Stories like these just make me sick...

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/17 … etail.html

what ever happened to God teaches us that all life is precious??

This isn't really that bad a story. I mean, is this the church's fault or the fault of the construction crew...?

Ramza

I'm with avatar! on this one. If this church respected all life, they would find another solution instead of killing all of those poor animals.

It's worse than that. If they respected all life, then they would not be allowed to bathe. Because they might kill bacteria on the skin.

The problem with God is that He did not and will not teach us anything. Every time someone uses the word of God, they are hearing their own thoughts or reading the thoughts of someone else.

Is the claim that "God teaches us that all life is precious" a tenet of any mainstream denomination of Christianity? More importantly, is it a tenet of this particular church's denomination?

As I understand it, incidental killing of the local fauna is the norm whenever land is developed or plowed for crops. I don't see why the church is being singled out for criticism, especially when they at least tried to relocate them, which AFAIK is not the norm. If PETA were killing prarie dogs in the process of building a new local headquarters, that would be hypocrisy, but not when an organization that has never made any pretense at a radical pro-animal-rights position does so.

I'm no religious scholar, but I know enough to be certain that Christianity follows from Judaism, and both believe in the Bible. Granted, Christians believe in the so-called New Testament, but they also believe in the original Bible. I'm also no Biblical scholar, but I know that one of the 10 Commandments is "though shalt commit no murder". Yes, this is primarily directed at people killing people, but I know for fact there are also tons of passages relating to how ALL life is precious. In fact, I know that in Judaism (and Islam too I believe) an animal has to be killed in such a way that it feels no pain (ie "humanely", at least as much as possible for an animal that's to be slaughtered). Anyway, point is, YES, everything I've ever learned in relation to Christianity points that one of it's fundamental principles is that God teaches us all life is precious. At least that's how it is supposed to be.

As for local fauna or bacteria, that's a different matter. The random, purposeless, destruction of vegetation is one thing, but clearing some land to build a new youth center is nothing any normal human being with a conscience would cry about. However, killing a family of intelligent animals that are in many ways like humans (they have feelings, live in families, etc) simply because the Church wants more people to attend ($$) is hypocritical! And, I'm not even going to go into the bacteria issue, since it's a given for most normal people that microbes are parasitic organisms and are not intelligent (although yes, they are alive).

That's my view on the matter! This animal-killing Church is totally hypocritical...

-avatar!

everything in colorado is screwed up anyways... they should just dig a tunnel to mexico and let them annex it..

It's as you say, avatar: you are no biblical scholar.

I could reference to you some relevant passages in the OT and NT referencing the relationships between man and animal, as well as God and animal. But I won't. All I'll say is "thou shalt not murder" has been understood from day 1 to the present as ONLY human-to-human. Hell, animal sacrifice and eating meat is totally fine in the OT.

And Jodo?

I'm not even gonna go where you're going, but I will say that for the most part, you are probably quite right.

Ramza

I honestly thought Christianity's limits on murder went no further then people... otherwise... wouldn't they be vegetarians or at least stress that the way eastern religions do?

thank you. I will find this particular sentence amusing for the rest of the day.

I'm not arguing about the "murder" bit being only to humans, but it was just leading to the fact that ALL life is sacred. Most religions eat meat of some kind, but that doesn't mean life isn't sacred. Also, it's NOT true that animal sacrifice and eating meat is "totally fine" in the OT. Animal sacrifices were only done on sacred days, I'm not even sure it was done more than once a year, and that of course had to be a special animal, and there were all these customs that had to be followed. Same thing for eating meat. It had to be slaughtered a certain way, checked for cleanliness, etc...

Anyway, I always thought that one of Christianity's tenants is that all life is sacred. I mean, that *should* be a universal tenant among most religions. Sad, very sad...

-avatar!

edit: By the way Ramza, I'm not sure how you on earth you can blame the construction crew for this?? They have a job to do, they're operating huge equipment that moves literally tons of dirt. I really doubt any of those guys would even see a single prairie dog during the whole job (prairie dogs run underground when frightened of course) nor is there any reason to think they should know about them ahead of time.

Take this message with a grain of salt...

If you're Hindi, then you believe in reincarnation...all life is the same; it's not that all life has human consciousness, all life has the same level of consciousness; no life has any more or less consciousness or awareness than any other form of life. This would mean that those prairie dogs, and many other animals, AND plants, are fully aware of being massacred.

HOWEVER!

If you're Hindi, you also believe in the concept of Karma, or consequence, if you will...a similar concept to Sin in Christianity; depending upon your level of Karma when you die, you are reincarnated into another lifeform or "Body."

The common thought is that animal lives are beget of lower levels of Karma; this means that being reincarnated as certain animals is a form or divine punishment...being reincarnated as an animal or "Lower lifeform" is akin to the Christian concept of Purgatory...you have to make up for your bad Karma or Sin as an animal, and then when you die again, hopefully you're reincarnated as a "Higher" lifeform. Those who're reincarnated as cows make up for the bad Karma of their previous lives by providing milk and beef. Those who're reincarnated as plants make up for the bad Karma of their previous lives by providing fruit, vegetables, and timber.

Which means these prairie dogs were probably a lot of thieving, murderous shmucks in their previous lives as humans, so ashes to ashes, and dust to dust! (Tee-hee).

Bah! And you thought degenerates were only reincarnated as Prinnies!

I don't know much from any structured religion, so I'll leave that be. I will say that despite the best-intending and most-accomodating of actions, there's a little exploitation in every facet of human life, so there's not much point in wringing one's hands over everything. That said, this is a downer.
I have to wonder how robust that relocation effort was, honestly. Given enough tries, any animal will learn to re-settle elsewhere. Do rodents not deserve a second chance? Wasn't it no less than President Dwight Eisenhower who once said to his valet:

"The next time you see one of those squirrels go near my putting green, take a gun and shoot it!"

Wait, no.
I meant Sen. Richard Neuberger, who said to Eisenhower:

"Tolerate a few scratches and bumps on your private putting green in order to continue a fine and colorful heritage of White House squirrels."

...which sounds ridiculous, but that's the way Senators talk.

Hang the parking lot, and let the dogs stay. Or arm the animals, and make it a fair fight!

Actually, it was only meant to be from one Judahite to the other. Killing outsiders of the tribe/kingdom was perfectly legit according to Torahic law.

No, and no.
And, I've never heard of "Torahic". I assume you mean the Bible.

-avatar!

Torahic meaning "of the Torah." There are other holy books out there, y'know.

when you run out of cans and bottles to put on top of the fence, you hafta shoot at something...

Ah, gotcha! Yes, makes sense.