I get thoroughly ****** off with these religious fanatics who kill for Jesus kill for Allah kill for Rome, kill for Protestantism kill for Zion kill for killing killing. Killing in the name of peace. Killing to stop war. Killing for mercy, killing for justice. Killing to put an end to killing.
I used to think there were two types of people who adhered to organised religion, the deluded and the dangerously deluded. But its clear there is only one, and they all need a smack in the face.
Let's all go out and kill'em!
"somebody exploded an H-Bomb today, but it wasn't anyone i knew"
"kill them all, the Lord will know his own"
Well having got that out of my system I feel a little more charitable towards these idiots. Perhaps God just has a strange sense of humour. He tells three prophets and three groups of people that they and they alone are his children. Then he lets them fight it out among themselves.
entertainment value, just another "reality show"?
Walter... yes, but I hear that the polls (the stupid polls) say the "man on the street" wants to bring back the death penalty even in fully evolved and non-barbaric states of Europe.
Steve & Dyslexia, it does seem odd, doesn't it? I think people are just naturally violent. Dyslexia's comment, "Kill them all" is so funny and so awful at the same time.
of all the major inventions of the past 200 years including space flight and medicine, the techonology of death is in the lead.
Piffka
And some want the Emperor, other only black and white tv ...
Fortunately, the 'men on the street' don't make laws here (and especially no changes to the constitution!)!
Only black & white TV???? Now I am shocked!
Piffka:
I have a little black + white TV, about 13 inches. I get about 4 channels. Bought it at Walgreens several years ago for $50.
BUt you wouldn't want to make it the law of the land would you??
[Actually, that might not be a bad idea! Only b&w tv and no more than 4 channels, Discovery, PBS, BBC, CBC. heeeheeee]
Oh stop it Steve, you're killing me with laughter.
As I now depart this thread, and A2K, let me say that all my previous comments here were tongue-in-cheek.
Capital Punishment is a very serious issue, with understandable arguments on all sides. There are various scriptures in the Bible, Old and New Testament, which some have used as the authority for CP.
I have never come to a satisfactory theological decision on the matter myself, however, from the point of view of a loving husband and father, and having the right to defend my loved ones, I would probably seek the death sentence for anyone who would deliberately take the life of my family.
As for other types of cases, outside of my family being murdered, I have never seriously thought long and hard about them. So there you have it - I haven't given you a Biblical answer, just a personal one, and with the particular scenario that I would consent to CP.
Thanks, and goodbye.
I am relieved to hear that you were not so serious about your blood-thirstiness, Bibliophile.
There's an interesting (unfortunately premium) article at Salon today on the myth of the death penalty's power to "heal" victims' families. An excerpt:
No psychological study has ever concluded that the death penalty brings "closure" to anyone except the person who dies, and there's circumstantial evidence that it can prolong the suffering of grieving families. That's why Bud Welch, an Oklahoma gas station owner who lost his 23-year-old daughter Julie in the Oklahoma City bombing, says, "George Ryan in Illinois did a tremendous service to the victims' family members, though they don't realize it. Now those people will understand that it's over with and they have to move forward."
For victims' families who oppose the death penalty, as well as for some who support it but derived little comfort from the execution of their loved ones' killers, it's a myth that the death penalty heals. They say the pop-psych media formula, that catharsis equals closure, has been mostly created by a society desperate to believe that even the worst wrongs can be righted.
"It's amazing to me to think that anyone could truly believe that sitting and watching another human being be murdered could heal them, but I did," says Oregon anti-death-penalty activist Aba Gayle. For eight years after Douglas Mickey murdered her 19-year-old daughter Catherine in 1980, "I was in such a state of anger and rage, I was lusting for revenge." It's a lust, she says, that was encouraged by the prosecuting attorney. "The district attorneys are very careful to let you know they're there for you. They tell you, 'We're going to convict him, and when he is executed, everything's going to be OK. It's a magic bullet they're offering to all of these victims' families."
Yet families who've actually been through the tortuously long emotional and legal process from one death to another say there are no magic bullets -- and anyone expecting one is just setting himself up for more pain. Of course, some families celebrate the deaths of their loved ones' killers. But few find relief in it, and often the waiting and the appeals and the eerie anticlimax of an execution can only serve to rekindle the pain.
Bud Welch notes that since the execution of Timothy McVeigh, not one person has told him that the execution helped, while several have told him that it didn't. Victims hope it will help, are encouraged by some prosecutors to believe that it will, may even celebrate on the day of the execution -- but then the pain returns, and there is no longer any hope that a single climactic event will take it away.
It occurred to me in reading this article, how much the short attention span of the press does to feed this beast. When perpetrators of ghastly crimes are tried, we almost always hear the victims' families calls for vengeance. After an execution, family members are trotted out to announce they are happy with the result. And if there is "closure" for anyone at that moment, it seems to be the media -- because that's where the story ends. The only problem is that the victims' families are still left with the pain, and for all the talk of "caring about the victims," once they've achieved their purpose of helping the prosecutor get his conviction and sentence, and helping the press wrap up a neat story of "justice," nobody's terribly interested in them anymore. It would mess up the story if we knew that relief was ephemeral. As everyone, deep down, knows it must be. As Bud Welch says, "God didn't make normal human beings to feel good out of watching another human being take his last breath."
Although I support a death penalty, I do not support rage , revenge or punishment as a worthy cause to carry out even one. I support death for a Timothy McVeigh. Not for the number of people he killed, not for his politics, but because he showed no remorse and in fact would have continued to do more were he in a position to do so. What is wrong with life without parole for such a being is this: There will always be people who work to get people like this released back into society. If they are dead they can not be released. Is this a deterant to others? Who knows? It is a deterrant to Timothy McVeigh.
Most murderers will not kill again. The man who murdered my brother falls in this category. He ought to have served time, but did not. He married and settled down. Died of a heart attack while mowing the lawn. There is no closure for murder for anybody I have met. This man's death would not have changed anything for me.
But, yes, I voted that if a certain type of person were 100% proven guilty I would push the button.
edgar, you are the person I want to be deciding that the button is to be pushed, not the pushee!
Fortunately, I will never be in a position to do anything like that.
Well, I just notched a vote ... I went for #2. I figure I'd have no trouble personally cancelling the tickets of Osama or Saddam, so I must admit I would be capable of it.
timber
I'd have no trouble murdering Sadaam or Osama but would not like to do it with society's sanction.
