I think you may not be looking at this with a broad enough perspective. I'll try and explain what I mean.

Morality evolving does not have to be relative. It can depend in part on the situation.

It may have been moral to eat animals in the past, out of necessity, and it may not be immoral to do so today; but if ever a perfect delicious totally nutritious synthesized natural food is developed, that is also cheap, then perhaps it would no longer be moral or "ok" to kill animals for food. Do you see how that might be so at some time in the future?

Certain laws may once have been moral, but no longer are so today. A law quarantining for life the carriers of some dread highly contagious airborne disease may at some point in history have been moral, born out of necessity; yet after a cure or vaccine is developed, it may no longer be necessary and therefore no longer a moral law.

That isn't due to moral relativism; it's due to different circumstances.

So the old Jewish law was once something which set some guidelines for basic decent behavior amongst the desert tribes, who lived in strife and in a lawless manner, and worshipped false idols and spirits. Later, when Jesus came and showed the new covenant with God, and the new principle of forgiveness instead of retribution became paramount, God's law thus changed. The time was different, the conditions were different, and the people had had some time to acclimate and accept some order from the old Mosaic law, and were more educated and developed compared to their past and more primitive state. The people were ready for higher and more enlightened laws or commands to follow, and Jesus presented to them the two great commandments:to love God fully, and to love others as ourselves.

So morals and laws may evolve according to conditions, and according to the readiness of people to learn and accept higher principles. You can't teach a kindergartener trigonometry,as he isn't ready for it yet. The ancient desert Jews were not at first ready for Christianity, and had to study and accept Mosaic law first, and become more educated and less warlike and savage, before they might be ready to accept the elevation of forgiveness as principle to a higher place than retribution as principle. Also, prophecy still
had yet to be fulfilled, as the messiah had not arrived prior to Jesus' coming.

Morals and laws must fit the conditions. It would be pointless to tell those who must kill in their daily struggles for survival that all killing is wrong. Yet at some date far in the future, that may actually be how people can live, and the only moral view to take.

Evolution does not mean there was something necessarily wrong with the old. It just means something better and more fitting to conditions came along. This may be true with biology, with laws, and with morals. God doesn't give to humans the same moral principles to follow, that he gives to monkeys or to dogs. To each what is fitting. Dogs understand survival, and loyalty, and a hierarchy of social dominance and submission. Humans today are capable of understanding more than in the past. Jesus offered something that many are still trying to understand. The best way to understand it is to read the gospels and search deep within your heart, in silence and quiet thought.

We can only understand so much, even now; but what Jesus taught and showed is the highest spirituality yet shown to mankind, the spirit of complete love and forgiveness that surpasses all.

I hope this attempt at an explanation makes some sense. Thanks for reading.

Did he really say that word for word? link?

from the other huckabee thread

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/01/15/...ods-standards/

w/ quote and vid

thanks for the link man.

wow, that is some scary stuff.

when I played this for my wife she just looked at me like this whistled and twirled a finger around her ear.

Because I've seen way too many people who say they understand the Bible and know the will of God, and that His will always seems to line up with exactly what they wanted to do in the first place.

To be fair, it's everybody who is deluded by religion, not just Christians.

Slot machine effect; you're probably just noticing the noisy ones.

Don't you guys get it?

If we were allowed to stone Brittany Spears to death for her sins, we could save millions of young girls from following her path of selfishness and evil.

Think of the children.

How can you turn another cheek when Hitler slaps you if you strike his country before he has the chance to slap you? And... when you pre-emptively strike him, keep in mind you're going to be killing the innocent as well.... how does that work with the whole new covenant?

I'm not trying to argue that Jesus' instructions always seem practical to apply. I'm just stating what those teachings are, and that from a strictly religious standpoint, the Old Testament laws are superseded by Jesus' teachings (if you believe in, and understand, Jesus and Christianity).