On 1/12/06, Bob W <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Blackstone and Jefferson weren't the first to express the same sentiment: > > Abraham came forward and said, "Will You sweep away the innocent along with > the guilty? > 24 What if there should be fifty innocent within the city; will You then > wipe out the place and not forgive it for the sake of the innocent fifty who > are in it? > 25 Far be it from You to do such a thing, to bring death upon the innocent > as well as the guilty, so that innocent and guilty fare alike. Far be it > from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?" <snip> > 32 And he said, "Let not my Lord be angry if I speak but this last time: > What if ten should be found there?" And He answered, "I will not destroy, > for the sake of the ten." >
~Not~ that I want to get into things religious, but... Is this from the same God that destroyed the entire world by flood, except one family and his pets in a big boat? Could it be that every single person in the world was guilty except Noah and his clan? Hmmmmm... Now, all of that being said, I know, Bob W, that you were simply presenting a much earlier version of the Blackstone/Jefferson sentiment, and not holding out the Bible as a model of consistency. I just couldn't resist. I guess (playing Devil's advocate for a moment) that the answer would be that Abraham was telling us what we humans should do. "Do as I say, not as I do," I suppose. <vbg> cheers, frank, who's really not trying to be blasphemous, but trying to make sense of ancient sacred texts. -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson

