A very useful Bible quote for us anti-theists is the one where St Paul explains how the Pagans were already cool. At least, they were by Paul's standards. But they were also cool in ways Paul doesn't mention and wouldn't like LOL.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans+2:14-15&version=NIV
i've seen Christian's use this verse to say that those specific people that have never encountered the Bible still have "morality" even though they've never even heard of the book of Leviticus, let alone read it, but i think this is pretty much bullshit, and here's why
"you wouldn't have to make a rule against something if no one had the inclination to break that rule to begin with"
(can someone please tell me which philosopher type guy hat i'm quoting here)
basically
what i'm trying to say is that, according to Thomas Hobbes, the rules in Exodus/Leviticus/Dueteronomy are basically pretty much just a listing of things humans would naturally do with the instruction "don't do these things"
and i think this view on "law" is totally applicable to the rules regulations of
any society, even the pagan ones
the "laws of the land" exist to prevent people from doing the things that they would instinctively do, no matter which "land" you're in
individual people have differences in terms of what they consider "immoral"
where a guy who forcefully rapes
adult women, or a guy with sleeping beauty syndrome who molests unconcious
adult women will think of himself as better than a pedophile, just because he's raping
adult women instead of children
but a pedophile, on the otherhand, will actually seduce the children, where he will think of himself as better that the guy that forces himself on the aduly women
a totally sober drug-dealer thinks of himself as better than the drug-users he sells to
but the hard-core users, see what's happening to themselves and they think of themselves as better than the dealers because they'll say to themselves "I'm only harming myself, I'm not harming other people"
there are homeless women who "look sexy" and they're broke because they refuse to become prostitutes, these women see themselves as better than the prostitutes
but there are some prostitutes who see males as "perpetually horny" or "a life-support system for a penis" where these women actually feel superior to those specific women that refuse to do sex-work
my point here is
that for any rule you could find in The Bible, there are going to be people who would "instictively break that rule" if it wasn't there
Leviticus says homosexuality is wrong only because homoseuality already exists
Leviticus says bestiality is wrong because there are already people who are sexually atracted to animals
Leviticus says "a man shall not have sex with both a mother and her daughter" because there were already people doing that
non-Kosher food is delicious
the 10 Commandments includes a rule about not killing because serial killers already existed
the 10 Commandments includes "honor thy mother and father" just simply because some of the people that breed are horrible parents and aren't instictively honered by their children (trust me, a child is going to notice when their parent sucks at being a parent)
