OK, then, what about someone who thinks that he *is* God? He would be
perfectly justified, according to Scripture, in carrying out these
prophecies.
>There of course are other passages in both the Old and New Testaments in
>addition to the ones Russell brought up that document the wiping out of
>entire nations -- commanded by God -- or can be construed to condone
>violence against those who are perceived to be God's enemies. However, the
>Bible also teaches mercy and nonviolence. I don't want to make light of
>Russell's criticisms.
That's all I'm saying -- that there are contradictions. That doesn't mean
that those contradictions can't be dealt with, but it shows the danger of
looking on Christian morality as "the" moral system, because claiming that
it is absolute, eternal, and totally objective makes it easier for people
to use it for their own selfish purposes.
>I'm not proud of what some of my ancestors have done
>-- while believing they were doing the will of God -- but the best I can do
>about that is to strive to live according to Christian principles as I
>understand them today, in the hope that that will help ensure past abuses
>don't happen again.
And there's absolutely nothing inconsistent about that.
_____________________________________________________________
| Russell Stewart |
| http://www.rt66.com/diamond/ |
|_____________________________________________________________|
| Albuquerque, New Mexico | diamond@rt66.com |
|_____________________________|_______________________________|
2 + 2 = 5, for very large values of 2.