At 02:41 PM 8/8/2004 -0500 Dan Minette wrote: >> The Catholic Church would argue that no, one should not... evil to >prevent evil is still >> evil. >> >> In reality, all the Catholic Church is saying here is the simple moral >> precept that "the ends do not justify the means." > >I may not have been as clear to others as I was to myself in the last post. >What I am saying is that the just war argument is very much a "ends >justifies the means" argument.
If I follow your logic correctly, you seem to be saying that: The killing of innocent people is an objective evil. (True) War kills innocent peoplle. (Mostly True) Therefore, War is Objectively Evil. This conclusion, however, is a Syllogism, and is False. It is not the intent of someone undertaking a just War to kill innocent people. This intent is important. Using your logic, however, one would conclude that driving automobiles kills innocent people, therfore driving automobiles is objectively evil - which is, of course, ridiculous. It is worth noting that "the ends justify the means" is what brought us Manzanar and Minidoka (et al.) I feel much more comfortable in saying that the internment camps were objectively immoral than merely saying that the payoff wasn't high enough for us to have gone that far. JDG _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
