alt.education

"Jeff Strickland" wrote:
>Murder in self defense is not murder. War is not murder.

In our system of laws, perhaps. But not all systems of laws.

But the word in the Commandment was written in ancient Hebrew, and no
one knows exactly what the word meant. It is presumed to mean
something akin to English murder, but of course was translated in the
KJV as "kill". War certainly involves killing, as does murder in
self-defense.

>The Commandments do not admonish against killing, they admonish against
>murder.

And you know this how?

>Of course, sanctions
>> against murder have nothing to do with the 10 commandments, since such
>> sanctions exist in every non-Christian/Jewish/Moslem country as well.
>
>Which emphasizes a higher power.

The only higher power involved is the government that will arrest you
and dump you in prison if you kill someone.

>> There are no laws against lying (there are laws against perjury and
>> fraud, and libel/slander, each of which usually involves a kind of
>> lying, but not against the general behavior of lying (or bearing false
>> witness).
>
>Now you are splitting hairs.

If the laws forbade lying, then every politician would be in prison.

>>>We have lots of laws that codefy some of the tenents in the 10
>>>Commandments.
>>
>> We have NO laws that codify commandments. We have laws that make
>> certain behaviors illegal, and all of those laws are based on
>> non-Biblical criteria and justification.
>
>Well you say that, but they are still in the Commandments.

They aren't in our laws. The commandments are utterly irrelevant to
our legal system.

>>>Surely you do not suggest we wipe the books clean of laws having to do
>>>with
>>>murder or bank robbery because these topics are included in the 10
>>>Commandments.
>>
>> The 10 commandments are utterly irrelevant to our laws. They should
>> remain so.
>
>The display of the 10 Commandments is never bad.

I disagree.

>You might not like them,

It doesn't matter whether I like them. Government should have nothing
to do with them. At. All.

lojbab