye shall keep the sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: every one that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

31:15 Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.

35:2 Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day, a sabbath of rest to the LORD: whosoever doeth work therein shall be put to death.

Numbers 15:
32 And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. 33 And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation. 34 And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what should be done to him. 35 And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the camp. 36 And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses.
Tatarize

Con

Yeah, it is pretty straight forward with the whole put to death thing for a plethora of different crimes. However, those were Jewish rules, for Jewish people. You'll notice that even today many Orthodox Jews don't work on Saturday, however they never say that other people should be put to death for it.

Jews take the Sabbath off as a rest day for recognition of the covenant with Yahweh this was never intended to apply to "people" in general rather just "the chosen people".
Debate Round No. 1
Zerosmelt

Pro

Alright ...

I am arguing that the bible says that people who work on the sabbath should be put to death. I quoted the bible so it would be pretty hard for my opponent to refute this point.

Why have i posted this debate? (this is for you cogito) B/c theists on this website feel the need to debate whether the bible says that homosexuality is a sin and infer that it is. They have the right to do this, just as i have the right to debate other claims made by the bible.

"You'll notice that even today many Orthodox Jews don't work on Saturday, however they never say that other people should be put to death for it."

this is an irrelevant point in the debate. Simply b/c some jews don't adhere to the word of the bible/torah doesn't mean that fact changes the word of the bible/torah.

"Jews take the Sabbath off as a rest day for recognition of the covenant with Yahweh this was never intended to apply to "people" in general rather just "the chosen people"."

My opponent has not posed any argument or form of evidence for this premise.
Regardless even if it were true "chosen people" are still people. My resolution holds.

Thank you Tatarize
Tatarize

Con

I must have failed to make my point well in the previous round because you seem to either misunderstand the nature of my argument or are willfully ignoring it.

>>"My opponent has not posed any argument or form of evidence for this premise.
Regardless even if it were true "chosen people" are still people. My resolution holds."

My point isn't that the chosen people aren't people but rather not all people are the chosen people. "People who work on the Sabbath" seems only limited to those individuals who work on the Sabbath. Rather, that doesn't hold accurate.

Last Saturday I did a significant amount of work. I am a person. However, under the proper Jewish interpretation I am not to be put to death. The Torah is rather specifically rules for Jews to follow. You can go ahead and eat pigs and have all the gay sex you want. They are not rules for everybody but rather the rules for Jews.

I am a person.
I do work on the Sabbath.
Therefore I am to be put to death.

However, the rule doesn't apply to me and I am not to be put to death. There is something very specifically wrong with the topic as given, namely that it doesn't apply to me.
Debate Round No. 2
Zerosmelt

Pro

"Last Saturday I did a significant amount of work. I am a person. However, under the proper Jewish interpretation I am not to be put to death."

If you could please provide some evidence for this that would be great. because only then can we assume it to be true.

I HAVE TWO POINTS

1) We cannot assume that this rule only applies to Jews.
2) Even if this rule does only apply to Jews My resolution still holds true. This is because i never stated that all people who work on the sabbath should be put to death.

Point 1)
Numbers 15:32
And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day.

The children of isreal, of course, are the jews. It says that they, the jews, found a man. It doesn't say that they found another child of isreal. It says they found a man not specifically a man of any designation.

They found a random man who was working on the sabbath and put him to death.
How does this only apply to jews?

Point 2)
Let me restate my resolution:
According to the Bible people who work on the Sabbath should be put to Death.

This does not say that all people who work on the sabbath should be to death, just that people should. "people" doesnt necessarily refer to all people. It can refer to certain people. Jews are people. Just think about, lets suppose it is true that only jews will dance does make the statement 'people will dance' False?? I think not.
I believe its horrifying that the bible says that anyone should be put to death for picking up sticks on any day. No matter if they are Jews or not.

Back to you Tatarize
Tatarize

Con

>>1) We cannot assume that this rule only applies to Jews.

I'm not assuming. Go ahead and ask a Jew. If you think the Jews believe that the commandments of "God who delivered your people from Israel" apply to those who are not the children of Israel then I don't see how your view meshes even remotely with reality. You shall not kill. However passage after passage of the Bible retells in grueling detail the murder and genocide of other peoples. You shall not steal or covet but passage after passage has them raiding towns and taking sex slaves etc. I'm utterly dumbfounded that you could imply this is an assumption on my part.

Though, I suppose you need not take my word for it:
http://www.jewfaq.org...

"While non-Jews are only obligated to obey the seven commandments given to Noah, Jews are responsible for fulfilling the 613 mitzvot in the Torah, thus G-d will punish Jews for doing things that would not be a sin for non-Jews."

The Sabbath section is in the ten commandments and part of the 613 mitzvot.

>>2) Even if this rule does only apply to Jews My resolution still holds true. This is because i never stated that all people who work on the sabbath should be put to death.

