Sunday, August 20, 2006

Thou Shalt Not Murder, Especially Souls (8.23.08)

Worlds there are without suns, covered up with darkness. To these after death go the ignorant, slayers of the Self. --Isha Upanishad

The sixth commandment is often erroneously translated as “thou shalt not kill” instead of “thou shalt not murder.” Killing has no inherent moral consequence one way or the other (i.e., it depends on the context), whereas murder specifically refers to the deliberate taking of innocent human life.

In the West, I know of no one outside the left who argues otherwise. For example, one routinely hears leftists argue that there is no difference between deaths that occur as a deliberate policy of Islamo-nazis vs. those that occur as a result if Israel defending itself from Islamo-nazis. One also routinely hears George Bush described by the left as a terrorist--indeed, “the world’s biggest terrorist”-- which again simply highlights the broken moral compass that afflicts so much of the left.

The same broken moral compass is present in animal rights activists who equate the killing of animals with the murder of humans. One also hears leftists perversely invoke “thou shalt not kill” in order to try to prevent murderers from being put to death. But again, the commandment specifically forbids the taking of innocent human life, and no one is less innocent than a murderer. The “golden rule” maintains that we should treat others as we would have them treat us, and it is just so with capital punishment.

As Schuon writes, it is absurd to want to abolish the death penalty "on the grounds that one would not like to be in the condemned man’s place; to be in the place of the condemned man is at the same time to be the murderer; if the condemned man can earn our sympathy it is precisely by being able to recognize his crime and by desiring to pay for it with his life, thereby removing all antagonism between him and us.” In short, a murderer who is truly reformed and understands the infinite gravity of his crime will wish to be put to death. Only then is there even a basis for discussion.

But there are many ways to murder a man without killing the body, and these also fall under the rubric of this commandment. One can even draw out the implications of the commandment, in that, if we are to refrain from the taking of innocent life, we are necessarily enjoined to promote, preserve and protect innocent life in all of its manifestations.

At bottom, what the commandment is emphasizing is that life is sacred--it is of infinite value; therefore, do everything you can to honor and protect it. Clearly, not all cultures do so. Some, as in so much of the Muslim world, worship death, not life. And this inversion is reflected throughout these sick cultures, in that they are “fruitless.” That is, they produce nothing but misery, both to themselves and to others. They produce nothing for the body, i.e., no medicines, no new ways to produce food; they produce nothing for the mind, i.e., no science, no translations of books, no freedom of inquiry; and they produce nothing for the spirit, i.e., only the spiritual shackles of their medieval death cult.

Most soul murders are undoubtedly committed by those who are already so spiritually damaged as to be functionally dead. These undead souls such as a Nasrallah, an Arafat, or an Amahdinejad, speak to us from “the other side,” from the shadow world that is created when the soul has been so damaged that it essentially exits the body, leaving only a human animal in its place. But other demonic energies rush in to fill the void, so that the individual becomes a sort of “antihuman.” At their core, they are filled with unbearable envy toward the living, and the only way they can assuage this envy is to kill and kill plentifully. Life is a reminder of their own walking death, hence, “death to Israel,” that primordial symbol of life: l’chaim.

The undead also cannot help converting their children to their way of non-being. In ways both subtle and profound, they will interact with their children in a pathological manner, causing the children to internalize the same virus that afflicts their parents. Regardless, the virus always goes by the name of “love,” which simply further confuses the child. In the end, they will not be able to distinguish the difference between love and hate or truth and lies, any more than they can distinguish between life and death.

That depraved Muslim couple that was going to use their baby as a bomb surely love their child, except that the love flows out of death, not life. Likewise, the proud Palestinian parents who raise their children to be mass murderers undoubtedly love their children, as do the Muslim parents who murder their daughters for holding hands with a Christian boy. Death loves, just as the person who doesn't believe in truth seeks to accumulate “knowledge.” Our universities are filled with lie-roasted academia nuts who know much. They too worship death--the death of the intellect and its innate spiritual wisdom.

