| Kasz216 said: First off... thou shall not murder? You answered your own question there. Why was murder used instead of kill originally? Because murder specifically denotes why one should not murder by it's words being different from kill. As for why touching the skin of dead pig is unclean... The act would be to not touch the Pig. That it's unclean is the reason given... Also you know... there is more then that. "And you may not eat the pig. It has split hooves but does not chew the cud, so it is ceremonially unclean for you. You may not eat the meat of these animals or even touch their carcasses." So not only did they give you a reason there... but a reason for the reason. |
I'm going to respond to the quoted part directly.
"Murder" doesn't carry its own reason. The term distinguishes itself from "kill" by whether or not it's sanctioned. In other words, an alternate description would be "thou shalt not kill unless the killing is deemed acceptable to god". It does not provide a reason beyond "because god says so". A stage 5 or 6 reason not to murder would root itself in right to life, social stability, and collective agreement (not majority rule - that's different).
And no, "because it's unclean" isn't a reason of any more significance than "because god says so", because the definition of "unclean" is "considered bad by god". There is no social justification, no basis in rights or law, just a commandment not to touch the skin of a dead pig along with what is effectively a punishment (it's still a punishment if it happens without intent). It's no different from saying "touching fire will burn you". That's not a reason to not touch fire, it's an action and a punishment. The reason to not touch fire is that it will do damage to your body, which is imparted upon you through the sensation of pain.
I'm also not clear on why the effects of *eating* a pig is a "reason" for not touching the skin of a dead pig.
You don't seem to comprehend what the stages are about. They're not about the nature of the reason, but how that reason is achieved. Getting the reason from a book is literally stage 1, even if stage 6 reasons are supplied, because it's morality by authority, rather than by proper reasoning.
Let me give you an example of a higher stage of reasoning in connection with religion. In Judaism, there are many things that are not to be done - there are strong rules against them. However, Jews recognise special exceptions, the primary one being the protection of life. If a Jew is faced with the decision between eating pork and dying of starvation, eating pork is the moral thing to do. This principle is not actually stated in the torah, although the idea that life comes before other things is. The torah establishes the "human right" to life, and then Jews use that right as a basis for part of their morality. That is stage 5 reasoning. But the laws in the torah are stage 1 reasoning.
