What is the debate about? A crucifix is a piece of wood or whatever! Whack the hell out of it, run some water from the tap to get the guts off, and put it back on the wall. Why does this even have to be debated, if you treat a crucifix with reverance like that then it is called idol worship stupid!
Moses

Kill the bug, throw the cross in the trash
get rid of two viruses at the same time!

Relax, moses.

Why do you need the crucifix to kill the bug anyway? Your hand works just perfectly, unless you have a fear of getting bug juice on you. If that’s the case, then yeah, kill the damn bug and crack the cruifix in half if you need to.

Right Moses. This question was aimed more at SEB’s Christian population, so just imagine you were a Christy. Actually, the first two people I asked were a Baptist and a Wiccan.

Kill the bug, throw the cross in the trash
get rid of two viruses at the same time!

Spocko, why don’t you comment more often?

Why would you have a crucifix hanging on the wall in the first place? How tacky! A crucifix is a real challenge to decorate around.

If Jesus were a product of the twentieth century we would all be walking around with little electric chairs around our necks!

It’s OK to use the crucifix to kill the mosquito, but be sure to wash it off afterwards. 

If Jesus were a product of the twentieth century we would all be walking around with little electric chairs around our necks!

No, Jesus was executed by slow torture.  So we’d be walking around with little PowerPoint presentations around our necks.

Spocko:

Kill the bug, throw the cross in the trash
get rid of two viruses at the same time!

That is funny. I like the comparison of christianity to a virus. Christianity spreads and multiplies and multiplies until all the natural resources are consumed(i.e. human converts). That is drawn from an Agent Smith line in the first Matrix.

Cheers BunBun

Actually if you read my book God-101 (on God-101.com - follow the link) religion is controlled by a process called “memics” which are thoughtrs and ideas that are “self-replicating!”These “memes” were first postulated by Dr. Richard Dawkins and have caused quite a stir over the years.
Allan

How can you raise an ethical debate over a piece of wood? If it was just about killing a mosquito, there’s no debate there - we do it every day as a reflex. But the crucifix? Come on! Get over yourselves! Its a hunk of wood carved out to look like a dead guy. If it breaks, another idiot will make another one.

Heres another ‘ethical’ question to ponder on - Jesus’ face shows up in the reflection of a puddle, but someone carelessly steps in the puddle during a walk, oblivious to the fact of the face. Is he guilty of herasy? Should he be burned at the stake for defacing christ’s visage?

Heh...I can already hear the right-wing reigious nazi’s screaming for retribution

So we’d be walking around with little PowerPoint presentations around our necks.

More like little overhead projectors with the computer video adaptor on top.  That or one of those older film projectors from middle school.  You know, the ones that had the cassette player in them, and beeped annoyingly when the film needed to be advanced.

And he wouldn’t have had a crown of thorns, but a crown of coax cables with poorly stripped ends.  Dragging one of the original “portable” pcs through the streets of San Jose.

Yea, and Pat Robertson would be the modern day Paul! 

I’m sorry but while this is being posed as a moral question, I see it as a common sense question.

“If I see a slow bug the size of a piece of lint, and instead of whacking it with my hand, I choose to hit it with is a largish wood or metal object, knowing that the wall is possibly going to be dented or scraped, requireing a significant amount of drywall/plaster/painting repair...do I have any common sense?”

If you hit it hard enoough to damage the wall it is no longer a moral or common sense issue, but rather a anger management issue!

I suppose if you wanted to take the flip-side, the crucifix could have been a super-natural apparition.  The innocent mosquito (one of “gawd’s” dear creatures) may have been feeding of the blood of Christ and was resting when you terminated his holy existence.

The bug could have been on an ordained mission to bite some young child, transferring miracle molecules™ and thereby curing her brain tumor.  You could very well be responsible for the death of an innocent little Christian girl. (Miracles don’t work on non-believers.)

However, you may have been spared an eternity of hell-fire and gnashing of the teeth if it happened to be a male mosquito which would have obviously been sent by Satan to test you.

What have we learned?  Always check the sex of the mosquito before crushing it if you want to go to heaven.

No, the mosquito has West Nile virus, and it’s on its way to bite the man who is on the verge of inventing a cheap, effective, and totally safe cure for AIDS.  In his fever-induced delerium, he accidentally spills acid on his notes, and the cure is lost forever.

See?  If you don’t kill that mosquito, all those people will suffer. 

Want a real ethical problem?  Scientists are seriously on the trail of a method for modifying the mosquito genome of all mosquitos, everywhere.  Conceivably they could send entire species of mosquito into the dark eternity of extinction.

Too bad, so sad…

To kill all mosquitos would be a dream come true however it would have really bad repercussions. If you were to destroy all mosquitos then concievable many fragile ecosystems could be unbalanced. That would be a problem for the already faltering ecosystems of earth.

A much nicer way to deal with them(although not too feasable) kill all the mosquitos in a meter of distance from you. That way you dont have to deal with mosquitos with out doing to much damage to the ecosystem surrounding you.

Cheers BunBun

A much nicer way to deal with them(although not too feasable) kill all the mosquitos in a meter of distance from you.

To the contrary; in the future it should be possible to make a miniature laser bug-zapper with tracking equipment and power source small enough to fit comfortably on the brim of a hat (preferably a ball-cap with beer or NASCAR logo).  With mass production, it would be cheap enough to sell next to the lottery tickets and bad cigars at the mini-mart cash register.

You could program it to make a sound when it fires, like the zapping noise of StarWars lasers.  Wearers would have the satisfaction of watching the little smoking corpses spinning to the ground.  A perfect gift to the redneck gadget freak in your life…

For an interesting Christian response to this dilemma, consider Shusaku Endo’s writings on the fumie, a figure of Christ/Mary which Japanese Christians would have to trample on to signify that they are apostates. In Endo’s eyes, though, the fact that Jesus is there even when you have to reject him signifies some important Christological yadda yadda…

In Endo’s Christology, basically, Christ is seen as totally forgiving, even in weakness.

/theologising

Me, I’d swat it instantly with whatever came to hand. If it was a truly cherished one-of-a-kind possession, I’d probably reconsider, but you can get crucifixes just about anywhere. Material value is irrelevant. If you accept the theology, it has symbolic value only. Now, if you’re a practicing Muslim and you do the same with a Koran, then you’re fucked.