Posted by
toady on Tuesday, June 10, 2008 5:37:45 AM
Toady's Q: Can you do me a favor. Tell me what YOUR deep-seated belief is. Do you believe that all people are not basically the same? Do you believe that all people are NOT basically good? Perhaps God likes some people and dislikes others. People who kill innocent christians… Perhaps God is not so pleased with these folks. I don't know though, Paul killed innocent Christians and God liked him well enough.
Chasby's A: Q: Do I believe that all people are not basically the same? No. Every person who has ever walked the earth have sinned except one. However, there are huge differences in the amount of evil in different people. Some people's sins are basically very minor. (e.g., someone has a quiet internal pride that their yard looks so much beter than their neighbor's yard.) Some people's sins are much larger. (e.g., first-degree murder). And some are much larger still. (e.g., Hitler's attempt to conquer innocent nations in a lust for world domination which resulted in WWII and the death of 62 million people).
Toady's Q: Do you believe that all people are NOT basically good?
Chasby's A: ABSOLUTELY ! ! ! In fact, man is fundamentally bad. This is one of the most basic tenants of Christianity and besides that I have always found this to be true. There was a reason that God introduced the Ten Commandments. People wanted to violate them before, during and after they were introduced. People generally want to live selfishly to please themselves first. Sometimes that involved murdering other people.
Toady's Q: Perhaps God likes some people and dislikes others.
Chasby's A: ABSOLUTELY NOT. In fact, God loves every person exactly the same. This is another one of the most basic tenants of Christianity. That doesn't mean, however, that God is equally pleased with every person who has ever lived on the planet. This is analogous to parents who might have one generally compliant, sweet, obedient child and one generally uncompliant, willfull, selfish disobedient child. The parents could very honestly say that they love their two children equallly ever though the generally naughty child displeases them much more frequently than the obedient child.
Toady's Q: If some people are basically good and others are basically evil, then is it the responsibility… the God given responsibility… to purge the evil?
Chasby's A: No. But an innocent nation certainly DOES have the obligation to it's citizens of protecting itself from an aggressive nation who want to destroy it or conquer it. This is somewhat analogous to the responsibility that Police have to the public to find criminals and arrest them for their crimes. DAs then have the obligation to prosecute dangerous criminals who have been a past manace and are likely to be a future manace to society. This sometimes means that the police or FBI have the obligation to bust large organized crime rings. In a similar manner, the US has the obligation to it's citizens to protect them by preventing future terrorist attacks such as those committed on 9/11 or in London or Madrid or Bali, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc. This sometimes means aggresively going after and busting terrorist rings.