A person is capable of a moral deficit to such an extent that it kills or destroys the inner essence that makes a person human. Written by lawyer and theologian Zoltán Szobota.
The world is shocked by the war crimes inflicted on Israel, the bestial cruelty of the barbaric Palestinian armed hordes. Seeing Jewish babies beheaded in one of the border kibbutzes, we don't have to wait any longer to ask the question: can a person do such a thing?
Interestingly, from some of the comments on the series of images that shocked the whole world thanks to the world press, it is clear that the peoples and nations of the Earth, based on the invisible law of a collective conscience, raise roughly the same question, sometimes more cautiously, sometimes openly taking a stand.
What makes a person human? What is the essence of man? Since when is a human no longer a creature that looks like a human?
In the search for answers, the approaches of the materialist, Darwinist worldview will not help us, so let's try in philosophical and theological directions. In a philosophical sense, something is, or exists, when it has substance and substance. Without essence, the thing does not exist even if it has its substance (just think of a crushed piano). The essence of a thing is what makes that thing what it is.
It's the same with humans. World-renowned motivational trainer Nick Vujicic has no limbs, but who would dare to question his human essence? Moreover, his heroic human quality. A mentally disabled person or a patient in a coma is very much a person, even if, to our great regret, they are temporarily or permanently dysfunctional. The essence of man is therefore not primarily in his "material", but in an invisible component, which is the essence of his personality.
This can be expressed in many ways, but somehow it is definitely related to the heart, the conscience and the ability to love.
Genocide such as Hitler, Stalin or Mao certainly did not have a conscience.
According to the Judeo-Christian revelation, God created man in his own image and likeness, which also means formal similarity (e.g. longitudinal axis of symmetry), but also includes the fact that man is a three-part spiritual being: he has a spirit, a soul, and a body live The Bible approaches man as a creature in two ways.
In a metaphysical sense, it is already realized, but in a spiritual-moral sense it is still on its way. Being human is a fact and a task.
In other words, the development history of man and humanity (from the inverse aspect: the history of degradation) is moving towards a fulfillment, and we examine it individually and collectively.
From the fact that we bear the image of our Creator and that the task of increasing the content of our non-material essence (morality) lies before us, it follows that we are able to abort this possibility and empty ourselves of our human quality in the philosophical and biblical sense. A person is capable of a moral deficit to such an extent that it kills or destroys the inner essence that makes a person human.
He is still human in form, but no longer in content. I believe the barbaric terrorists of Hamas, who kill, maim and torture innocent Jewish civilians, have reached this point.
It is a big question that those who blame the victims and celebrate the mass murderers in the current dramatic war conflict are where they are in this emptying process...
