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To: FredZarguna
Where Ayn's objectivism went wrong is not understanding the Christian imperative of the strong shall protect the weak. The left preverted that to "take from those that have and redistribute to those that have not." And theft is never a Christian virtue.

Is is possible to be a Christian Objectivist? Why yes, as long as your objectivism is bounded by a Christian moral framework, and not the other way around. I cannot think of a more basic objectivist statement as what Paul stated in 2 Thessalonians 3:10 "For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

19 posted on 03/27/2010 11:46:08 PM PDT by D Rider
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To: D Rider
Rand ridiculed the injunction "If a man asks for your shirt, give him your cloak as well." She also rejected completely the admonition to turn the other cheek. In fact, her stance on violence is clear: "We must never initiate the agressive use of force, but, we must also never fail to respond against it."

You are right that she would be more sympathetic to [some] Pauline writings (she was, like Paul, a Hellenist in her philosophical origins) but she rejected the fundamental basis of Christianity: there was no need for man to be redeemed, because he has done nothing wrong. In her opinion Original Sin was impossible, since sin involves not merely wrongdoing, but volition as well. Her moral viewpoint is that we all arrive in the world, as Jesus, in a state of sinlessness.

Finally, I would say that you're being too charitable to Rand -- a charity she didn't ask for, and wouldn't accept. She believed that the Buddhist concept of forgiveness was alright; you forgive a wrong so that it stops eating you up inside. In other words, you forgive a wrong for your own sake. She wrote, in The Virtue of Selfishness, that the Christian concept of forgiveness was stupid and was nothing more than a reward to bad actors for bad behavior. Rand did not see Christianity as fundamentally different from Communism. In her opinion, both were collectivist evils founded in pie-in-the-sky promises that demanded self-sacrifice of their adherents. And she did not believe self-sacrifice was ever really justified.

24 posted on 03/28/2010 12:09:36 AM PDT by FredZarguna ("I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.")
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