Doctor George Tiller Murdered in God's Name

Well, it finally happened. Dr. George Tiller, a physician who provided legal abortion services, was murdered in the name of Jesus and God. He was shot while attending church services on Sunday morning. This tragedy is only mitigated the tiniest amount by the fact that all of the mainstream anti-abortion groups denounced the murder. This is just the final chapter in a long string of harassment, threats, vandalism and and even another shooting – in 1993, Dr. Tiller was shot in both arms. Dr. Tiller must have known that sooner or later the threats would turn to action, yet he carried on.

This is religion at its worst.

• The murderer is completely intolerant of other viewpoints than his own.
• It represents an absolute certainty about morals, so much certainty that the murderer believed execution was warranted.
• Religion allowed the murderer to believe he is above the law, and can decide which laws to follow and which to ignore.
• It shows that these religious fanatics believe that, no matter what crimes they commit here on Earth, they'll be forgiven and actually rewarded in the afterlife.

In other words, this murderer doesn't believe in the rule of law. He believes that any one of us can murder another, just based on our own personal beliefs.

It is nothing more than anarchy in God's name. If we follow this to the logical conclusion, then each of us is free to do whatever we like, so long as our personal religion, whatever god or gods we worship, tell us it's OK.

Well, this assassin is wrong. There is no salvation in his afterlife. Nobody is going to forgive him. He won't live happily ever after. Nobody will be singing his praises. He is not a hero. He is nothing more than a cold-blooded murder, anarchist, and self-important fool.

Instead, the State has already captured the man, and he'll be found guilty of first-degree premeditated murder. He'll spend the rest of his life in prison, and may even be executed by the State.

Which is as it should be. Nobody is above the law.

Christians, Jews, Muslims, and surely others, will decry this murder, saying that God does not approve or condone such behavior in His name. But they're wrong – just look in the first few books of the Bible and you'll find many, many instances of people, families, cities and even whole lands, murdered on a whim or for trivial offenses, or for the misdeeds of just a few, or even just because God wanted them out of the way. These horrifying tales of murder and genocide are taught to children and adults alike as moral lessons.

When a murder takes place in God's name, like the murder of Dr. Tiller, all the Christians and Jews can do is find yet another quote from their Bible, "'Vengeance is mine, I will repay,' sayeth the Lord." (Romans 12:19). But that's a pure cover-up. The Bible is such a pile of conflicting morals and baffling lessons, anybody can claim just about anything they like, and find a passage of the Bible that backs them up. Apparently this murderer didn't get to Romans, he read Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus and learned his lessons about murder and genocide there.

Those of you who think that this murder doesn't represent your religion, think again. This is exactly why the Bible is a terrible source of morality.