Here I must disagree. People is far different than Jews who accept that those rules are to be enforced. Moreover, no Jew today would advocate such a thing. Life is given a much higher regard than any other consideration and you'll never witness even the most orthodox of Jews killing other Jews for working on the Sabbath. Though, that's a practical consideration and of little regard to specifics of the topic.

I think the question boils down to our main point of contention. Does the topic refer to all people or not? I'm pretty sure it does. I'm a person and under a proper consideration I would not be killed for working any day I want.
Debate Round No. 3
32 comments have been posted on this debate. Showing 11 through 20 records.
Posted by Zerosmelt 3 months ago
Zerosmelt
Thank you for defending me tatarize. i didn't think that cogito deserved my response.

<I;m always right> ( i hate ur name btw, i hope you don't think thats personal) if you could provide me with a link to where i have done such a thing i will gladly apologize if its appropriate.

:)
Posted by Zerosmelt 3 months ago
Zerosmelt
i will say this... the debate was not about what the jews or christians practice it was about what the bible says.

If jews/christians wish to stray from the good book then so be it,
and may the lord have mercy on them when we are all judged.

either way i wasn't excepting to win.
Posted by Im_always_right 3 months ago
Im_always_right
I agree it may not make sense but there are reasons that Christian's sabbath is Sunday While the Jewish Sabbath is Saturday. The main reason is to keep Easter (the Sunday that Jesus was resurrected) Holy all year by remembering the day. Which is why it was changed, for Christians. Good debate. Also in some places he does use personal attacks against religios people, he did not here so calling him a bigot here was way unneeded.
Posted by Tatarize 3 months ago
Tatarize
theLwerd, Yeah, that probably would have whooped me pretty badly. I guess I could have cited Paul's claim about the old laws not applying or some other nonsense but I did quickly realize that harping on Jewish interpretation had a pretty quick rebuttal of supposing Christianity which effectively tosses any nuance out of the window. Not that Christians are much for the Sabbath, heck they changed it from Saturday to Sunday for crapsakes (hardly keeping it holy), it would have made the debate a much more uphill battle. The rules don't make much sense from the Christian perspective of applies to everybody (though that's a bit more of a modern Christian interpolation) though, Christianity itself doesn't make much sense in this expanded regard.
Posted by Tatarize 3 months ago
Tatarize
The chief error Cogito seems to make is the difference between insulting to beliefs and insulting to people. One does not become a bigot for opposing communism although the belief that all communists should be killed or that they are all really stupid is completely excessive and unneeded. Likewise noting that religion is a pile of nonsense and hate is far different from saying that religionists are stupid and hateful. As far as I can tell Zero seems to be addressing beliefs and only mentioning people who hold those beliefs in passing. That means he's not a bigot as that requires judging people based on shoddy criteria rather than pointing out that beliefs in skyfathers who love the smell of burnt goat are silly and unevidenced.
Posted by theLwerd 3 months ago
theLwerd
I'm not sure why Pro didn't bring up the fact that Jews DON'T follow the Bible. They follow the Torah. And before you mention that the OT in the Bible does in fact come from the Torah, that does not change the fact that NON-JEWS follow the the Bible. That would have been Pro's biggest argument, yet he didn't make it, so...
Posted by Im_always_right 3 months ago
Im_always_right
Cognito, are you capablr of saying something other than bigot?
Posted by Tatarize 3 months ago
Tatarize
Cogito, being an anti-theist isn't bad. Would you suppose that anti-slavery or anti-nazi are bad positions to take? Certainly, anti-black and anti-jew would be unacceptable but you keep using the word like the term itself is damning. Anti simply states the opposition to something, whether that something is something which should be opposed is up for debate. Real honest debate of the variety you're attempting to suppress by making bogus claims about "anti-theists" being bigots.

I strongly oppose theism myself. I think telling children falsehoods in order to manipulate them into doing things is a mistake. Theism is baseless and often contains a great deal of really barbaric baggage being forced through via fear, threat, guilt, and lies.
Posted by Tatarize 3 months ago
Tatarize
Not to completely undercut my argument, but I think Zero is right about Numbers 15. I read the rest of Numbers 15 and checked the original Hebrew and in context it looks like it was just a guy. The rest of the chapter talks about how the strangers among you need to follow your laws and then at the end of the chapter is the story of them coming onto this guy gathering sticks, grab him, lock him up, ask God and are told in no uncertain terms to take him outside of the camp and stone him to death. The only reason the story would be there is if he was just a guy and the grabbed and murdered him based on their stupid laws.

I'm pretty sure the modern and long standing Jewish tradition goes the otherway on the issue but it very much seems like he's a gentile and they upped and murdered him.

Murdering your father on Monday and picking up sticks on a Sunday are, according to the Bible, equal crimes.
Posted by Zerosmelt 3 months ago
Zerosmelt
Lol cogito i think you are so blinded by ur emotions that you havent even read my argument.

I could careless if you think im a bigot.
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