Christians' Justifications of Using Nuclear Weapons

Christians' Justifications of Using Nuclear Weapons

When answering the title of this essay, you have to first look at why

countries retain and develop nuclear weapons.

The first reason and most obvious of all is to use the nuclear device

to destroy an enemy. A good Christian however can never justify this,

because no matter how accurate your weapons are you will undoubtedly

kill innocent civilians. If you look at the Ten Commandments laid down

by God you will see that God was opposed to war, violence and any form

of mistreatment. We are told, "To love thy neighbour" and "To treat

our enemies, as we would want to be treated." If you were to look at

these commandments you would see that nuclear warfare could never be

justified and if you do provoke a nuclear war you should be punished.

That brings me into the second reason of why countries retain nuclear

weapons and that is as a threat. It is a way of protecting your

country, but you will protect yourself and retaliate if provoked. Any

Christian would feel that this was unjust, after all God did say in

the Ten Commandments, "Forgive your enemy". Retaliating in any way,

shape or form would be breaking the Ten Commandments and therefore you

could not call yourself a good Christian.

That leads me onto the third reason of why countries retain nuclear

bombs that is to use it as a deterrent to anyone who may consider

attacking the country. Many Christians believe that retain nuclear

bombs just for the use, as a deterrent, is ridiculous. They feel that

there is no point in spending millions of pounds on producing nuclear

weapons just for the use as a threat. It is difficult to imagine that

people find it acceptable that 75,000 to 100,000 die unnecessarily

every day from lack of food, water, shelter, sanitation etc (not from

war) while the world's most privileged governments pour even more

billions into 'security.'

I agree with them, and I feel that there are far more important things