Hi Soren,
Your comments are of course much appreciated as always. Just one point I would like to make - I'm sure that I only know very little detail of God's plan for us after we die, and I am open to what the nature of 'heaven' and 'hell' will actually be like. I do however beleive we will be judged on a basis taking into account the personal circumstances/capabilities/knowledge of each of us as individuals - and that each individual will receive perfect justice.
Regards
Hi Abu
And the same to you.
I do however beleive we will be judged on a basis taking into account the personal circumstances/capabilities/knowledge of each of us as individuals - and that each individual will receive perfect justice.
Alright. Lets review some cases (fictional, cause it's easier. But that does not mean that such similar things arent happening).
Case 1. Adolf Hitler was told by his forefathers that it was the duty of true believers to try clear the earth of Jews. They even past down a book containing a set of rules from which Hitler could see that this was true. Though he somehow felt that it was inhumane to kill other humans he was nevertheless convinced that he had to obey the Rules as set by his god. And therefore many Jews was killed directly or indirectly by Hitler.
Case 2. Man was married to a woman. They were both raised in the same group of people who followed the same set of Rules as set by their god. One day the woman was in the big city and experienced that there were other kinds of Rules. She started to doubt her own Rules and that they were truly from a god. So she began not to follow all of the rules set out in the Rules. This saddened the man cause he fervently believed that everyone had to follow the Rules to recieve rewards in the afterlife. Besides there was a rule within the Rules that the man should disciplin the woman if she did not obey the Rules by taking different approaches, the final approach was to beat her. And when she did not started to follow the Rules the man had to make sure she did by beating her. And so she was beaten.
Case 3. Man was married to woman and had a couple of childrens. They were all raised within the same set of Rules as set by their god. One of the childrens, a girl in her teens, became terminally ill. She urgently needed a blodtransfusion. But according to the Rules the family was following she was not allowed to receive blood from another person. The girl however wanted to stay alive so she wished to get the medical treatment she could get, but her parents in obiedence to their god refused to let her have the treatment. And so she died.
Now in these cases we have a couple of persons who believes in a god (one god). They believe that this god has sent down a set of Rules to be followed. They do things that in my view is unlawful and injust, but in their eyes they are merely following the set of Rules as set out by their god. Are they to be punished for these acts or rewarded?
You could make many such cases where people are doing different kinds of awful acts which they however thinks is sanctioned by their god(s) (fx the Mayans who sacrificed humans at the top of their pyramids; the Pope who has set a ban on the use of condoms; African shamans who kills albinos; the Nigerian priest who argues that child-whitches should be killed/punished; Muslim men who took captives and turned them into slaves (and concubines) during war). What are the standards? The Qur'an, the Bible, the Veda, the Book of Mormon, the Avesta, the sayings of Confucius, the sayings of Socrates? All these books contain hidious elements, and if followed they would result in injust acts.
We have a clear idea about many things that are injust, but as is clear in the case of our courtrooms the barrier between just and injust acts are not always clear. Their was a documentary the other day in danish television about a woman who had killed her husband. Why? Cause he had said that he would kill their child. He did not have a smoking gun in his hand, but she felt that she knew him well enough and she was sure that he would do it (the reason he would go as far as to kill the child was to make sure that thewife would not divorce him (erhmm?!?)). Was it just to kill the man or injust? The daughter openly thanked her mum for doing it.
Topic: The Story of Sulayman