Oddly, just as life spreads and propagates, so too does death. In other words, death has a sort of life all its own--just as disease isn’t the opposite of health, but a pathological form of living. The undead soul attempts to overcome and “transcend” his soul death by killing, by substitute sacrifices. Human sacrifice is a way to “steal” the life essence of the victim in order to give the undead a spurious sense of life. This is why the hizb'moloch ecstatically scream "allahu ackbar" (the god of death is great!) as they chop off another head.

In this regard, the Izlambies are no different than Jeffrey Dahmer, who would attempt to have an orgasm at the exact moment his victim was dying, the idea being that the victim's life force would somehow pass into him. Islamists believe that by exterminating Israel, the life essence of Israel will pass into and revive their undead souls and cultures, but this is simply the most perverse of unconscious fantasies. If tiny Israel had never existed, the same massive death cult would have simply metastasized into the geographical area now called Israel. Life departed from Gaza, but Death merely rushed in to occupy the void created.

Again, the implicit message of the sixth commandment is that we must promote Life in everything we do, not just limiting ourselves to innocent human life, but to the Good, the True and the Beautiful, for these are the principal manifestations of the uncorrupted, living soul. As I wrote in One Cosmos, “There is a culture of Life and a culture of death, and the cultural necropolis can only maintain itself by an increasingly brazen assault on Truth (as well as beauty and decency). It is therefore also a cult of hypnotic enslavement, for only the Truth can liberate us from this zone of illusion. In your day-to-day life, you must refrain from activities that advance the infrahuman tide of ugliness, barbarism, and falsehood in our endarkened world.”

30 comments:

Francis W. Porretto said...

A friend of mine likes to juxtapose "Thou shalt not kill" with "Honor thy father and thy mother," so that he may ask, "How could either of these be valid if the other weren't?" I found that particularly insightful.

Anonymous said...

Thank you!Thank you!Thank you!
Your postings make my day. Hope you can keep it going for a long time.
I read you book and I loved it.

Jim in the Redwoods

gumshoe said...

"Most soul murders are undoubtedly committed by those who are already so spiritually damaged as to be functionally dead. These undead souls such as a Nasrallah, an Arafat, or an Amahdinejad, speak to us from “the other side,” from the shadow world that is created when the soul has been so damaged that it essentially exits the body, leaving only a human animal in its place."


the "divine" puppet Amahdinejad,
and *his* "divine" puppet Nasrallah,are shown in a different
light if one reads this article from earlier in the year:

"Three Reasons Not to Bomb Iran - Yet" - Edward Luttwak

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/
Production/files/luttwak0506.html


the article is more heartening than the title would suggest.

conditions in Iran are not what
the mullahs shout to the Middle East and the world.
the mullahs cannot control the traffic of ideas and connections to the outside world
the way North Korea does.

Amahdinejad not only wants,but desperately needs to be attacked.

the dramas of blood and gore
Hez and aQ stage are intended to
inflame the lethargic muslim umma
and to taunt the western
"Crusaders" into a confrontation.
not just any confrontation,
but "the Mother of All Confrontations"...
one guesses their humiliation demands no less.

to use "soft langauge",
there's a huge self-esteem problem sucking them right down the hole.

Anonymous said...

I do not believe it is right to kill. You readily accept that you are justified to kill if necessary. Who is not guilty and wherabouts do you draw the line? Are the civillians who are killed in wars deaths justified? Every person has the potential to act as God's agent in the future no matter what they've done. ut of intrest have you read l'etranger by Camus?

Gagdad Bob said...

"I do not believe it is right to kill."

--What do you eat?

"You readily accept that you are justified to kill if necessary."

--Yes, of course. That's what "necessary" means.

"Who is not guilty and wherabouts do you draw the line?

--Exactly. The purpose of morality is to answer such questions.

"Are the civillians who are killed in wars deaths justified?"

--Only in a just war.

" Every person has the potential to act as God's agent in the future no matter what they've done."

--How do you know this?

" of intrest have you read l'etranger by Camus?"

--L'etranger? Mais oui. Quoi donc?

gumshoe said...

anonymous -

see if you can find the buddhist tale of the monk traveling by boat...

each morning,after sailing by night,three or four passengers turn up dead...

Anonymous said...

>>The undead also cannot help converting their children to their way of non-being. In ways both subtle and profound, they will interact with their children in a pathological manner, causing the children to internalize the same virus that afflicts their parents.<<

I think there's a kind of "higher semiotics" - if we can comprehend it - that can convey messages regarding the spiritual state of the world and the encroachments of meta-evil. It's a form of synchronicity, in a way.

In the wake of this horrible "Hizbollah victory" in which world-wide evil has received a booster shot of encouragement - is there a message in the fact that suddenly a classically creepy child molestor-type emerges from the shadows and onto the global stage, taking credit for murdering the Ramsey child ten years ago?

Two seemingly differing stories, but yoked together in one basic theme, one message that perhaps we're intended to understand as being such - the murdering of innocence, the anti-spirit intensifying, and the need for the righteous to recognize and combat it.

Anonymous said...

"lie roasted academia nuts" defending "....hizb'moloch... Izlambies."

Indeed, indeed!

Anonymous said...

I generally think that the putting to death of the most heinous criminals - the serial killers, the thrill killers and the like - is overall a life-affirming act. It's a way of saying, we expunge evil from our midst, thereby affirming, as Schuon puts it, the Sovereign Good.

However, I can't entirely turn away from the Church's perspective that, as long as a soul remains corporeal, there is the chance that, no matter how hardened the heart, a criminal might repent and turn to the Light. It does happen on rare occasion. For example, St Francis accepted a repentant murderer into his order.

I suppose the question is: how is evil expunged, understood to be expunged from the Sovereign Good, while saving space for the criminal's possible repentance. In traditions past, the solution was "exile" from the tribe. Murderers, those who had profound spiritual illnesses and who were understood to be harmful to the tribe's spiritual well-being, were exiled, thrown out - which could easily be tantamount to a death sentence at the hands of predators and the elements.

Today's criminal justice system nowhere amounts to the old penalty of exile, though many may be under the impression that it does. So, is a form of exile possible in the modern age? What, in lieau of the death penalty, could serve?

What if the worst criminals - I don't mean check forgerers, etc. - were taken to a Pacific atoll and left there with only basic raw veggies and water and nothing else? No TV, no libraries, no chance of escape, no visits from relatives, and definitely no lawyers. Let them form their own anti-society if they wish. If they wish to adhere to some form of self-imposed civilized behavior, fine. If they wish to kill each other, their choice. But bottom line, they are completely separated from the Sovereign Good and we are rid of them. Exile. And if during their remaining earthly days any of them spiritually repent, well, they have been allowed the chance to do that.

I'm sure there's many who would yawp about the "barbarism" of such a penalty, but, as rough as it could be, there was an essential wisdom - and spiritual justice - to the old penalty of exile.

Gagdad Bob said...

The purpose of school in the Muslim world? To teach the classics--you know, things like Mein Kampf, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the complete works of Noam Chomsky, the oratory of Jimmy Carter, etc.

Gecko said...

Oh Will, puleeze not more polutants to the Pacific islands where evil funds a tribal envy propelled by drugs and its money into the twenty-first century where ,if you are in Hawaii you maybe get thrown into into a jail (where your cousin is sure to gt you out as he is a judge) and where various gangs jockey for power, work out, go to therapy, get their teeth cleaned, get a minister, rabbi, even an iman to counsel them and learn the tricks of a dark world. W The dregs are contained momentarily with access to computers and libraries. So. I gotta' admit. you do offer an interesting solution which works from a vertical point of view, and a utopian one but then who decide who goes into exile? The victor, I would think. Then there's Iran,and thank you Gumshoe for the Commentary piece you recommended. As the head Bobblehead has declared, these sure are nail bittin' times. Gotta' love all those praying and chanting and in particular those putting themselves in harms way on the front lines in the relentless fight for Truth.

Gecko said...

If they get to med school after this great education they learn clitorectomies and how to sew up eleven year old girls. I'm sizzling with unconditional hate for
these creeps. Jimmy Carter is just plain nuts and a traitor. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest, Gagdad.

Anonymous said...

>> who decide who goes into exile?>>

Well, Gekko, how about those of whom you say are "putting themselves in harms way on the front lines in the relentless fight for Truth"? The righteous decide, in other words.

Gagdad Bob said...

I just saw "The Dirty Dozen" on TV, and it gave me an idea, perhaps something the prophets hadn't considered.... I don't have time to go into all the details, but Lee Marvin would be the decider....

Anonymous said...

Another post, overflowing with wisdom, Bob!
Self defense is not murder.
We should all have the courage to defend liberty and life.
Bob mentioned the Dirty Dozen (great movie!), and many of us might consider defending our nation is a dirty job, and it is, in the physical, horizontal sense.
But in the spiritual, vertical sense, it is a high calling.
Yes, killing bad guys who want to murder, rape and pillage, is a high calling, and is expected, endorsed and approved by God.
Pacifism is anti-Christ and anti-G-d.
Defending life and liberty is our duty,
and a high honor indeed.

Anonymous said...

anagrams for LEE MARVIN:

I, LEVER MAN

I'M LA? NEVER!

Anonymous said...

'what do you eat?'
I'm vegetarian. Yes ok, I kill plants. Plants aren't conscious beings. However I spoke in reference to killing humans, which is on a different scale. Only God has the right to take a human life. Who are you to jugde? Taking life is easy, but giving it back when you realised you made a mistake isn't so easy. If morality gives a good answer, why, for exaample does my morality differ from yours and who is right. I believe that only God knows the truth on these matters, they are too complex for us, and killing isn't necessary. ' He without sin cast the first stone.'
God can have a purpose for murderers - take a religious terrorist like Saul, later St Paul. How do you know who does not have the potential to act as God's agent in the future? I'm assuming your Christian, If your a Jew consider Moses.

Just war, I don't believe there is such a thing. But taak the Iraq war and St Aquinas's theory
'In order for a war to be just, three things are necessary. First, the authority of the sovereign by whose command the war is to be waged...Secondly, a just cause is required, namely that those who are attacked, should be attacked because they deserve it on account of some fault...Thirdly, it is necessary that the belligerents should have a rightful intention'
Take the Iraq war.
1. The american government authorised it, although the UN didn't I suppose that is acceptable
2. There was no justification, had they had proof of weapons of mass destruction from the UN, maybe but they didn't wait
3. Most soldiers I know think killing is a nit of fun. The Belligerents in question have treated the Iraqi's like animals and killed more people than necessary. Theydo not 'love their enemy' in the sense Aquinas required - nor does the american media or government. By this I mean giving due respect to the innocent people and not bombing arbitrarily, fueling Islamophobia or using blanket terms like 'terrorist' very unspecifically to scare people into supporting the war.

Sal said...

Life affirming:
Yesterday on the feast of St. Bernard, three novices - Bros. Ambrose, Thomas and Ignatius - made their temporary vows, binding themselves to poverty, chastity and obedience, and stability to their community.

They read their vows before the congregation, signed them on the altar and gave them over to Father Abbot. Then they were clothed with the black scapular of the Cistercians, over the white habit they wore as novices.
Two new novices had been received on Saturday, the vigil of the feast. Their community replenishes itself slowly, but surely.

Fr. Abbot, in his address, emphasized that the religious life cannot be lived out of one's own strength. That would doom it to failure. All our vocations can only be fulfilled by cooperation with grace.

It's not always easy to understand Fr. - he's quite old and his English is heavily accented. He is one of the original group who left Hungary to escape the Communists and found a refuge here in the U.S.
A very touching - and awe-ful - event.

We're off tomorrow to take youngest D. to college. With luck, our hotels will have public computers. A day without OC is like a day without something new to ponder!

Gagdad Bob said...

Anonymous--

We'll just have to agree to live on different planets.

Anonymous said...

"Taking life is easy, but getting it back when you realised you made a mistake isn't so easy."

Giving over and corrupting Western civilization is easy, but getting it back when you realised you made a mistake isn't so easy. How many centuries do you have to spare?

With a hat-tip to Gaude, where, where are the grandmas' inexpensive cornflower-decorated mass-produced pyrex baking dishes from the midwestern corners of Mohammedandom? Are Julia Child's Boeuf en Daube knives contraband Infidel weapons? (I think we already know Martha will be dhimmi...)

