Today's Theist Memory Verse, Vol IV

[Sorry for posting this one early. I will be taking a trip out of town tomorrow, so I am not sure if I will have a chance to update. I wanted to leave tomorrow's quote for sure, though, and I will post on whatever Ray has to say by Tuesday :-)]

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A passage of immorality for today from the "Good Book." To set this up: God comes to Moses tells him to war against the Midianites. So, Moses raises an army of 12,000 to "execute God's vengeance." The army kills every single adult male Midianite, but saves the women and children (along with a bunch of other plunder). They come back...

And Moses was angry with the officers of the host, the captains of thousands and the captains of hundreds, who came from the service of the war. And Moses said to them, Have you saved all the women alive? Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against God in the matter of Peor, and so the plague was among the congregation of God. Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that has known man by lying with him. But all the women-children, that have not known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves. (Numbers 31:14-18)

The total number of virgins that they kept was thirty-two thousand (Numbers 31:35).

I chose this one as it's one Paine uses in Part II of Age of Reason, which I am rereading this week. Let me provide a Theist Memory Quote from this:

Whenever we read the obscene stories the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon rather than the word of god. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my part, I sincerely detest it as I detest everything that is cruel.

Before introducing this Bible passage, Paine has to say of Moses, that:

The character of Moses, as stated in the Bible, is the most horrid that can be imagined. If those accounts be true, he was the wretch that first began and carried on wars on the score or on the pretence of religion; and under that mask, or that infatuation, committed the most unexampled atrocities that are to be found in the history of any nation.