[neilmarr]

***God says killing anyone intentionally is wrong***

You brought it up, Steve, so I don't think it's a hijack of your thread if we look at religion.

With the greatest respect, the statement you make above is a misinterpretation of the Ten Commandments of Moses. You know full well that Exodus continues with the Jewish god's eager encouragement of his tribe toward cruel mass murder, slavery and genocide. As far as I know, the direction of this particular god is the first recorded instance of what we now know as 'ethnic cleansing'.

What I mean to say is that tribes were are are closed societies that measure morality according to their own private (often divinely inspired) codes. These codes very often contradict others held by different tribes.

The Ten Commandments, for instance (most of them about religious worship) are meant for a specific people and its society and are not meant to be applied to 'the others'. The laws of Leviticus are considered even by the majority of Jews to be absurd and barbaric.

This clash of socital and cultural moral codes is still with us, of course. There is an answer, I am not alone in thinking. A simple answer. But who will accept total integration at the expense of deeply held ideals and discarding dictated 'ethic' for the sake of world fraternity, peace, harmony?

Bestest, Steve. And thanks again for prompting interesting responses (rather than answers -- out of our reach) to a fascinating, ever-present and pressing question. Neil