An eye for an eye...

well in the bible, almost any sin is punishable by death

many people were stoned to death

They can't ,for what I have heard ,nowhere in the bible it says that people should be put to death for a crime.It is hypocritical and makes no sense.

In the Bible the following crimes deserved the death penalty: • Murder (Gen 9:6, Ex 21:12, Numb 35:16-21). • Abuse of father or mother (Ex 21:15). • Speaking a curse over parents (Ex 21:17). • Blasphemy against God (Lev 24:14-16,23). • Breaking the Sabbath (Ex 31:14, Numb 15:32-36). • Practicing magic (Ex 22:18). • Fortune telling and practicing sorcery (Lev 20:27). • Religious people who mislead others to fall away (Deut 13:1-5, 18:20). • Adultery and fornication (Lev 20:10-12, Deut 22:22). • If a woman has intercourse before marriage (Deut 22:20-21). • If two people have intercourse when one of them is engaged. (Deut 22:23-24). • The daughter of a priest practicing prostitution (Lev 21:9). • Rape of someone who is engaged (Deut 22:25). • Having intercourse with animals (Ex 22:19). • Worshipping idols (Ex 22:20, Lev 20:1-5, Deut 17:2-7). • Incest (Lev 20:11-12, 14, 19-21). • Homosexuality (Lev 20:13). • Kidnapping (Ex 21:16). • To bear false testimony at a trial (Deut 19:16, 19). • Contempt of court (Deut 17:8-13). The biblically approved methods of execution in the Old Testament are stoning, burning, using a sword, spear or arrow (Lev 20:27, 21:9, Ex 19:13, 32:27, Numb 25:7-8). But all of these punishments are in the Old Testament and Jesus Christ gave us a new example. From a Catholic point of view: Jesus, in John 8:1-11, spares a women guilty of adultery whom the Mosaic Law said should be stoned to death. If the guilty person's identity and responsibility has been fully determined then non-lethal means to defend and protect the people's safety from the aggressor are more in keeping with the common good and the dignity of the human person. The Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives. However in today's modern society, the capability of rendering the offender incapable of doing harm - without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically non-existent. For more information, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, section 2267: http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt3sect2chpt2art5.shtml#2267 With love in Christ.

The bible is loaded with reasons to kill people

Maybe "one" wrote the book, and thought it was ok in the overall storyline.

Were they laws given by men or by God?

He without sin, cast the first stone.

From Genesis all the way through the old testament it foretells the coming of the Christ. The entire OT is a prelude to the NT. Nothign changed with the coming of Christ...we were merely given a way to be able to let go of our guilt for out sins.

Jesus did ..on the cross..a theif on each side...the one scorned the other ..and said we deserve this ,HE doesn't....Jesus condoned it then..and told that theif ,TODAY , u will be with ME in Paradise... the Bible tells to live by the Laws of the Land..just as Israelites did...if ur land has the death penalty for murder,so be it...