The Capacity to Murder

"We all have the capacity to become murderers." This is a quote from "Think you're normal? Then you may be a killer." in the Houston Chronicle from today written by David M. Buss, Professor of Psychology at UT-Austin, and author of "The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind is Designed to Kill" (Los Angeles Times). Buss's research began when he saw a close friend suddenly become enranged and nearly kill his own wife. Buss says that his research indicates that evolutionary adaptation is responsible for this capacity, due to competition to survive and reproduce.

I don't know about the validity of Buss's theory, but I know God included a prohibition against murder in the law he gave to Moses, so obviously man's capacity to murder is real. Most of us believe, however, that we individually never could murder someone. We think that people in our society who do commit murder have some unusual fatal flaw. Maybe those of us who believe this way are mistaken.

Maybe that's part of what's behind Jesus' teaching that hating has the same effect as murder, and even calling someone a fool puts us in danger of hell's fire (Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7). Jesus is pointing out that when we allow contempt for another to develop in our hearts, we have gone over the line. He wants us to understand that anger and hatred are dangerous. It's not much of a step to physical murder.

So how's your battle with road rage going?