Re: [asa] (euthanasia) morals/ethics

Your characterization of my position is quite inaccurate. What I have said is that the God in whom Christians believe provides a basis for ethics. I have never said that the Bible gives us the answers for all ethical & moral questions that arise. In discussing the 10 Commandments with 8th graders for confirmation I always made a point of giving them a few mini-case studies in which the demands of 2 or more commandments were, at least superficially, in conflict. That is precisely because I didn't want them to think that all the problems they'd be faced with could be dealt with by pulling out an appropriate Bible verse. In other words, welcome to the real world.

A brief article of mine that deals with euthanasia & related matters, "Death in a High-Tech Age", is at http://www2.elca.org/faithandscience/covalence/archive/pre2004/covalence_vol3_no3.pdf .

Shalom
George
http://home.roadrunner.com/~scitheologyglm

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dehler, Bernie" <bernie.dehler@intel.com>
To: "ASA" <asa@calvin.edu>
Sent: Thursday, October 22, 2009 12:16 PM
Subject: RE: [asa] (euthanasia) morals/ethics

> For those who think like George, that morals come from God and can be discovered from the Bible, how do you find the right position on euthanasia, or 'mercy killing?'
>
> Even as a Christian, I saw nothing wrong with a person taking their life if they had some disease that they would just eventually waste away anyway. (As the argument goes, if we can kill an animal out of mercy, why not so much more a human?) I've had relatives that died that way- slipping into coma and eventually dying or going through a long period of ever worsening dementia before dying.
>
> I think the simpleton approach, likely the Catholic approach, is to say that it is wrong to take one's life in all cases; no exceptions. Maybe we could even argue that this Catholic position is immoral, as it prolongs needless suffering (it is ironic how there is such an emphasis on clinging to life as if this is the only life there is; but Catholics should think of death as a 'coming home party' if they believe in an afterlife, and not fear it.)
>
> Some may be worried about the slippery slope; allow euthanasia in a good case, then what about other trivial cases, like when a teenager has a bad day at school and wants to end it all? To me that is akin to saying driving licenses shouldn't be given out because children may want one or incompetent people may want one. Solution: making reasonable rules. (Note, "reasonable" comes from "reason.")
>
> So what is the right Christian stance on euthanasia? How can it be discovered? How does God tell us? And if God doesn't tell us, why not? And if He doesn't tell us on this one, why does He tell us on others? For example, is the gay issue more important, so God tells us about that one; but euthanasia isn't as important?
>
> I'm just saying lets see how the rubber meets the road. If the Bible or God is our source for morals, what is this source saying? And how can we discover it?
>
> And beware the 'no true scotsman' fallacy where you might say only the 'true' Christians have the right answer ('true' meaning the sect you belong to):
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman
>
> ...Bernie
>
>
> To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
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Received on Thu Oct 22 12:35:55 2009