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Do you believe in the death penalty?
- Thread starter Spiderman
- Start date
Very much so. None of this lethal injection crap, either. Just take 'em "out back" and put a bullet in their heads. Done.
Absolutely and unequivocally "no!" It is always vengeance, and vengeance gets nobody anything (or perhaps everybody nothing). All it does is taint us with stuff I'd personally rather not be tainted with. If we can't be better than that, then Hamlet was right..."what a piece of work is a man?"
I honestly don't get why anybody -- especially somebody who claims to be Christian -- could ever condone the death penalty. Everything that Christianity tries to posit as its core is God's love, redemption, forgiveness -- and while we try to emulate that all we can think of doing is killing people? Cognitive dissonance, anybody?
I honestly don't get why anybody -- especially somebody who claims to be Christian -- could ever condone the death penalty. Everything that Christianity tries to posit as its core is God's love, redemption, forgiveness -- and while we try to emulate that all we can think of doing is killing people? Cognitive dissonance, anybody?
Spiderman
Veteran Member
Very interesting coming from an unbeliever!
Here's the worldwide stats and countries. The Death Penalty Worldwide
Jeremiahcp
Well-Known Jerk
The death penalty turns justice into murder.
Imagine that a murdering rapist goes to jail. In that jail there are people who might be there by mistake or maybe they grew too many cannabis plants. It is not fair for the others in jail for lesser crimes to be together with someone who can make their lives a nightmare.
I voted yes. Some people should be eliminated imo.
The problem with the death penalty is that someone might get it without deserving it.
I voted yes. Some people should be eliminated imo.
The problem with the death penalty is that someone might get it without deserving it.
What does God belief have to do with an ability to reason, care, love and be sensible? (In fact, I've very often found that religious belief mitigates against those things much more than non-belief does.)
I can find so many examples of people just in Canada alone -- and only under the letter "M" (Milgaard, Marshall, Morin) -- who were convicted of murder and subsequently absolved. How exciting would it have been for them have been absolved only AFTER they had been executed?
And it does not take religion to recognize that revenge is an ignoble idea, one that tarnishes our own character, rather than gilds it. As an atheist, I tell you this honestly: if I forgive somebody for something (including the parents who tortured me as child), then that forgiveness is absolute and forever. I will never bring whatever it was up again, no matter how bad our next fight may be. I'm better at forgiveness than almost all the Christians I know -- though prerhaps not Christ himself.
Think about this: many people think "the death penalty is to protect society from this person." And yet, if you have him under lock and key, and you are able to escort him from a cell to a table, an electric chair, a gallows or a tumbril, and do to him what you will -- what danger is there in him? He is completely and utterly controlled! Thus, you are not "protecting society," you are exacting revenge. And that dirties us all.
I don't think the death penalty is about revenge. Isn't it about eliminating people who take other people's freedom from them? It is to halt the things they might do.
There is danger to the other prisoners.
Deathbydefault
Apistevist Asexual Atheist
Personally, I don't really care about it.
I just don't think a country that implements it should have a holier than thou attitude towards murder.
"It's okay for us to do it, we're on the side of Justice!". No thanks to that.
Unveiled Artist
Veteran Member
No.
Reggie Miller
Well-Known Member
No. I have to go with Pope Francis on this one.
Spiderman
Veteran Member
You're a good man!
Life imprisonment protects us all. It's today's version of egalitarian society's ostracism. 'We just won't let you play with us no more."
I also believe the belief about it is conditioned by environment. So those people living in countries where it is still allowed, even the norm, still think it's okay, and those of us in countries where it s been abolished have largely come to like the idea, and see very little difference in crime stats and the like.
I also believe the belief about it is conditioned by environment. So those people living in countries where it is still allowed, even the norm, still think it's okay, and those of us in countries where it s been abolished have largely come to like the idea, and see very little difference in crime stats and the like.
To the people who vote no death penalty. What do you think about violent criminals in prison together with others who can be harmed by their neighbors, with no escape?
So? Other people in prison are not "us"?