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Love your enemy and don't kill disabled infants. At least you pretty much never see those outside Christian cultures.
The idea of "knowing your enemy" can be found in Sun Tzu and that knowledge can translate to empathy or respect after a fashion. However outside of Christianity the idea of outright loving your enemy, although possibly known, was generally rejected as unjust. (I think the Moists of ancient China believed in universal love, but their movement died off. Possibly some Hindu movements had love of enemies) From most non-Christian perspectives if you love both good people and bad people you are encouraging moral indifference. And this is even true of religions similar to Christianity. Rabbi Boteach had an article where he clearly stated the idea of loving or praying for your enemies makes no sense in Judaism. However from the Christian perspective love can be redemptive and transformative. It's also a recognition that even "bad people" have a shared humanity and some innate goodness.
From a practical/rational perspective a newborn may not be fully sentient/sapient and if they're disabled they will likely cost more than they produce. So aborting the disabled in the womb or poisoning them soon after birth is in a way cost-effective and logical. Most pre-Christian societies also practiced infanticide for a variety of reasons. However as someone who was a disabled baby I'm glad we don't think like this.
The hell? Are you seriously stating that you believe most, possibly all, non-Christians advocate infanticide?
I think he's implying that Christians (or at least "true" Christians, NTS fallacy) don't practice abortion, despite the greatest number of abortions in the United States happening *gasp* in the Bible Belt.
The hell? Are you seriously stating that you believe most, possibly all, non-Christians advocate infanticide?
No. I'm saying that by reason, or nature, alone you can't rule against all infanticide and that in most/all pre-Christian societies infanticide was more accepted. I can source that.
Although on reflection Judaism likely deserves more credit for starting the ball rolling against infanticide. I give Christianity more credit because Judaism's opposition to infanticide was in a sense a "tribal" view and did not lead to the decline of the practice elsewhere.
Infanticide certainly occurred among Christians, and Christians may well have exaggerated how widespread it was in other cultures, but Christianity was relatively unusual in how strongly and thoroughly it rejected infanticide. The idea that the infant is a person with rights is not necessarily inevitable or even all that scientifically valid. (Newborns may not be much more aware than chimps, but the law will generally deem killing an infant a greater crime)
Now the standard response I remember when I bring this up is to be claim I'm lying or give a non-sequitir about Christians who killed kids in a war. Or pretend that I'm an Evangelical Protestant for some unknown reason. (Most of world's Christians are not Evangelical Protestants. Also several "Bible Belt" states have low rates of abortion anyway, see source at end) None of these really deals with the actual facts of history I can source.
Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed
No. I'm saying that by reason, or nature, alone you can't rule against all infanticide and that in most/all pre-Christian societies infanticide was more accepted.
I'm intrigued by a Christian claiming that lack of infanticide is a benefit of Christianity when you can't make it through two chapters of the Bible without reading about God ordering this very thing. Either there's some inherent blind spot going on here or the absolute morality of Christianity is actually anything but.
I take this to mean you're admitting you're not a Christian.
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Thought so.