Bob's separate planets policy sounds good. New planets appear daily it seems. Perhaps there's one where there's no crime but intolerance, let's call it Dystopia. Will could call it Exile, while Anonymous (the longwinded stone-caster, not the other one) could call it whatever his morality dictates. Let the universal diversity of cultures flourish.

Whew. What a solution! Could be in the running for a Nobel Peace Prize, with the right media sponsors. Fortunately, Reuters has procured an on-site stringer photo showing how it all works. :-)

Anonymous said...

I am surprised no one has mentioned Genesis 9:6, right after the flood, only 8 people exist, God is speaking:

"Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image."

Human life, (carrying God's own image) is so precious that the intentional, unjustified taking of it, justifies taking the life of the murder. And it isn't God that is to carry out the penalty, but other people.

To me this is the moral ground for not only the death-penalty, but for military, just-wars and policemen carrying guns. In fact, for the existence of civil government at all.

A conservative christian.

Gagdad Bob said...

Robert--

Yes, what you say goes without saying, and therefore cannot be said enough. I try to focus more on things that require some additional saying, since they don't go without it.

Lisa said...

Boy is Anonymous going to be upset when they find out that they really are murderers because plants are conscious beings that have feelings of some sort.

There was an experiment done (didn't look up details, but feel free to do your own research) that put monitors on plants in a research lab. One night, one of the lab technicians came in with a mask on and viciously destroyed one of the plants and ran out of the lab. The next day, different people came into the lab. The readings on the plants were off the chart when the technician that killed a plant came into the room!

So, really, vege anon, are you really any better than the rest of us? You may be more malnourished (which is apparent from your lack of reasoning)but save your false sense of superiority and get over yourself! You pompous twit!

Sal said...

Dilys -
You looked me up! I'm honored.
Tonight - King Ranch casserole.

Um, Bob- if I quote you on a card to stick in one of daughter's books, would you like to be "Robert Godwin", 'Gagdad Bob' or something else? Please advise...

Gagdad Bob said...

"Another priceless gem of spiritual insight, brought to you by Bob and Petey" would be fine.

Anonymous said...

No! "Petey and Bob."

snowonpine said...

In April of this year the Dalai Lama met with "Moderate Muslims" who sought his help with, in the words of the Friends of Tibet news release, "...quelling ideologies within Islamic communities and improving the faith's declining image in the West."

The Dalai, as he had stated back in 2003, restated his belief that while "Some people have an impression the Islam is militant"... he believed
that "...this is totally wrong. Islam is one of the world's great religions and it carries, basically, a message of love and compassion." How he can be so blind to the kind of soul murderers you are discussing here really floored me.

Several years ago I was fortunate enough to meet the Dalai Lama at a reception. I shook his hand and looked into his eyes--I tried but detected no aura of holiness surrounding this "avatar of Avalokiteshvara." To outward appearances, he is a very merry man and, from what I have read, he is extremely well educated in his tradition. I admire him for his commitment to non-violence and compassion, however misguided I believe it to be with regard to the PRC.

However, his statement about Islam leads me to question his judgment across the board and to wonder if the man I thought very shrewd is not really just an amiable fool, just another useful idiot. The Chinese have tried and, I believe, are slowly succeeding in exterminating his religion and ethnic Tibetans as well. I'm just wondering how many useful religious idiots we have in this country who will maintain that Islam is the "Religion of Peace" even as we go under the knives of the Jihadis.

Anonymous said...

In this regard, the Izlambies are no different than Jeffrey Dahmer, who would attempt to have an orgasm at the exact moment his victim was dying, the idea being that the victim's life force would somehow pass into him.

gagdad bob: this is a fascinating delusion, given that the male orgasm by it's nature transmits life to another (or at least causes it to exit from the man). Dahmer was, I would guess, confusing his interior sense of exaltation and his physical satisfaction with vitality. That seems a perversion in itself, the root from which his necro-eroticism comes from.

Anonymous said...

Looks like the HTML tags got botched. Here is the quote from your post I was referring to:

"In this regard, the Izlambies are no different than Jeffrey Dahmer, who would attempt to have an orgasm at the exact moment his victim was dying, the idea being that the victim's life force would somehow pass into him."

Micha Elyi said...

Every day in every way, Ann Coulter's 9/13 prescription gets better and better.
 

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