Posted on 10/12/2006 4:45:33 PM PDT by wagglebee
No. I'm not saying that.
"By definition a government that allows freedom would go out of its way to allow the most UN-restrictive practices amongst it's citizens."
True.
So, what are we arguing about, again?
for tomorrow when i'm awake. g'nite
Just wondering where the list of Moral Absolutes might be found ?
... I'm still waiting ...
You are ignoring my examples. The Bible clearly says that Lot, Moses, and Jonah bargained with God. If God has His mind made up, what would be the point of writing it in Scripture? Then there is no hope in prayer. The word "prayer" means to ask. What would be the purpose of prayer then? Jesus asks us to pray. So we pray. God makes the rules and we follow, that's the way it works. If God wanted to wipe out people, why not? He IS god. He is bound to the promises He makes to us and WE are under the covenant He made with us by His laws. He IS not.
you couldnt understand, it's the casting pearls to swine thing.
Great answer!
Someone once put it for me in very simple terms, he said, "if you wrestle with a pig, you will both get covered in pig sh*t, but you also need to realize THAT THE PIG LIKES IT!"
True. But on the way we were graced with more of Mrs. Don-o's excellent posts.
I couldn't agree more!
Great Job Mrs. Don-o!!
Well, I gave you my answer and a little discussion, but that's evidently not what you're after. Are you looking perhaps for a more political answer?
You might want to ask the people who run the Moral Absolutes ping list, wagglebee and little jeremiah.
Here's a practical example. Say you are passing by a deserted stretch of seashore and you see somebody apparently thrashing about and in danger of drowning in the sea. You yourself are no very adequate swimmer. but you do see a rowboat with a coil of rope and a pair of oars in a nearby boathouse. You also see that the beach and the boathouse are clearly posted "Private Property: No Trespassing."
So what do you do? You go on the property, break into the boathouse, take the raft and launch it into the water, paddle rapidly over to the drowning person. The person is in a panic and struggling wildly, ao you throw a lasso around him and restrain his flailing arms, and then drag him into the boat and haul him back to the shore.
You've technically committed:
*trespassing,
*breaking and entering,
* burglary,
*assault and battery, and
*kidnapping (?)
but I doubt there's a policeman anywhere who would arrest you for it, a jury that would convict you, or a judge that would sentence you, due to the absolute value of human life.
It is not clear that doing all of the above would be obligatory. In other words, if you chose to do otherwise --- say you chose to run to a residential area half a mile from the drowning person, in hopes that you could find a phone and dial 9-1-1, knowing that it might be too late --- you would not have violated a moral absolute (though people might well think you were stupid.) The point here is only that other moral values can be set aside to uphold the one paramount value of life itself.
The uniqueness of this value can be seen even more clearly in the negative form: there is an absolute moral prohibition against directly and deliberately killing a non-aggressor, i.e., an innocent human life.
Hmm. I remember years and years ago, when I was a teenager, having a discussion about whether you could tell a lie, for instance, to save hidden Jews from the Nazis (the answer was Yes) or if a starving man could steal food from a store (again, Yes.) So I asked my teacher ---a good man, educated way, way beyond his pay grade--- if there was any action you could never, ever do, even to save your own life or the life of others, and he answered without hesitation: Murder, Blasphemy, Sodomy.
Thanks for the ping. Very, very interesting.
"What would be the purpose of prayer then? Jesus asks us to pray. So we pray. "
Yep, and if you believe that God can see the future, he knew that you would and what you would want, and if you were going to get it ... all before the Earth was formed ...
LOL - your only post on this thread is an insult ?
... how Christian of you !
Hrmmm...Although I'm of the conservative denomination, I think I recall learning the same thing back in congregational school.
It's fascinating, really, but it gets to the heart of the Judeo-Christian ethic.
Love and protect life, value purity and love the Lord our G-d, who is one.
I'm not God, nor did I presume to be in my post. I just posted the rules, I don't make them.
*************
Any rules at all are an affront to some.
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