Eye for an Eye: One of the Greatest Ideas in History
Nowadays, many people, especially those living in Western civilization, no longer regard their society as morally exceptional to any other. In this video, Dennis Prager sets out how this view does not spring from intellectual rigor, but from intellectual laziness.
Dennis Prager’s brand-new book, The Rational Bible, is now offered. Order today: https://www.amazon.com/Rational-Bible-Exodus-Dennis-Prager/dp/1621577724
Donate today to PragerU! http://l.prageru.com/2eB2p0h
Get PragerU perk content totally free! https://www.prageru.com/bonus-content
Download Pragerpedia on your iPhone or Android! Countless sources and realities within your reaches.
iPhone: http://l.prageru.com/2dlsnbG
Android: http://l.prageru.com/2dlsS5e
Sign Up With Prager United to get brand-new boodle every quarter, unique early access to our videos, and a yearly TownHall phone call with Dennis Prager! http://l.prageru.com/2c9n6ys
Sign up with PragerU’s text list to have these videos, complimentary product free gifts and breaking statements sent out directly to your phone! https://optin.mobiniti.com/prageru
Do you go shopping on Amazon? Click https://smile.amazon.com and a percentage of every Amazon purchase will be contributed to PragerU. Same fantastic products. Very same low price. Shopping made significant.
SEE PragerU! https://www.prageru.com
FOLLOW us!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prageru
Twitter: https://twitter.com/prageru
Instagram: https://instagram.com/prageru/
PragerU is on Snapchat!
SIGN UP WITH PragerFORCE!
For Students: http://l.prageru.com/2aozfkP
JOIN our Educators Network! http://l.prageru.com/2aoz2y9
Script:
Even atheists acknowledge that the book that is most accountable for developing Western civilization is the Bible.
Till very recently, that was thought about quite an achievement.
After all, it was Western civilization that produced societies rooted in private liberty, rooted in democracy, that verified the equality of all individuals, and which gave the world the idea of universal human rights.
Naturally, these special moral perfects took centuries to be recognized, and the perfects were frequently broken. Just the West formulated these ideals, let alone achieved them– and then spread them around the world.
In the last half century, however, much of the receivers of these presents– specifically the well-educated– no longer regarded Western civilization as ethically remarkable to any other. And as reverence for Western civilization fell, so did respect for the source of that civilization.
The Bible has not only been ignored, but reviled– as an absurd fairy tale at best, and as an unethical work at worst. This view springs not from intellectual rigor, but from intellectual laziness.
If there are no ethical and reasonable actions to those objections, individuals toss out all sorts of objections to the Bible as. However the truth is there are moral and rational reactions to all those objections.
I give many of them in my book, The Rational Bible, but let me provide two here.
In the biblical book of Deuteronomy, it states if somebody has a defiant kid who does not follow his dad and mother, his parents can take him to the senior citizens of the city for judgment. And if the child is found guilty, the residents are to stone him to death.
Sounds quite primitive, doesn’t it?
Nevertheless, it was a massive ethical leap forward. This law ended– permanently– adult ownership of their children, and with it the right to eliminate to them. The sparkle of this law was that it appeared to protect the outright authority of parents, however in reality ended it.
However, you will respond, the residents of the city might still kill the kid. In theory, that was true. But we have no circumstances of it ever happening in the history of the Jews– the people who brought the book into the world and lived by its rules.
Critics of Western faith also frequently cite the well-known biblical law, “an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand,” etc as another example of an unethical biblical law.
This law– known by its Latin name, lex talionis, the law of retaliation– was another fantastic moral advance. It was not implied to be taken literally, and it never ever was– for the basic factor that it’s impossible to exactly duplicate physical damage. Just “a life for a life” was implied literally and taken literally: there is capital punishment for premeditated murder.
So, then, what did it suggest?
The eye of a prince is worth no more than the eye of a peasant. The Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, for example, legislated that the eye of a worthy was of much greater worth than the eye of a citizen.
For the total script, go to https://www.prageru.com/videos/eye-eye-one-greatest-ideas-history
source
Nowadays, numerous individuals, particularly those living in Western civilization, no longer regard their society as ethically remarkable to any other. We have no instance of it ever happening in the history of the Jews– the individuals who brought the book into the world and lived by its rules.
Every person’s eye is as valuable as anyone else’s. The eye of a prince is worth no more than the eye of a peasant. The Babylonian Code of Hammurabi, for example, legislated that the eye of an honorable was of much higher worth than the eye of a commoner.
