Claude's new constitution • Hacker News Board

Re: Claude's new constitution

#741

Post by DonHopkins » Fri, Jan 30, 2026, 4:45 AM UTC

asenchi wrote: post #535

Paracompact wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Slavery in the time of Leviticus was not always the chattel slavery most people think of from the 18th century. For fellow Israelites, it was typically a form of indentured servitude, often willingly entered into to pay off a debt. If you were an indentured slave and gave birth to children, those children were not indentured slaves, they were chattel slaves. Exodus 21:4: > If his master gives him a wife and she bea…

Cherry picking the bible isn't going to get you any closer to understanding. There are a lot of reasons God ordained society in a certain way. Keep reading and you'll discover that is a much more complex situation than you let on. Also don't let your modern ideals get in the way of understanding an ancient culture and a loving God.

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Re: Claude's new constitution

#742

Post by DonHopkins » Fri, Jan 30, 2026, 4:54 AM UTC

asenchi wrote: post #539

Paracompact wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mean well in ignoring their argument, but please don't let people get away with whitewashing history! It was not a "different kind of slavery." See my comment. The chattel slavery incurred by the Israelites on foreign peoples was significant. Pointing out that standards of slavery toward other (male, noncriminal) Israelites were different than toward foreigners is the same rhetoric as pointing out that from 1600-…

You are still selecting one verse to interpret an entire culture. Misleading at best. And saying this is "white washing history" is silly. Continue reading the Bible and you'll see that it is the Christian Worldview that eventually ended slavery.

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Re: Claude's new constitution

#743

Post by DonHopkins » Fri, Jan 30, 2026, 4:55 AM UTC

TheSpiceIsLife wrote: post #378

foxygen wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it was a different kind of slavery. Still, God seemed okay with the idea that humans could be bought and sold, and said the fellow humans would then become your property. I can't see how that isn't the bible allowing slavery. And if the newer passages disallows it, does that mean God's moral changed over time?

God has changed since Genesis. Why haven’t we all?

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