From: Zero Powers (zero_powers@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun Mar 19 2000 - 01:31:47 MST
>From: Robert Owen <rowen@technologist.com>
>
>Zero Powers wrote:
>
> > The belief system of other people is only a problem for you when,
>because of
> > that belief system other people feel the need to impact your life.
>
>I can't argue your point, Zero, on a purely pragmatic basis.
>What you say is true.
>
>But I am inclined to hedge here a bit -- what we are talking
>about are "religious" belief systems, and I am not aware that
>in any sacred scriptures in the world there is an unambiguous
>moral command to destroy human life.
>
>Not that these metaphorical documents are not capable of
>infinite interpretation -- certainly the Torah was the basis
>of the attempted genocide of the Philistines by the Hebrews.
>But this was war, and in a war politicians, generals and the
>rest invariably try to legitimize the use of lethal force by
>citing some passage in something that seems to provide
>"religious" justification, i.e. to prove killing is the right thing
>to do in this case. There is no scriptural basis of any kind
>that states unequivocally that Christians should bomb
>abortion clinics. In my view, this is mere rationalization by
>sociopaths to justify what they would probably do anyway
>in another connection if they could feel righteous about it.
>
>Perhaps this distinction has no practical meaning at all, but
>for me at least it is quite important spiritually.
As you have alluded to, the scriptures are really open to almost *any*
interpretation. The Bible has been used to support everything from the
Inquisition to conquest of the Americas to the Supremacy of the white race
to mass suicide by poison Kool-Aid. And the only real "unambiguous moral
command" contained in the Bible is to love God and your neighbor. Go
figure.
-Zero
"I like dreams of the future better than the history of the past"
--Thomas Jefferson
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