Mag, let again illustrate what I am saying
I said I would kill everyone who sought to do harm to another human. Under no circumstances would I ever kill a child. I dont have a problem at all with Israel going to war with its enemies and killing enemy combatants and even people caught in the act of doing terrible things. I do not think indiscriminately killing every man woman and child, just because they belong to a nation you are at war with is justified.
What if the child was a murderer? In African nations an 8 year old kid carries a AK-47, not only to protect but to use it as a weapon when they attack some other tribe. Or lets say that the child was Graham Young
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/seri ... index.html or the Ten year old Mary bell
http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/noto ... dex_1.html.
If they were killed at their first murder, would not that save many more lives? would you agree?
Actually the Biblical writings show that their women were also part of those rituals of human sacrifices and child burnings etc etc, then even tried to seduce the Israel men at one point in time as to convert them to their savage practices. Speaking as a theist, God finally decided that he had given these nations too much time (400 years) to correct themselves and therefore he announced his judgment.
Okay now we come to the children's part, it seems very harsh, but I have come at a conclusion that perhaps it was the only way to end the corruption present in that land. Some times children are indoctrinated at a very young age. I mean look at Pakistan, a lot of fundamental Islam is present here. When I was in school, our text books had lines that would make you think what in the world are we coming too. In first grade these lines was actually taught
"No Christian or Jew can ever be a friend of Muslims."
"Christians and Jews are cursed offspring of pigs and monkeys."
Tell me, what do you think a Muslim child in first grade is going to do about it when he grows up? This is a level of degradation which is appalling.
I have come to conclude that the nations God commanded to kill were so fallen (and had not corrected themselves in 400 years) that God wanted them finished and no one remaining to carry on their hideous cannibalistic and human sacrificing rituals. I also think that physical death is best a temporary thing. We do know that new born babies who die go to heaven, they are indeed not corrupted by the world. Because if they had grown up in the wicked environment that existed in Canaan, then they themselves would most likely have done evil as well, and as a result be lost eternally.
Though I would strongly say that even though God commanded it, Israel never fully carried out this. Also, there only a but a handful of these cases, very rare IMO. I think these were unique cases. For Instance take the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Abraham asked God if He will destroy the righteous along with the wicked? God went along with him even as far as to say that if he finds 10 good people in there, God will spare the entire towns. So I do think it matters to God, I do not think that God rejoices when a sinner dies. I think God is deeply troubled at our corruption, because in the larger scope he loves us.
I also think you have misread me when I said humanity deserved a second chance, I was pointing to Christ's atonement and his grace through him Man has a chance to redemption and finally recover from the fallen state.
Just to clarify, by a social standard I do think that sometimes, killing is justified, as in the case of Hitler, if he was to be killed in 1942, a lot if it had not even happened. I also believe that as Christians we should not kill, not even Hitler, and even if we do, I am sure it is still killing, no less a sin. And we all sin, so I think we should leave judgement to God. What will become of Hitler? he will be answerable to God, I think if he deserves due punishment then he will be punished eternally for his sins. This is a separate topic but kind of off-shoots here, anyway no need to go in this at the moment.
Going back, I would just like to point out that in a subjective world view, it is impossible to claim truly good and evil notions. In this case, your view of justified killing again, is in question here. Objectivity does not exist in human society and nature. Without God we are left with subjectivity alone, so how do you think you can call someones else action as false when you can not even account for your own, which is indeed not very different than the person you are blaming. You are both appealing to your sense and interpretation of what is right and wrong, that I pointed out earlier, fails on logical grounds. This is the problem you have yet to explain, you haven't done it since I asked you this question and even pointed out these problems in the very first posts I made to you. Your turn!
Why I did not write, what I am writing now, because I think these kind of explanations can not afford to be vague, not to mention that the faulty logic you employed did not even merit the answer until it was corrected.
A lot of what you have written begs questions, which should be first clarified. Your ignorance of these problems is precisely why I said "You are incompetent to back up your arguments", I did not meant it as an insult, simply a fact, because I do not think you have thought this through. If you had, you certainly failed to express it.
P.S EDIT* : Lol...I still do not know why I wrote all the above, I guess I am giving you a benefit of doubt again. In humbleness I ask that if you really wanna understand, keep an open mind and study both sides of the argument before you ram your head into the matter without thinking, and jumping from point to point, not explaining questions made to you etc. The issues you are bringing here have been dealt a good many times by great minds in the past and the present. Do not just assume, we are stupid (since we believe in an invisible guy), that you got a silver bullet to knock down theology, we understand the problem and I do believe it is only an apparent problem. Rather than asking poor questions out of ignorance, do some homework if you wanna know more. Classical theism has a lot to offer in this regard, if only you would want to learn.