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Thou Shalt not Murder
One of the great cornerstones of Christian morality is the 5th Commandment (or 6th for Catholics):
Thou shalt not murder
On the surface this seems to be a fairly straightforward moral law, but there is a complication. The standard definition of ‘murder’ is “the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another”. If this commandment has a universal application whose legal/moral system is used to determine what is or is not unlawful?
Legal (or traditionally acceptable) acts of killing have varied enormously through time and between cultures. Examples include:
Whose law determines when killing is or is not lawful?
OB
More Reading:
Thou shalt not kill - Wikipedia
Murder - Wikipedia
Honor killing | sociology | Britannica
Human sacrifice - Wikipedia
capital punishment | Definition, Debate, Examples, & Facts | Britannica
euthanasia | Definition, History, & Facts | Britannica
burning at the stake | History & Facts | Britannica
United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect
Stoning - Wikipedia
Revenge - Wikipedia
Homicide - Wikipedia
Infanticide - New World Encyclopedia
BBC - Ethics - Abortion: Historical attitudes to abortion
One of the great cornerstones of Christian morality is the 5th Commandment (or 6th for Catholics):
Thou shalt not murder
On the surface this seems to be a fairly straightforward moral law, but there is a complication. The standard definition of ‘murder’ is “the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another”. If this commandment has a universal application whose legal/moral system is used to determine what is or is not unlawful?
Legal (or traditionally acceptable) acts of killing have varied enormously through time and between cultures. Examples include:
- Honour killing
- Mass killing/genocide
- Human sacrifice
- Burning heretics
- Intentional killing of non-combatants
- Stoning for various crimes
- Infanticide
- Revenge killing
- Capital punishment
- Euthanasia/assisted suicide
- The circumstances under which killing in self-defence is acceptable
- Abortion
Whose law determines when killing is or is not lawful?
OB
More Reading:
Thou shalt not kill - Wikipedia
Murder - Wikipedia
Honor killing | sociology | Britannica
Human sacrifice - Wikipedia
capital punishment | Definition, Debate, Examples, & Facts | Britannica
euthanasia | Definition, History, & Facts | Britannica
burning at the stake | History & Facts | Britannica
United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect
Stoning - Wikipedia
Revenge - Wikipedia
Homicide - Wikipedia
Infanticide - New World Encyclopedia
BBC - Ethics - Abortion: Historical attitudes to abortion
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