In a message dated 02/20/2002 10:24:43 AM Pacific Standard Time,
gmurphy@raex.com writes:
<< > Lucy responds:
>
> I have never held the popular opinion that "social Darwinism" or
> "survival of the fittest" was in any way cruel or inhumane. Because of
> this, I have also not had philosophical difficulties accepting that God
> would design a system that seemingly works this way.
>
> Consider...in the long run, it is much more humane and compassionate to
> have some humans lose their lives so that others may not only live but
> may live well. In the movies this is presented as heroic, but in
> biology we somehow depict the process as inhumane. So, we can take a
> small population of starving people and feed them, and forty years later
> we end up with millions of starving people - because they reproduced and
> still live on non-arable land.
Mt.14:15-17 & its sequel are germane here. The attitude of the
disciples is "We can't see how to feed these people with our limited
resources so we're not going to try." One implication (certainly not the
only one) of the story is that we should do the best we have to care for
people's needs with the resources we have & leave it to God to determine
success.
>>
I am skeptical that this passage has much if any relevance for social
questions. Jesus is not aiming even indirectly at teaching the disciples to
do the best they can with the 5 loaves and 2 fishes. He is setting up a
problem that teaches them to look to HIM. It is above all a Messianic sign.
I am delighted time and again with your many comments that take us back to a
Christocentric viewpoint. Permit me this once to take you back.
Paul
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Feb 21 2002 - 02:58:50 EST