Ocguy31, where did I attempt to justify slavery? I am vehemently opposed to it, and stated that it was horrible. Also, you're barking up the wrong tree if you think I was raised as a brainwashed Christian. Might apply for some on this board but it certainly doesn't apply to me.
Did you miss the whole relative clause "in comparison to"? If I say something that is horrible *almost* seems civilized compared to something that is utterly, despicably, unspeakably horrible that does not mean that I am saying it is civilized!
Also, people who proof-text (cherry-picking verses out of various books to "prove" a point without examining the text more carefully) need to learn to really read the text. You folks are doing the same thing as the literalist Bible thumpers (i.e. quoting the "original word of God" to "prove" a point). Never mind that the "original" is more like "copies of copies" and the original languages were mostly Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek...
Slavery as mentioned in the Bible is a whole *range* of conditions from chattel slavery like African Americans suffered under to indentured servitude. I don't think any of them are nice things, but I sure as hell don't like it when people fail to make distinctions between very different things. "Blah blah he's just arguing semantics."
It's my job to argue semantics and to nitpick about details. I study the historical, political, social, and cultural contexts of the text in order to get as much meaning out of it as possible. Do you know how many names are used for God in the Hebrew Bible alone? Try "El Shaddai" "YHWH" "Adonai Elohim" "Adonai Elohai" "Adonai El Elyon" "El Roi" for starters. Each of them have very distinct meanings which often just get translated "God"
Now multiply that by eleventy billion for many other myriad terms that get translated into the English "slave" or "to know" or "make a covenant" (Lit. "cut" a covenant) and you begin to see that it's not so simple.