Lucky~9~Lives
""Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.'"
- 1 Samuel 15:2-3
That's an interesting passage to mention, because child murder was deeply rooted into the Amalekite culture (“…in worshipping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.” (Deuteronomy 12.31)). God commanded to Isrealites to completely remove any and all remnants of their culture from the world at the time to prevent it from corrupting and influencing the surrounding cultures.
As for the specific command to kill infants; that was justified
because God is just. I know that seems like an incredibly brain-washed, 'typical' Christian answer, but believing in the kind of omnipotent, omniscient and eternal God that Christians do naturally implies that it's so (this is also true of other religions that believe in God(s) of similar descriptions).
However, that isn't to say that this judgement is beyond our understanding; a look at Genesis 18:20-33 shows that God would be willing to spare the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah had there been any righteous people living there (it's fairly safe to assume the reason Abraham didn't count down below 10 was because he had finally gotten the point). This, and the understanding that God knows what people will do before they are even born, implies that God knew not even a single one of the Amalekites was redeemable. Not even the infants, as God knew they would grow up to be like their fathers and mothers regardless of the culture they were in. In fact, if this is true, killing them may have been an act of mercy rather than judgement, as most Christians believe that babies and young children are automatically forgiven due to their lack of independent thought and innocent trustfulness (as demonstrated in Matthew 18:3: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." ).
Lucky~9~Lives
No more than a society that practices and openly accepts the 'eat me' mentality.
-
ninja
I disagree. A society based on individual survival and personal benefits would be even more rife with betrayal, abuse, deception and disrespect than the even society we have
now. And when such constant evil abounds, revenge is sure to follow suite, in turn causing more deaths and more suffering.
Besides, would you rather live in a world where everyone only cares about themselves, or in a world where people care about others as much as themselves? Doesn't mean you need to be a masochist; just care enough to make truly unbiased decisions (which abortion
never is).
Lucky~9~Lives
If being in a situation constitutes an action, the fetus is equally culpable for being in someone else's womb.
I never said that being in a situation constitutes an action. I said that actions cause situations. In the vast majority of pregnancies, both the mother and the father were willing sexual partners.
They caused the situation of an unwanted pregnancy.
Lucky~9~Lives
Is dying in childbirth and orphaning three children really comparable to dying painlessly?
15 in every 10,000 mothers die in childbirth in the US. That's 0.15%. While still
far too high a number, the odds of you dying due to accidental causes are higher. Does that mean you should never leave your house?