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From: carnes@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP (Richard Carnes)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Bible on sacredness of human life
Message-ID: <228@gargoyle.UChicago.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 10-Nov-84 16:47:06 EST
Article-I.D.: gargoyle.228
Posted: Sat Nov 10 16:47:06 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 13-Nov-84 05:25:28 EST
Organization: U. Chicago - Computer Science
Lines: 61

<>

Tom Albrecht writes:

> The reason I am against abortion and for capital punishment is that this is
> what the Bible teaches.  The Bible says that human beings are created in 
> the image of God and that the taking of innocent human life is wrong, so
> abortion is wrong.  

   The Bible says some other things, too.  Here is a sampling:

[Ex. 21:28]  When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be
stoned....

[Lev. 20:16]  If a woman approaches any animal to have intercourse with it,
you shall kill both woman and beast.

[Ex. 21:17]  Whoever reviles his father or mother shall be put to death.

[Ex. 20:5]  For I the Lord your God am a jealous God; I punish the children
for the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who
hate me.

   Anyone who thinks The Boss was kidding about being jealous should
consider the following passage [Deut. 13:6-16]:

   "If your brother, your father's son or your mother's son, or your son
or daughter, or the wife of your bosom or your dearest friend should
entice you secretly to go and worship other gods -- gods whom neither
you nor your fathers have known, gods of the people round about you,
near or far, at one end of the land or the other -- then you shall not
consent or listen.  You shall have no pity on him, you shall not spare
him nor shield him, you shall put him to death; your own hand shall
be the first to be raised against him and then all the people shall
follow.  You shall stone him to death, because he tried to lead you
astray from the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt, out of the
land of slavery.  All Israel shall hear of it and be afraid; never
again will anything as wicked as this be done among you.

   "When you hear that miscreants have appeared in any of the cities which
the Lord your God is giving you to occupy, and have led its inhabitants
astray by calling on them to serve other gods whom you have not known,
then you shall investigate the matter carefully.  If, after diligent
examination, the report proves to be true and it is shown that this
abominable thing has been done among you, you shall put the inhabitants
of that city to the sword.  You shall lay the city under solemn ban 
together with everything in it.  You shall gather all its goods into
the square and burn both city and goods as a complete offering to
the Lord your God; and it shall remain a mound of ruins, never to be
rebuilt."

   Apparently the religion of the Hebrews spread through having the Toughest
God in the Neighborhood; the other gods must have quietly left town after
hearing a few speeches like this.  It is also evident that the Lord takes,
shall we say, a broad view of the "sacredness of human life."

				Richard Carnes
				ihnp4!gargoyle!carnes

Education:  That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish
their lack of understanding.  [A. Bierce]