Is killing to protect a religion evil? If so, does that make the God of the Bible evil?

Similar questions: killing protect religion evil make God Bible.

Yes, No and No NOTE: This is an answer from the perspective of the Bible. God is the ultimate judge, not Man. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord" (Rm.12:19, cf.Deut.32:35, Heb.10:30).

Judgment belongs to God, not us. Israel acted as an instrument of judgment under the direct command of God. Not a written precept to "kill all unbelievers", mind you, but direct instruction to destroy the evil nations that inhabited the land of Canaan at that time.To take vengeance and judgment into one’s own hands is an attempt to usurp the role of God in judgment.

This is evil. Therefore the Christian leaves judgment to God whereas the Muslim (in the case of the 9/11 hijackers) takes judgment to himself."Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ’Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’" (Rm.12:19). Sources: The Bible (ESV) .

I hate to invokoe the Church of Moral Relativity again, but... In questions involving the idea of objective evil, I have no other recourse. Let me explain. ’Evil’ as a concept comes from either an internal and independent moral/ethical compass, or an external, revealed source.

Either you know it’s evil, or somebody has told you it’s evil and you believe them. That being said, if God exists and commands one to kill for him, and declares that act ’not-evil’. Then, well, it’s hard to argue with God.As somebody who relies on an internal moral compass, I might decide that I disagree with God and that he is evil, but this probably makes me somebody he would have harmed.

If God is all-powerful and what not, this question becomes moot. My point of view is small and lonely, after all. If God demonstrably exists, but is a liar (and not all-powerful), and commands people to kill for his greater glory, yes, by my ethical compass, he is evil.

But since God neither demonstrably exists nor does not exist, we’re left only with the actions of people to rely on. This doesn’t just include killing! It also includes interpretation.

The revealed word of God has always been delivered through people. It takes a leap of faith to assume those people are infallible, utterly accurate vessels of God unaffected by time or circumstance-- that they are in fact inhuman. Without that faith, one might claim that killing to protect a religion IS evil, but that God is Good and the folks who killed in his name were simply misguided (and allowed to be so by a God beyond comprehension).

Personally, I think taking drastic action affecting other people based entirely on the ephemeral is... incorrect. And a God that would command that without personally getting involved in the process via a whole bunch of direct manifestations is a lame, loser God who doesn’t want to get his hands dirty and who is also.. incorrect. Now, as to your details: I can’t condemn all of the 911 hijackers equally without knowing each of them intimately.

I personally believe that to be truly evil, one must actively turn away the light, despite having the personal strength to step away from darkness. It is possible for a person to be part of evil passively, denied by situation the opportunity to resist it-- and I can’t condemn people who are merely weak to the same degree as those who could have walked away. Put more concisely, I believe it’s possible for evil acts to be committed by those who are not actively evil, who do not embrace what they do.

They have still committed an ethical crime, but they may compensate and earn redemption. Most DON’T. Most are no more mindful than a plague of locusts.

But they could. So, in the end, some of them were evil, and some of them did something evil, and we’ll never know which was which. For more ruminations on ethics, interity, good and evil, I wrote a post about it some time ago.

You’re welcome to check it out. Sources: The depths of my soul..

I feel it is wrong and here is why... Killing in any other reason than self-defense, defense of someone else, war, or state-sanctioned execution of criminals is little more than murder. Now, if say your place of worship is under a hostile attack, yes, by all means, protect it, yourself, and your fellow worshipers. Going out and putting to death those who do not believe as you do is oppressive.As a Christian myself, I have learned tollerance if nothing else.

My particular religious leader sat silent as he was persecuted for hours on end when I could have ended it and even prayed for those doing it to Now, bear in mind that while I feel the Bible is inspired by God, I also know that is was writen by men. Not to mention that those in power of such texts may have altered or ommitted certain pieces that they found didn't meet thier agendas. With that in mind, when someone in the Bible says "Take so-and-so out and stone them.

" it really doesn't apply. Nor does the Old Testament when Isreal is commanded to wiped out nations and take no survivors.As I see it, those words were "translated" to the people of those times to have them believe as thier leaders did. My reasoning is based on the fact that I believe God created us, we screwed up, and instead of simply killing us off, he gave us a way out.

As the absolute being, he isn't judged by anyone other than mself and no one would have blamed him for just turning away. Instead He enacted a plan wherein He mself would walk the Earth and subject mself to human limitations and eventual suffering and death. How could one so forgiving be ruthless?

My humble opinion and nothing more. Sources: My limited human logic.

People are worth more than value systems I can see killing another person to save the life of an innocent. But nothing else is worth killing over. Certainly not a religion ... how could it be?

Would you really want to follow a religion that said it was OK to kill? .

Killing is always a sin But sins can be forgiven, and God does forgive them. Asking for forgiveness, the act of repenting, usually helps. As for God smiting the unrighteous, that's an Old Testament thing, and as a Lutheran, I'm not really qualified to comment.

The only point I'd make is that YHWH from the Old Testament and the Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit) from the New Testament are pretty different views of God. No one is completely irredeemable. There is evil in our world, but individuals can't be wholly evil.

They can do evil things, they can sin, or they can kill to protect their religion. It is really, really hard to forgive someone who does evil, but we are compelled to try.

" "Does killing evil make us evil?" (10 answers) "Your 'Change category' does not work. You put my 'computer' question into 'Religion & Spirituality. '" "religion" "Do you think God really cares what religion you are as long as you believe in " "what is the first religion" "Does the Catholic religion ever conflict with the Bible?" "Why are you what ever religion you are?

" "Religion has come a long way. How much more progress do we need to Make?

Your 'Change category' does not work. You put my 'computer' question into 'Religion & Spirituality.

Do you think God really cares what religion you are as long as you believe in .

Religion has come a long way. How much more progress do we need to Make?

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.