Is this truly the wisdom of the Lord?

I hear it often said that the Bible presents us with a moral code that is still relevant, even now, many millenia after it was written. But I strongly dispute this idea. There is much in the Bible that even modern Christians would agree sounds hateful.

For example:
[Deuteronomy 22:23] If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her,
[24] you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death-the girl because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man's wife. You must purge the evil from among you.
[25] But if out in the country a man happens to meet a girl pledged to be married and rapes her, only the man who has done this shall die.
[26] Do nothing to the girl; she has committed no sin deserving death. This case is like that of someone who attacks and murders his neighbor,
[27] for the man found the girl out in the country, and though the betrothed girl screamed, there was no one to rescue her.
[28] If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered,
[29] he shall pay the girl's father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the girl, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives.
[30] A man is not to marry his father's wife; he must not dishonor his father's bed.

These laws about rape deal with the rape as if it were a crime not against her, but against the woman's father or her betrothed. She appears to possess no inherent value as a human being; she possesses value only as a man's property.

Imagine what kind of outcry there would be in America today if such became the law: rapists must be married to their victims, in order to punish them for their crime against the victim's father. Is this truly the wisdom of the Lord?

Here is another example. Several passages in the Bible support corporal punishment of children, for example:

[Proverbs 23:13] Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die.
[14] Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death.

Today there is a movement in the United States to end corporal punishment. Firstly, it teaches children that violence is acceptable, particularly when someone strong is hitting someone weak. Second, there are many sociological and psychological studies linking childhood corporal punishment to increased likelihood of adulthood violence. Yet, Biblical proponents would claim that the Lord, in his perfect wisdom, recommends it as the way to save your child's soul. Virtually all of the US proponents of corporal punishment are Christian groups citing Biblical backing of the practice.

I could go on (and have, in the past): Biblical support for slavery, opposition to interracial marriage, the shunning of people with disabilities, collective retribution (punishing people for crimes committed by their fathers or leaders), polygamous marriage, homophobia, severely restricted rights for women.

In short, biblical morality does not reflect modern ethical values, and most of us are forced to agree that most, if not all, of these changes have been for the better.

crossposting to my journal and crossposting to challenging_god