An eye for an eye or forgiveness?

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Some people manage to abuse any good principle that is given to them. I guess that if you want to be self-centered, you can easily bend any principle around until it suits you. Egoistic people make me angry, and they smell ugly too. Worst of all are those who hide their egoistic motives behind a cloth of religious fervor.

Let's look at two principles. The first is the 'eye for an eye' principle that is written in the Old Testament of the Bible (i properly capitalize). The second is the principle of forgiveness that is taught by most Christian groups.

I'm not diving into the sources from which the principles are quoted. I'll try to use good heart and good sense. If you don't like that don't read on.

What good principle could there be behind the phrase 'an eye for an eye'? I know that the adagio has been misused as justification to strike back on any enemy that purportedly hurt you. The Old Testament was written by people of old times. I think they were interested in where we came from and how we had to live. I assume they were serious people and were often inspired to write their texts. So assuming that from their good inspiration they meant something beneficial, what could it be?

If someone gives you an eye, give back an eye. If someone does you a good deed, do it back. If someone gives you love, give it back. Doesn't that sound much better?

If you stole an eye from someone, you owe that person an eye. If you stole from a people their land, you should return that land. If you stole from a people their culture, you should give it back to them and even learn from their traditions. If you took from The Earth its beauty and richness, you should be obliged to spend your life making the Earth whole again. If you became wealthy in an extraordinary way (of course Bill Gates is a million times better person and works a million times more than a hungry baby in a developing country...) you should not be obliged to give away just a percentage of your wealth but you should experience the same hunger for a time, just so you know again what life really is.

What about forgiveness? Forgiveness is a much more elevated principle than the Old-Testament spirit of requital, Christians tell us to believe. It's a question to me whether the practice of forgiveness has really been introduced by Christians, but let's look at the principle behind. Suppose you did something wrong, would forgiveness mean that you don't have to pay retribution for it?

Let's look at the crime that people destroyed so many of the trees of the Earth. Your own children suffer because the trees are away. Now you say you are sorry and you are forgiven, assumingly because of a certain principle of salvation. But what about the trees? Are they back? Is the Earth healthy again? Do your children have a good life now because you have been saved?

Forgiveness surely can't be that simple. Let's take the principle in a different meaning. You cut the trees, you sold them for money and didn't care what it meant for everyone who needed the trees. Now you must bring back the trees, restore the soil of the Earth, cleanse the polluted air and spend a whole lot of time to make your children happy where you first made them unhappy. When you have done that all and you have really understood how wrong you did, then forgiveness means that nobody talks anymore about the pains and suffering you have once inflicted. You are forgiven by your victims for what you did once wrong. You are forgiven by God, by your fellow men, your children. They all love you again. Maybe most important of all, you can love yourself again. What a beautiful principle of forgiveness!

May 25, 2006