Re: Christian morality: clearing up a couple booboos
Pim van Meurs (entheta@eskimo.com)
Tue, 10 Jun 1997 17:48:04 -0400BH: 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. 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.
Exactly. But this also puts some doubt on the idea that there exists such
a creature as 'universal morality, eternal...'
Morality is based on what we understand to be the best principles in
dealing with our environments.