Precept 8, Do Not Murder
8. DO NOT MURDER.1
Most races, from the most ancient times to the present, have prohibited murder and punished it heavily. Sometimes this has been broadened to say, “Thou shalt not kill,” when a later translation of the same work has found it to read “Thou shalt not murder.”
There is a considerable difference between these two words “kill” and “murder.” A prohibition against all killing would rule out self-defense; it would tend to make it illegal to handle a serpent coiling to strike the baby; it would put a race on a diet of vegetables. I am sure you can see many illustrations of the difficulties raised by a prohibition against all killing.
“Murder” is another thing entirely. By definition it means, “The unlawful killing of one (or more) human being by another, especially with malice aforethought.” One can easily see that in this age of violent weaponry, murder would be all too easy. One could not exist in a society where oneself or one’s family or friends were at the mercy of some who went about casually taking lives.
Murder justly bears the highest priority in social prevention and retaliation.
The stupid, the evil and the insane seek to solve their real or imagined problems with murder. And they have been known to do it for no reason at all.
Get behind any demonstratedly effective program that handles this threat to Mankind and push. Your own survival could depend upon it.
The way to happiness
does not include murdering or
your friends, your family or yourself
being murdered.
- 1. murder: the unlawful killing of one (or more) human being by another, especially with malice aforethought (intending to do so before the act).