Mindchild: Regarding #5 Thou shalt not kill. This was changed by those who wish to control us.
Unfortunately, what many so-called religious authorities fail to tell when arguing against self-defense by quoting this bit of scripture is that there are several words in the Hebrew language which express the verb "kill." The Hebrew word used in this commandment ALWAYS means "murder" and ONLY in what would now be called a "pre-meditated" murder at that.
Unfortunately, the word "kill" has changed since the time of King James when the first major translation of the Bible into English was carried out. The "kill" would more properly be translated as "murder" as far as modern English usage is concerned and, in fact, many modern translations of the Bible generally use "murder" in this passage. Check it out in a modern language translation of the Bible or--better yet--with someone who knows Hebrew.
This Bible passage deals with murder, not self-defense and it's a grave mistake to interpret is as prohibiting self-defense. Thus the commandment is simply "Thou shalt not MURDER." (And any religious leader using this as an argument against self-defense should be dismissed as a liar or sent back for more theological training.)
Thank you for that clarification. That sounds much more reasonable looked at things that way.
Skipper
"The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion. The religion which based on experience, which refuses dogmatic. If there's any religion that would cope the scientific needs it will be Buddhism...." Albert Einstein
Perhaps I am going off topic here the scriptures in Numbers 35 verses 22-27(NIV) deal with accidental killing. If a person accidentialy kills someone he is given safe haven, but if he leaves that safe haven the blood avenger is ALLOWED to commit murder. This has always confused me. Considering that it was an accident how is one( the blood avenger) allowed to commit murder and be free of sin for an accidental death?
C
When the pain of being where we are, becomes greater than our fear of letting go...we will risk and heal and grow.
I think for a good understanding of these issues it's necessary to remember that we are dealing here with an ancient, illiterate, simple, savage, and tribal people. Think of all these things happening between the tribes of American Indians.
We make a mistake, I think, to project upon the ancient Hebrews our own level of sophistication, insight, knowledge, awareness, and just simple literacy. They were nothing of the kind. Read the original ten commandments and think what kind of people would need that kind of instruction.
