@ShadowDragon8685 But even moreso, the original meaning, "thou shalt not murder," in context, means "do not kill people within your own tribe." => Now, i'm not a religious man myself, but I believe christians would tell you that you're just making assumptions about the holy meaning of the somewhat vague writings that are in the bible. But let's agree that these books are filled with contradictions.
So forgive me if I DON'T take THAT book for a guide to morality. => Now, i suppose what you meant to say was : "I don't take that book as a guide to morality seriously". Because that book is indeed a guide to morality, a poorly written one if you ask me (mostly because it had many authors, and most of them didn't agree about a lot of things in the first place), but one nonetheless. Religion is not only about morality, but it is a huge aspect of it.
he has initiated violence, therefore all methods of stopping his predation [...] are automatically authorized => Those are some strong words... Would you have the same judgement if that agressor were you ? Let's put the situation into context : You are poor and have 2 children to feed. You live next to a rich guy who owns a beautiful villa and throws away food everyday. But for some reason (probably because he doesn't care), he mixes his garbage with all sorts of chemicals which makes his garbage inedible. For the sake of the argument (this is a thought experiment), let's assume all the other people leaving in the neighborhood are either poor as you are or can't spare anything. You already asked the rich man to stop putting chemicals with his garbage but he told you that he didn't care and that you should leave him alone or he would call the cops on you. One night (you and your family haven't eaten anything in days, one of your kid is sick and he probably won't live another day if you don't find him something to eat) you see that he left the window of the kitchen open so you break in and try to find some leftover food, but for some reason he awakens (you probably made some noise) get his gun and shoot you dead.
Now here comes the question : Do you really believe you deserved to die ?
As a bonus here is another one : who used violence first ?
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@ShadowDragon8685 But even moreso, the original meaning, "thou shalt not murder," in context, means "do not kill people within your own tribe." => Now, i'm not a religious man myself, but I believe christians would tell you that you're just making assumptions about the holy meaning of the somewhat vague writings that are in the bible. But let's agree that these books are filled with contradictions.
So forgive me if I DON'T take THAT book for a guide to morality. => Now, i suppose what you meant to say was : "I don't take that book as a guide to morality seriously". Because that book is indeed a guide to morality, a poorly written one if you ask me (mostly because it had many authors, and most of them didn't agree about a lot of things in the first place), but one nonetheless. Religion is not only about morality, but it is a huge aspect of it.
he has initiated violence, therefore all methods of stopping his predation [...] are automatically authorized => Those are some strong words... Would you have the same judgement if that agressor were you ? Let's put the situation into context : You are poor and have 2 children to feed. You live next to a rich guy who owns a beautiful villa and throws away food everyday. But for some reason (probably because he doesn't care), he mixes his garbage with all sorts of chemicals which makes his garbage inedible. For the sake of the argument (this is a thought experiment), let's assume all the other people leaving in the neighborhood are either poor as you are or can't spare anything. You already asked the rich man to stop putting chemicals with his garbage but he told you that he didn't care and that you should leave him alone or he would call the cops on you. One night (you and your family haven't eaten anything in days, one of your kid is sick and he probably won't live another day if you don't find him something to eat) you see that he left the window of the kitchen open so you break in and try to find some leftover food, but for some reason he awakens (you probably made some noise) get his gun and shoot you dead.
Now here comes the question : Do you really believe you deserved to die ?
As a bonus here is another one : who used violence first ?