THE LIES OF OSCAR PISTORIUS

OK, here's the case for the defence. You share your bed with your girlfriend. You wake up in the middle of the night. You hear sounds of someone in the bathroom. You don't bother checking whether your girlfriend is still next to you in the bed or not. There's someone in the bathroom and it doesn't even occur to you that it might just be your girlfriend (and you still haven't bothered to check whether she's in bed or not). You decide it's some kind of intruder - and what do you do? Why, of course, without any word of challenge or warning you start shooting through the bathroom door.

What else would you do?

SIR, YOU ARE A LIAR AND A MURDERER.

OSCAR PISTORIUS:

WHY DO PEOPLE COMMIT MURDER?

I'm afraid the case for the defence is just to wild and far-fetched for me to believe. Anyone who's ever appeared as a witness in  a serious court trial and listened to the crazy stories people make up to try and get away with crimes will know what I mean. I've been there. I was stabbed in a gang fight in '85 and afterwards had to endure listening to the cock-and-bull-stories from the defendants as they did their level best to lie their way to a not guilty verdict. For the record, they failed.

I find it equally pathetic listening to pistorius's sad yarn about accidentally shooting his girlfriend four times. Oh yeah, and just how stupid do you think we are?

The truth is of course - there are no other witnesses - apart from the accused. Big problem. Something similar happened in Uist a number of years ago when two men were out goose-hunting. One was shot dead by the other - no witnesses. Oh dear. How did it go? I don't remember whether it was "he fell on the gun and shot himself", or "I accidentally shot him." Both sound stupid to me. The one at my court case was, I had tried to stab him and fell on the knife. Funny eh? Ha ha.

Anyway, on to my point. Why do people commit murder on a whim?

If we think back to the account of Cain and Able in Genesis 4 we are told that Cain was angry at his brother because God accepted Able's offering but not Cain's. To put it simply, his pride was hurt. God's revelation to Cain that he had not done well made him so angry that he lost all reason and murdered his brother in a jealous rage.

Proverbs 27: 4 states: "Wrath is Cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?"

The Bible makes it plain that the only problem the human race has is sin - that's it - nothing else. Who can fully understand it? To get so mad at your girlfriend that you want to kill her. It happens. But oh, spare us the sad, wretched stories about how it was an accident. Pathetic.

"Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall." (Proverbs 16: 18).

Pride. Men love it with a passion. They'd give up anything before that. They'll even kill for it.

"JUDGE NOT, THAT YE BE NOT JUDGED."

I think the following text may be the most misquoted in the Bible. People quote the first sentence - the first seven words - leaving out the context. When read in its context we can see that it's a warning against hypocrisy. What it does not mean is 'never judge'. The idea of going through life never making judgments is absurd and the opposite of what the Bible requires.

JUDGE NOT, THAT YE BE NOT JUDGED. FOR WITH WHAT JUDGMENT YE JUDGE, YE SHALL BE JUDGED: AND WITH WHAT MEASURE YE METE, IT SHALL BE MEASURED TO YOU AGAIN. AND WHY BEHOLDEST THOU THE MOTE THAT IS IN THY BROTHER'S EYE, BUT CONSIDEREST NOT THE BEAM THAT IS IN THINE OWN EYE? OR HOW WILT THOU SAY TO THY BROTHER, LET ME PULL OUT THE MOTE OUT OF THINE EYE; AND, BEHOLD, A BEAM IS IN THINE OWN EYE? THOU HYPOCRITE, FIRST CAST OUT THE BEAM OUT OF THINE OWN EYE; AND THEN SHALT THOU SEE CLEARLY TO CAST OUT THE MOTE OUT OF THEY BROTHER'S EYE. (Matthew 7: 1-5).