[ExI] Religions and violence.

[Jebadiah Moore]

On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 1:00 PM, Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com> wrote:

> My own ideas fit rather well in your description.
>
> But I am waaaaay reluctant in admitting that, say, a community could
> and should be kept legally or ethically responsible for the behaviour
> of its members.
>
> Say, as in "they shall pay for what they have done until the umpteenth
> generation".
>

Although at least historically a lot of people do go for that sort of thing
(I don't), that's not what I was talking about at all.  For one, that's
treating a community like it's an individual, which is sort of missing the
whole point--the community is an entity worthy of study as such, but it's
not gonna look exactly like a person.  As for your specific example, I don't
go for the whole "they shall pay" thing in general, since I don't believe in
"justice".  Perhaps such a sentence would make sense in some specific case
in a make-an-example sort of way, but that sort of thing is pretty heavily
in violation of my moral intuitions, and if you allow such examples to be
made it leads down a slippery slope.

What I meant was more in the other direction; it would do us well
to recognize communities as things to be studied, built, improved, and
protected.

-- 
Jebadiah Moore
http://blog.jebdm.net
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