Rabbi Sachs, Moses, et al

Re. a new work by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on taming religious zealotry. According to Oliver Kramm, Sachs in Not in God's Name suggests synthesizing the three Abrahamic faiths through scholarly work insisting that the authentic message of scripture is that 'our common humanity precedes our religious differences'. Emblematic episodes should be restructured to reflect this.

I agree with Kramm that this is not true. Scripture insists on discord and violence, the belief that it concerns shared humanity is a consequence of secularism. Of some interest I think is that before the thoughts of a group of poorly educated priests were written down, previous laws and moral injunctions had avoided violent punishments for misdemeanours. The rulers of Sumerian cities, often councils, were far more civilised than the raging psychotics and thieves of early biblical narratives.

Kramm points to Numbers 31. After defeating the Midianite army, Moses was appalled that his men had spared the Midianite women. He ordered that they be killed, apart from virgins who were given as sex slaves to his men.

Remind you of anything?

I assert again how dreadful the emergence of Abrahamic faiths has been, bringing violence into intimate areas of human life. Although briefly in the 1st century Christian era they showed signs of maturing, the rise of fundamentalist Christianity in the 4th century, due to Christian assumption of power in the Roman Empire, squashed all that.