Morality and Ten commandments.

i am going to bring a topic dealing with morality in order to understand where the creationists on this site can express the level of commitment they have to honoring the ten commandments. Now I am not privy to whether Jesus made a change in the commandments or not or if he modified them or what.However the situation I bring to the table has no right answer but does make a good sounding post for where a person stands in relation to decisions about "gray" areas of life.Here goes

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...people today are so accustomed to pretentious nonsense that they see nothing amiss in reading without understanding, and many of them at length discover that they can without difficulty write in like manner themselves and win applause for it. And so it perpetuates itself.
G. A. Wells, 1991

Before establishing "right" or "wrong" in this case, either by a secular or sectarian standard, we need more information."Heinz got desparate and broke into the man's store to steal the drug for his wife."1) Did Heinz appeal to secular authorities to acquire the drug legally? [Secular authorities have the moral responsibility to intervene to save a life.]2) Did Heinz appeal to his church, if any, or to some sectarian-based charity to help him acquire the drug or raise the additional $1,000.00? [Religion-based charitable organizations have the moral responsibility to intervene or assist to save a life.]3) Is "desparation" a defense or should humans control their emotions when faced with crisis. [One should always control emotional responses so that one's actions do not result in harm to another; i.e., did Heinz do any significant damage to the creedy druggist or his property?]Bottomline: Would Heinz's control of his desparation represent a higher moral standard than theft to save a life? Absolutely not! One's attempt to preserve life is the higher moral standard in every case. Whether it is Heinz's wife or Heinz's neighbor, if Heinz intervened when no other secular or sectarian entity did, and the result of Heinz's intervention saved a life, then Heinz's apparent infraction of a lesser "commandment" is over-ridden by Heinz's obvious compliance with the greater moral imperative. NOT GUILTY.Peace.[This message has been edited by Abshalom, 01-04-2004]

AbshalomThen is the withholding of the radium dose by the druggist a crime since a persons life was in the balance? Are the ten commandments supposed to be absolute or relative to the circumstances? Would,say, the commission of adultery be an absolute or relative crime?

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"The Puritans. Our ancestors. People so uptight the English kicked them out. How fucking anal do you have to be for the English to say 'get the fuck out!'"
~~ Robin Williams

Sidelined:In your original post, you only asked if the husband's actions were "right" or "wrong." My reply was that he was morally obligated to attempt to save his wife's life, and his actions were not wrong.Now you change the question to whether one thing or another is a "crime." Gimme a break, okay?If your question were, "is the withholding of the radium dose by the druggist wrong (instead of 'a crime')?" Then my answer would be, "yes, both his original price gouging and his subsequent withholding of the medicine after a reasonable offer of 500% profit were wrong, but not necessarily 'crimes' unless per the secular laws of the land regarding price gouging, etc."[This message has been edited by Abshalom, 01-04-2004]

AbshalomActually I stated that there is no right answer.Also by reading the topic heading you can get an idea of the direction I wish to take this.I have not changed a word of the original story but it is another moral issue that must be dealt with in the same way we dealt with the obvious issue of what the husbands choice was.I would love to give you a break however the life we face in these types of issue must be addressed.You are free to answer or not. I used the word crime because this goes to the heart of how a society goes about making laws[which is what the ten commandments amounts to]
and it also is about where we would draw the line in the application of those laws to ourselves.Finally the point I also wish to make concerns the idea raised within the forum ,by some individuals, concerning absolute morality. I would like to hear their take on these issues as well.