|
Source: (consider it)
|
Thread: Does the belief in an afterlife make it easier to kill?
|
Peter Spence
Shipmate
# 14085
|
Posted
In view of my own country's recent history (the protagonists being at least nominally Christian) and most recently the carnage in Kenya, I would imagine that said combatants who might feel a bit queazy about ending other peoples' earthly existence would take comfort in the notion that their victims continue post mortem in some form or other and are not entirely obliterated, thus enabling them to carry on with the mayhem.
Posts: 51 | From: Dublin | Registered: Sep 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
Penny S
Shipmate
# 14768
|
Posted
That might work, if it weren't for the feeling I have that the killers probably feel that their victims' afterlife isn't going to be the happy version.
The issue is discussed in the Bhagavad Gita, where the situation is different, in that everyone concerned believes (and in the case of Krishna, knows) that the dead are going to have another go at the good life.
Christians and Muslims don't have that option. Or rather, people who believe that they are Christians or Muslims. They don't seem to take the anti-killing stuff very seriously.
Posts: 5833 | Registered: May 2009
| IP: Logged
|
|
L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
|
Posted
I fear the killers in Kenya now, and in Ireland in the past, didn't spend much, if any, time musing on whether or not their victims were destined for an afterlife and, if so, if it was likely to be spent in heaven or hell.
The killers in Ireland carried on with their bloodletting convinced of their own rightness in THIS life and no care for the afterlife, either for themselves or, was obvious in any of their pronouncements.
The killers in Kenya are concerned only with their own prospects of heaven and are convinced that by massacring innocents they will proceed straight to a child-like imagined place full of half-naked virgins - so that means they can gun down a woman 8 1/2 months pregnant secure in the conviction they will go to heaven.
Sick.
--------------------
Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
| IP: Logged
|
|
Justinian
Shipmate
# 5357
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Peter Spence:
In view of my own country's recent history (the protagonists being at least nominally Christian) and most recently the carnage in Kenya, I would imagine that said combatants who might feel a bit queazy about ending other peoples' earthly existence would take comfort in the notion that their victims continue post mortem in some form or other and are not entirely obliterated, thus enabling them to carry on with the mayhem.
Most people need some reason to kill other people; most non-sociopathic humans just don't want to do it. Some do, so for tiny subsets this isn't an issue. Belief in the afterlife and dehumanising the enemy are two ways to get normally ordinary human beings to try to kill others.
--------------------
My real name consists of just four letters, but in billions of combinations.
Eudaimonaic Laughter - my blog.
Posts: 3926 | From: The Sea Coast of Bohemia | Registered: Dec 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Belle Ringer
Shipmate
# 13379
|
Posted
When I lived in a (pretty quiet) war zone, we'd debate whether a Christian can kill a non-Christian and be responsible for sending someone to hell who might have repented and gone to heaven if he had lived. (Yes I went thru an evangelical phase, gosh how my theology has changed over the years. Of course, now it's perfect. ![[Two face]](graemlins/scot_twoface.gif) )
So I can imagine Christianity reducing willingness to kill. But I have friends who think "bad guys" deserve hell and probably the sooner the better.
There is no one concept of Christianity so there in no one answer to the (or any?) question.
Posts: 5830 | From: Texas | Registered: Jan 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
seekingsister
Shipmate
# 17707
|
Posted
Apologies if this is not appropriate...
But I've always wondered - if one believes that unborn babies will go to heaven, then why is abortion so terrible?
[ 26. September 2013, 13:01: Message edited by: seekingsister ]
Posts: 1371 | From: London | Registered: May 2013
| IP: Logged
|
|
L'organist
Shipmate
# 17338
|
Posted
Don't know if its appropriate SS, but I've wondered the same ...
--------------------
Rara temporum felicitate ubi sentire quae velis et quae sentias dicere licet
Posts: 4950 | From: somewhere in England... | Registered: Sep 2012
| IP: Logged
|
|
TomOfTarsus
Shipmate
# 3053
|
Posted
Well, to quickly reply to seekingsister, I think the answer is that taking a human life is serious and not to be done without very compelling reasons. The destiny of the life taken doesn't play into it. But I'm sure there's a dedicated abortion thread or two hanging around the equine graveyard here.
For me, at least, the answer to the OP is a resounding NO. Where it does help, is in the horrid event that I felt compelled to take a life (stopping a crime, for instance), I know that I am committing the fate of that person to a God of love and mercy, One who is able to save even me, and therefore, them as well. The idea of taking glee at sending a "bad guy" to Hell ought to be reprehensible.
--------------------
By grace are ye saved through faith... not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath ... ordained that we should walk in them.
Posts: 1570 | From: Pittsburgh, PA USA | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged
|
|
Plique-à-jour
Shipmate
# 17717
|
Posted
Probably. All things being equal.
--------------------
-
-
Posts: 333 | From: United Kingdom | Registered: Jun 2013
| IP: Logged
|
|
lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Justinian:
quote:
Originally posted by Peter Spence:
In view of my own country's recent history (the protagonists being at least nominally Christian) and most recently the carnage in Kenya, I would imagine that said combatants who might feel a bit queazy about ending other peoples' earthly existence would take comfort in the notion that their victims continue post mortem in some form or other and are not entirely obliterated, thus enabling them to carry on with the mayhem.
Most people need some reason to kill other people; most non-sociopathic humans just don't want to do it. Some do, so for tiny subsets this isn't an issue. Belief in the afterlife and dehumanising the enemy are two ways to get normally ordinary human beings to try to kill others.
The military is good at this. Or you can dehumanise your soldiers, such as the Lord's Resistance Army do.
I agree that something must be tweaked, but it seems to easily done.
--------------------
I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
VDMA
Apprentice
# 17846
|
Posted
It seems to me, from history, that human beings of any and all belief systems love hurting other human beings. Atheists do it just as much as nominal Christians. People are sinful. We like to get out hatred, revenge, etc., on those who mean little to us.
I like to pretend that atheists have more reason to indiscriminately kill, because if they take their beliefs to the ultimate conclusion, nothing really means anything. Of course, we know about the Crusades and Inquisition and Religious Wars, so that puts that right out of the question.
--------------------
Des Christen Herz auf Rosen geht, wenn's mitten unterm Kreuze steht.
Feel free to visit the Anglican Forums: http://forums.anglican.net/
Posts: 29 | From: Canada | Registered: Sep 2013
| IP: Logged
|
|
Palimpsest
Shipmate
# 16772
|
Posted
As an atheist, I see no particular barrier in anyone learning how to be at ease with killing be they atheist or theist. I like to think that being an atheist can give a reason not to kill other people. No "Kill them all and send them to their reward in the afterlife", but history is seems full of atheists and theists merrily killing in vast quantities.
Posts: 2990 | From: Seattle WA. US | Registered: Nov 2011
| IP: Logged
|
|
lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
|
Posted
quote:
Originally posted by VDMA:
It seems to me, from history, that human beings of any and all belief systems love hurting other human beings. Atheists do it just as much as nominal Christians. People are sinful. We like to get out hatred, revenge, etc., on those who mean little to us.
I do not think people truly love hurting one another. I do not think the barrier between "good" and "bad" behaviour is as strong as we'd care for it to be, but if there were a desire to do so, more of us would be dead.
Interested in your "nominal Christians" statement. Do they kill because they are nominal, or does killing reveal the true lack of belief/practice?
--------------------
I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
Printer-friendly view
