----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Brin-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2002 1:46 PM Subject: Re: The Yom Kippur War [was: Fwd: CNN Breaking News]
> > > > > Rules exist because humans have a hypocrite mind. The only > > reasonable rule for war should be: "don't". > >I think this not the way to look at war or any species wide behavior. War is a consequence of the sort of >social animal that we are. Our ancestors and living related species lived in groups of related individuals. >They routinely attacked other groups when they came into contact with them (that didn't happen too >often when there were a lot fewer of us). I didn't respond a month ago when you said this, but I'd like to point out that the generalization of caring for every human goes back a long way. Indeed, development in the Old Testament (some call this the Hebrew Scripture...but some of it was originally written in Greek and Aramaic..) shows this. In Exodus, one sees the requirements to go beyond tribalism, and to accept a rule of judges. In Isaiah, we see a foreign king hailed as Messiah. Later, we see the God of Israel as the God of all, instead of just the tribal God. To me, this development is seem clearly in the teaching of Jesus: with stories about Good Samaritans and a demand that his followers must love their enemies. It is true that Christians often/usually fall short of this requirement, but it doesn't mean that the requirement isn't there. In short, the latest one can put the understand that all people must be loved as oneself is 2000 years ago. Dan M.
