The Jeffrey Dahmer Murders

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Jeffrey Dahmer, 34-year-old son of fundamentalist Christian parent’s, brutally murdered seventeen homosexual, mostly black young men, raped their corps, and ate their body parts. Was what he did wrong? Matter Atheos, Pan Unitheos, and Chris Theon met to discuss this appalling matter.

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Matter, the distinguished white-headed professor, spoke first. “Gentlemen, I’m terrified of serial killers who roam our streets, invade our homes, rob, rape, murder our children. They frighten and force us to become an armed camp. Shaking his head, eating people and human heads in the refrigerator, it’s loathsome. Maybe we’re tasty and nutritious, but it’s utterly repulsive. We make laws to protect citizens from such lunatics. I know we’re only evolving animals who return to dirt. But we want peaceful, fear-free lives. So we should respect fellow human beings--practical expediency and the golden rule should be our goals. What do you say, Pan?”

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Pan, a handsome bearded philosopher from India with hand on chin, nodded affirmatively. “Hum, I agree Dahmer was wrong to murder those men. It prevented their working off bad karma from a former life. It prolonged sufferings in their next life. And eating meat is wrong too. My parents taught me not to eat meat since it may be a person or animal from a former life. Everything and everyone are parts of this universe of spiritual energy—I call it the World Soul or god. Things return to the ground and are reborn in different forms a thousand times to achieve justice. Then these temporary illusions cease to exist.”

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“Pan, have I got wax in my ears or what,” protested Matter? “Are you claiming karma means we shouldn’t help suffering people? Would you outlaw fire rescue, police aid, hospitals--things that alleviate human suffering? What happened to human compassion? The world’s Jeffrey Dohmers’ shouldn’t be allowed to run wild terrorizing us! And how can karma—an impersonal energy—know anything about our behavior? How can you say everything’s illusion? Don’t you wear clothes, look in the mirror, look when crossing streets and a thousand things you couldn’t do if all is just illusion? If the universe is one unity, how can it take separate forms, separate appearances, separate actions? Pan, is it your physical senses, or your common sense, that’s the illusion? I can’t see how your way of thinking has any ethical basis.”                      

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“Matter, if I understand you correctly, you’re also without any ethical basis. You believe we’re just sophisticated animals, a chance arrangement of atoms, who at death return to dirt. So, you’ve no authoritative source of goodness, you’re not accountable; you’ve only your subjective biases and opinions without authority and that will one day cease to exist.

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“Further, you despair that some catastrophe could end life on earth--an atomic war, an asteroid smashing earth, volcanic eruptions. Yes, practical expediency would make life more comfortable and secure. But! But! Human nature is sensual, passionate, craving--it’s seldom sensitive and compassionate. Why not fulfill our own pleasures? Why not satisfy our own desires--be they robbery, rape, murder, drug suicide, shooting persons at random? Since life has no ultimate purpose, since chances are great we’ll get by with it. Why not go out in a blaze of glory?”

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Chris could contain himself no longer. “Fellows, if we’re only animals without souls who return to dirt, that’s no basis for ethics. And, if after a thousand lives, we’re absorbed into universal energy, that only delays incentive, destroys compassion to live ethically. Ultimately, it makes little difference if we give dying persons a drink of water or dice their throats.”

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“I believe we have eternal dignity because we’re not evolved but created in God’s likeness and created immortal. An infinite, eternal, personal, ethical and loving God created us, set standards for us to live by, and will one day judge our every thought, every word, and deed. That makes life meaningful, that gives us hope. It motivates us to live ethically.”

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“But Chris that sounds too good to be true. Why should we believe it?”

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“I’m glad you asked, Matter. Our Creator visibly entered our space-time world in human form and told us who He is. He gave abundant signs open-minded persons could recognize and believe. He fulfilled hundreds of detailed predictions written centuries earlier. He did things we know neither nature nor man can achieve such as walk on water, heal blindness, lameness, and skin diseases instantly, and even raise the dead. Check it all out in the Bible--a book proven true time and again despite all the critical assaults.”

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“And here’s the real ethical incentive: Jesus’ blood, soaked the cross in our stead, showed us his great love, and paid our penalty for trampling God’s laws. The guarded, sealed tomb could not hold Him, which confirmed His divine claims.”

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“We have forgiveness, become God’s redeemed children, and receive His gift of eternal life by trusting in Christ. That’s a foundation of authority, that’s ethical incentive when limited, conflicting, human guesses are not.”

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“But Chris how is God love when the Bible says sinners will be cast into a lake of fire forever?”

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“Thanks for asking, Pan. First, people mistakenly believe God would be unloving to punish sin or wrongdoing. They want a permissive God who will overlook their sin. That’s not the perfectly just, holy, righteous or loving God of the Bible. That’s not the love society really agrees with either. We put thieves, rapists, murders, any law-breakers in jail to protect society—that’s love. Breakers of God’s laws must receive His perfect justice, which is the very foundation of His love. Indeed, there can be no real love apart from justice.”

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“Second, the lake of fire is a metaphor to represent the wrath of God (John 3:36; Ps. 89:46; Ezek. 21:31; 2 Thess. 1:8-9). Jesus used metaphor or symbolic pictures to grab people’s attention and warn them of literal realities. Fire burning flesh certainly does that. Other pictures describing Hell are a bottomless pit (Rev. 203); outer darkness (Matt. 8:12), torment (Rev. 20:10); beating (Luke 12:47-48).”

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“Third, Jesus taught Hell is degrees of punishment for degrees of sin--a lake of fire suggests equal punishment. It’s terribly unjust to punish both a murderer of millions and a moral but unsaved person equally in a furnace or lake of fire. Indeed, God would be less just than human jurists would be not to punish sin to the degree it deserved.”

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“How much WORSE punishment, do you suppose will he be thought worthy who has  trampled the Son of God underfoot (Heb. 10:29).” See also "more tolerable" in Matt. 10:15; 11:22-24. Mark 6:11.

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“Forth, Hell is forever. God respects the free will He gave us. Some persons despise God to the death. They don’t have to be mean, nasty, brutal killers. They may be likable, moral, good intention persons who just prefer doing their thing to God’s will. But their sinful self-will prevents them entering and corrupting God’s perfect Heaven. God is the Lord and we must abide by His terms. He gives us one life and after that the judgment (Heb. 9:29). Every knee will one day bow to the Savior then our Judge, and admit He alone is right (Rom. 14:11; Phil. 2:10).”

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The utterly just God of the Bible who knows every thought, motive and act of every person will give us pure justice. His principles are mentioned in the Bible Book of Romans the second chapter. He cannot allow us to do things in His perfect Heaven that we do now on this earth. When we see God, we will have no excuse to justify our evil behavior. Now is our time for repentance and commitment to serve Him. Creation, conscience and God's Spirit witnesses to us and God will find a way to save all who want to know Him. Believe on the Lord Jesus the Messiah or Anointed (Acts 16:31). We may trust in His love now but will receive His justice later. Jesus is Creator, Lifegiver, Lawgiver, Savior, and Judge. Will you pray, Lord, I trust You to save me a sinner right now and forever.

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