Does anyone see the irony in the commandment "Thou shalt not kill"?

Question

I find it ironic because... well with a thing like religion... if you really want all people to believe, or at least act like they believe, you will inevitably have to kill some people.
For those of you that don't like what I say, in the Bible Exodus, God himself killed the first born child of every family to get the Pharoah to let Moses' people go. And similar to this event, history has repeated itself again and again, in the form of witch-hunts, crusades, and incquisition, to name the most famous of examples.
My points being:
1. No one will follow a law if there is nothing enforcing it. Christianity knew this and had to use fear and murder to establish control.
2. If God wants us to follow the commandments then he himself should make a good example he should not be allowed to kill as he pleases.
3. In my opinion, one thing of three things is true.
a - God is a merciless killer
b - The bible is wrong
or c - Thou shalt not kill is a not a commandment

Nonetheless, I trust I and everyone else dread the day that modern Christians cease to recognise the fifth commandment anymore. Not that they recognised it in the past, but you know.

Answer 1

In the words of George Carlin:



"Thou shalt try real hard not to kill anyone, unless of course they pray to a different invisible man than you."



Amen.



R.I.P. George.



"Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day."



For those of you saying that it's "murder" and "don't kill innocents"...



So? God killed many innocents in the bible. Don't believe me?



Exodus:12:29-30 At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.



2 Samuel 24:15 So the LORD sent a pestilence upon Israel from the morning even to the time appointed: and there died of the people from Dan even to Beersheba seventy thousand men.



(Job 1:18-19) While he was still speaking, another messenger arrived with this news: “Your sons and daughters were feasting in their oldest brother’s home. Suddenly, a powerful wind [sent by God] swept in from the desert and hit the house on all sides. The house collapsed, and all your children are dead. I am the only one who escaped to tell you.” (Job 1:18-19)



So, even if it's to be read as "Thou shalt not murder innocents," God is still violating his own commandment, and, in doing so, saying it is acceptable for his followers to do so.



Indeed, he even recommends it:



Deuteronomy 21:18-21 If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother ... Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city ... And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die. Deuteronomy 21:18-21



Your God is a hypocrite, a murderer, and, if he exists, deserves condemnation, not worship, and should engender disgust, not adoration.





Atheistically yours,

JM Gendron.

Answer 2

I can't believe how these guys fervently defended the validity of this 5th commandment.. They say that you "misinterpreted" what God said..



They say "thou shalt not kill" actually meant "thou shalt not murder" or "though shalt not kill unjustly".. Hahahahaha.. They will say just about anything..

By the way, I am a Christian(yes, you heard that right).. And my say on the whole thing:

God will approve the killings that he wants to be done.. God will disapprove the killings that he does not want to be done.. My fellow Christians just do not get it.., our omnipotent god can do whatever the hell he wants with everything and anything.. I am dumbfounded as to why they cannot admit to that.. Faith and good works matter to him only when he decides it should matter.. When he allows something bad to happen, he will never run out of "moral" reasons on why he allowed it.. We are all bound to his whims.. and we cannot do anything about it.. He is above his own laws.. He can always veto the laws he created.. Why? Because he can! That is the bottom line..



That is how it is! Why can't they say that out loud!?!?

Answer 3

Hey! Take that one literally cause I don't see the notation where it was specific to any species. Of course if you use the Hebrew text it never said Thou shalt not kill. It said not to commit murder. As in you could kill anything or anyone with just cause or if God ordered it as he ordered Joshua to do to all the men, women and children in all the lands they were to conquer. I guess God thought like General Sheridan where he said, "Kill the babies (as in Indians) too. Remember they grow up to be big uns."

Keep in mind how god killed a couple thousand Israelites when David took the census the wrong way. Then god felt sorry for what he had done. I really like Job though. Replacing his family with a "better" one. That really shows a worthless value to human lives.

Answer 4

It's not every day we get to see someone so willingly demonstrate their complete and utter ignorance regarding Scripture.



Christians were not a party to the old covenant that contains the commandment against murder. The word "kill" is to be understood in context, and the context is about one who kills another due to hatred.



Also, you have a totally twisted understanding of that law. It was to be a witness against Israel, seeing as they were a faithless, stiff-necked and rebellious people. The apostle Paul states the law was for the unrighteous -- for murderers, etc. Laws exist because bad people do bad things. The law makes no one good.



If you are going to be a critic, the least you can do is understand what you are criticizing, which you do not.



.

