r, it is evident from the phrasing that the writer believed there to be instances when killing was justified, specifically when killing someone who did deserve to die, though what would make that person deserve death is not here indicated.
This is not merely an ancient law, however, for Donceel (1988) refers to it as a basic Catholic principle, that we are not allowed to kill an innocent human being (Donceel, 1988, 48). Yet, even the idea that God has commanded this has been examined carefully. "Thou shalt not kill," as the commandment is phrased, is seen as a moral law that is an imperative with no truth value--it is simply a statement:
A doubt of law is really a doubt as to whether a formulated law actually is part of the body of natural and/or divine law. Thus the doubt might be about statements like "God has commanded that thou shalt not kill," or "God has commanded that thou shalt not kill early human embryos". . . They express a state of affairs which is not empirically verifiable. . . So any doubt of law is actually doubt about the truth of a theoretical proposition concerning what God comm
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