Re: [MLUG - DISCUSSION] [POLITICS][RELIGION] Billy Graham and the Presidents

[Mike Miller <EMAIL:PROTECTED>]

On Tue, 4 Sep 2007, Jim Locke wrote:

> I am a frequent reader of this forum

Then you know that Stephen is extremely knowledgable about Christianity 
and the Bible and he likes to discuss it.  He'll almost certainly give you 
long answers to serious questions.


> I learned the other night the Commandment "Thou shall not kill" is 
> really a faulty translation.  It's proper translation is "Thou shall not 
> murder." Both involve death of course, but killing is obviously a 
> superset of murdering.

I'll comment on this.  It is interesting to see what happens when these 
writings are taken very seriously.  You do have to think about 
translations.  Also, you can have serious interpretation problems even 
with a perfect translation.  Taking this example:

"Thou shalt not kill" -- kill what?  In some religions you can't swat a 
fly and you have to watch where you step for fear of killing some lowly 
insect (Jainism).  We always assume that "thou shalt not kill" referred 
only to people, but how would we know that?

"Thou shalt not murder" -- now we have to define "murder."  We really have 
to know the original word and all that it implied.  Maybe the meaning was 
clear at the time, but it isn't all that clear today.  Many people believe 
as Christians that they should not fight in wars.  Obviously, many other 
Christians are huge supporters of every war they have a chance to get 
involved with.

So I don't find most rules from the Bible to give clear direction.  But 
for me it isn't all that important because I don't believe that there is a 
God or that the Bible as some connection to the supernatural (e.g., "the 
inspired word of God") and I don't see one iota of evidence that the Bible 
has such a connection.  Thus I have to find other ways, other than Bible 
studies, to decide what is right and wrong and what ought to be illegal. 
Frankly, aside from the rules about idolatry and other gods, most of the 
rules are just common sense and no divine intervention would be needed to 
invent them.  Thus...

these could be scrapped:

1) "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."
2) "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image,"
3) "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain;"
4) "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy."

these are sensible rules and most societies will have something similar:

5) "Honor thy father and thy mother:"
7) "Thou shalt not commit adultery"
10) "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house,.....nor anything that is thy neighbor's

these rules are essential to a functioning human society:

6) "Thou shalt not kill."
8) "Thou shalt not steal."
9) "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor."


Best,

Mike

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