The proof is in the pudding.
larry thompson | Homepage | 09.11.03 - 2:14 pm | #

I'll be a devil's advocate here ... A skeptic would probably retort that the mere fact that God would command something, even if only once in history, means it can't be absolutely and intrinsically evil. It may be extraordinarily dangerous, so much so that God reserves all such decisions regarding its necessity unot Himself; but that's harder to maintain after one has pointed out that both the OT and the Koran/ Qur'an contain a number of examples where combatants were not criticised for what we'd consider breaches of the Geneva Convention (indeed, regarding Saul and the Amalekites, where anything less than total genocide -- in the strict sense -- was blameworthy).

PS: Having said that, I agree with Jonah Goldberg that "If a visiting Martian read the Old Testament and then the New Testament, she or he would assume that Christians have historically been persecuted pacifists and that Jews have been military conquerors" [loose paraphrase]!
Tom Round | 09.12.03 - 8:36 am | #