Answer 5

when I was a kid I used to go to sunday school and when I did I had read the bible and it said in it that "thou shalt not kill" I'm much older now and I'm an Atheist seems to me since I first went to sunday school they have re written the bible to suit themselves, but I do agree with you how can anyone follow someone whos one of his commandments is thou shalt not kill but he kiisa the first born, drowns everything in a great flood, drowns solidiers who were pursuing moses in the sea, the list just goes on and on and on.as far as christians not recognising the 5th commandment, there are christians in the armoured forces and wether they are fighting to save a land or people they still are killing, this is my opinion. hope it helps

Answer 6

Get an English/Hebrew reference Bible.



Any translation which says "thou shalt not kill" is not translating correctly. The correct translation is "Do not shed innocent blood," your translation is invalid.



Yawn. Another person who doesn't know how to study scritpure but relys on parotting other people's web sites.

Answer 7

Do not 'kill' is correctly translated - "do not un-justly murder". Where in murder is a legal term.



Besides, God did not 'kill' the first borns out of his will. It was the edict of the Pharaoh, - with some kind of divine justice.

Answer 8

Heyo there



Might I correct you before I launch into my brief explanation?



Firstly, the church that proposed witch hunts, crusades, inquisition WAS NOT, following anything God or the Bible proposed. God never said "I propose you kill all the witches, the people who don't believe in me and torture them, because I am the ALMIGHTY".

NOOOO.

There's a bit of a history lesson behind this: The Church at that time were extremely powerful, they had power almost equivalent to the King. Therefore they were able to pretend that they read just about anything from the Bible, as people of the time (peasants etc) were not literate. Therefore, the Church at that time (might I say, they were manipulative and ungodly- they did not follow God's teachings) took advantage of this, as they were able to order everyone around, saying it was 'supposedly' in God's Word.



For example, blood-letting was used in the Medieval times, proposed by the Church as a good way to 'clean oneself'. However, one of the verses in the Bible states that "Blood is the life of every living creature" in Leviticus.



Obviously, the Church did not pay attention to the Bible, as if blood is the life of every living creature, why would they propose bloodletting? That's just one piece of evidence for them not following God.



Also, now concerning the logic of your second question. If God IS GOD, why should we be questioning His permission to kill etc? He's the one that brought life into us, doesn't He have the right to take life away from us?



Also, thou shalt not kill is not just concerning murder. It also concerns HATE. God equals hate to murder, because in your hate, you have already 'murdered' the person you hate in your mind.

"

Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him." 1 John 3:15



So therefore thou shalt not kill is a commandment, God is not a merciless killer, and the Bible is NOT wrong.



Any questions, email me: [e-mail]

Answer 9

Yet another good reason to be Buddhist.



In defense of Christianity I would add that Jesus did seem to live the commandments. Whether you believe he was divine is another matter altogether. He was very Buddha-like.

Answer 10

No, yours is not just as valid. Else what does it mean to be a Christian, to agree with you !! NO, she is right and you are wrong. The Church that accepted that as Scripture accepted in on their pre-understanding.



As St Augustine says :

"I would not believe in the Gospel myself if the authority of the Catholic Church did not influence me to do so."

Against the letter of Mani, 5,6, 397 A.D.



You are very wrong.

Answer 11

Exactly man. The commandment should read as follows:



Thou shalt not kill unless they don't follow the same religion as you or if you are killing in the name of God, jesus, and the holy spirit.





LOL

Answer 12

many have abandoned the one that forbid lying and so it wouldn't be surprising if the others can be ignored



2 and 3 are right other then c



what god does contradicts this commandment



I can see irony in that

Answer 13

Allah is everywhere, hears everything and sees everyone. However we can not see him. If we could see Allah (God) we would not see anything around us because all the "Air" in this world would be Allah, It would all just be a white page if we could see god almighty because he encompasses the very air around us and everything in the universe, we wouldn't find out tables, plates, taps to drink water, we would die or trip and fall if we saw Allah in this world, as a result of such visual disorientation. Thats why we can't see Allah almighty.



www.miraclesofthequran.com

Answer 14

The rest of your diatribe aside, the command is "thou shalt not murder," not "thou shalt not kill."



"Meghan, there are several translations for the commandments. Mine is just as valid."



Nonsense. Your translation is wrong.

Answer 15

It's supposed to be murder, not kill. As in don't murder innocents for the fun of it. You see, they left it open for war.

Answer 16

Ummm wow, I think you need to go back and reread some stuff my friend. God does not walk around killing people for the fun of it.