Originally Posted by DBT
Not that it makes any difference, gathering sticks on a day of rest is hardly a capital offense in any sense of justice, and to have a the man executed, stoned to death in public, is neither just or merciful.

Now you're substituting your sense of justice for that of the people to whom the writing was addressed.

And I don't think you need any particular set of beliefs to understand the bible. That's why God invented Philosophy, to discuss matters in a structured manner (logic) without prejudice (unstated a priori assumptions).

The key elements in human thinking are not numbers but labels of fuzzy sets. -- L. Zadeh

Which explains a lot.