The main culprit of torture and executions was that human life was cheap and more or less trivial. A person was born and left to survive by their own devices, each rascal being replaceable by the next. Death was abundant: plague, famine, war, diseases by the bunch. In the back of the minds of the people that watched the grisly slaughter of this boy was perhaps the thought that they would face an even longer and more agonizing demise by any of those natural causes.
Christianity does not condone today acts of barefaced cruelty. But it says that our world was created by God. Thus, either the natural order must be perfect and natural cruelty must be part of it, or He created an imperfect world for us to suffer in it. I don't suppose any loving human being would be okay with either of those statements.
God created a perfect world in the Garden of Eden. He created humans with freewill and they chose to rebel against God. Things went downhill from there.
Here is another idea no loving human being should like: humans are guilty of everything bad in the world. Last thought of a dying zebra in the maws of the lion: "damn humans."
If not everything, then quite a lot. One only has to look at history and current events or even just drive on the freeway to see that humans are the cause of a lot of misery.
From observation and experience, I'd say the world, with facets of beauty and love notwithstanding, is a rather corrupt and messed up place. I'd say the same about the human heart and condition. I'd also say the former proceeds from the latter.
"Corrupt" is a human notion, nature doesn't exist by our concepts. One has to look at history to learn that albeit the human condition is messed up, it is less so these days of what it used to be. And no, the faults of the world are not ours; thinking otherwise is dearth of humility.
What does that mean? Everything is a human notion.
Are you saying corruption doesn't really exist because it's merely a human notion?
Whatever, but sex trafficking, Uighur concentration camps, Putin's invasion of Ukraine, these are all evil, corrupt, wrong, bad, choose your terminology.
> the faults of the world are not ours; thinking otherwise is dearth of humility.
You're saying humankind taking responsibility for the evil we've committed is an example of lack of humility? I would think quite the opposite.
Christianity does not condone today acts of barefaced cruelty. But it says that our world was created by God. Thus, either the natural order must be perfect and natural cruelty must be part of it, or He created an imperfect world for us to suffer in it. I don't suppose any loving human being would be okay with either of those statements.