| Subject: Collective Responsibility |
Author:
Biff
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Date Posted: 12/11/01 10:18pm
In reply to:
Wade A. Tisthammer
's message, "Individual responsibility." on 12/11/01 2:39pm
In the Bible, check Judges 19-20, when the
>>entire tribe of Benjamin was held responsible for the
>>rape of one woman.
>
>That’s not entirely what happened. When the
>Israelites marched over and asked to hand the guilty
>parties over (the wicked men who raped and brutally
>murdered a woman) the Benjamites would not listen and
>decided to fight against the Israelites instead (see
>Judges 20:12-14). I don’t think the war against the
>Benjamites would have taken place if they had handed
>over those evil men.
Continue on to Judges 20:48. The Israelites didn't stop with those who were directly responsible. They put entire towns to the sword, all but wiping out the tribe of Benjamin.
There are other examples of collective responsibility in the Bible, enough that I believe it was a prevailing idea of the time. That's not to say that individuals were not responsible for their actions, but that society had more of a sense of responsiblity towards the individual than is the case today.
>>So, if God holds mankind collectively responsible for
>>its actions, then that is his nature.
>
>I don’t believe that’s exactly his nature.
I'm not saying it is. But I'm not saying it isn't. What I'm saying is that it's not in our interest to characterize the nature of God. We're probably not capable of understanding or explaining it anyways. Perhaps (as I've given some evidence for) God defines justice by collective responsibility. Or, perhaps he doesn't and the age of accountability argument takes effect. Like I said, I not sure it matters either way. It does not change the way we must relate to God.
If babies die and go to hell without knowing any better, we can say that's unjust. But, being of limited capacity compared to God, can we really define God's justice? Our first task must simply be to determine whether he exists, and if we find that he does, our second is to discover how we are to relate to him. Our interest is to accept him as he is, not to define his nature according to our standards.
I am a
>strong believer in the idea that “the soul who sins is
>the one who will die.” One nice example is the notion
>of people being punished for the sins of their
>ancestors (IIRC, it was somewhat popular back then).
>See Ezekiel 18:20 and Deuteronomy 24:16.
Right, this is another example of collective responsibility.
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