Do you support Capital Punishment?

[TalkaboutScience]

Thread, for you to vote -

Question: Do you support Capital Punishment?

I am interested in seeing the votes.

Poll closes in 30 days.

 

[quatona]

No, not at all.

 

[Jade Margery]

Do you mean capital punishment in an ideal system, or capital punishment as it is currently implemented?

My answers are yes and no respectively.

 

[lux et lex]

Nope.

 

[Fenny the Fox]

No. I do not support capital punishment, whether in a "perfect system" or in the current form which it takes.


I see no benefit, except in promotion of politics and individuals, in the existence of capital punishment.

To quote Camus (of whom I would claim to hold a similar opinion):

For centuries the death penalty, often accompanied by barbarous refinements, has been trying to hold crime in check; yet crime persists. Why? Because the instincts that are warring in man are not, as the law claims, constant forces in a state of equilibrium.

 

[sk8Joyful]

Question: Do you support Capital Punishment?

GOD said "Thou shalt not kill". - What part of that do people have trouble understanding?

 

[pgp_protector]

GOD said "Thou shalt not kill". - What part of that do people have trouble understanding?

God also said
Numbers 35:30 Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die.

What part of that do people have trouble understanding?

 

[Paradoxum]

I don't support it. We need to be better than them.

Prison might also not be the best of consequences for a crime always.

 

[Eudaimonist]

No, I don't support capital punishment. While some people certainly do commit such heinous acts that perhaps in some sense they deserve death, I don't think that we should be too eager to deal out death as punishment.

First, the legal system is in no way perfect, and so innocent people could be killed when perhaps they could have been released from prison instead.

Second, even with a perfect system I'd prefer to at least allow the possibility that someone might turn over a new leaf, and perhaps even make amends for the harm that they had done.

Third, I don't think it is wise to hand over to the government the power of life and death. It's a bit too much like playing God, and I don't have to believe in God to see how that is not something human beings should do.

Fourth, I'd like to see more of an emphasis on restitution in the legal system, instead imposing a punishment that seems more like revenge.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Fenny the Fox]

God also said
Numbers 35:30 Whoso killeth any person, the murderer shall be put to death by the mouth of witnesses: but one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die.

What part of that do people have trouble understanding?

The interesting part: it says the witness testimony is essential enough to sentence to death - then says that no person is to testify against a person if it will cause death.

So...how does that support capital punishment?

 

[pgp_protector]

The interesting part: it says the witness testimony is essential enough to sentence to death - then says that no person is to testify against a person if it will cause death.

So...how does that support capital punishment?

Actually it says " but one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die." not No person.
And different translations render that as "But no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness."

 

[Fenny the Fox]

Actually it says " but one witness shall not testify against any person to cause him to die." not No person.
And different translations render that as "But no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness."

The second makes more sense - but, since I do not currently have the original language at hand ,nor was I certain what translation you are using, I went by what I parsed it as saying. The dangers of old-style English translations...

Sorry


I still do not change my stance on capital punishment.

I site Christ: "let he who has no sin cast the first stone". As they were following the OT law to stone to death (capital punishment, as carried out biblically) a woman for a crime, Christ stopped them and taught them otherwise.
I fail to see where He specified "don't kill a person for sins...unless it was __blank__".

 

[blarg the 2nd]

i guess i do some times sometimes i just want peole to die

 

[blarg the 2nd]

I don't support it. We need to be better than them.

Prison might also not be the best of consequences for a crime always.

no worrys for me i normaly feel i am better then pepole i want put to death

 

[pgp_protector]

The second makes more sense - but, since I do not currently have the original language at hand ,nor was I certain what translation you are using, I went by what I parsed it as saying. The dangers of old-style English translations...

Sorry


I still do not change my stance on capital punishment.

I site Christ: "let he who has no sin cast the first stone". As they were following the OT law to stone to death (capital punishment, as carried out biblically) a woman for a crime, Christ stopped them and taught them otherwise.
I fail to see where He specified "don't kill a person for sins...unless it was __blank__".

That's fine, I'm not trying to change your mind, I was just pointing out that while the bible does state "Thou Shalt Not Murder(not actually kill)" it shows that Capital Punishment is allowed. (and called for for a multitude of crimes)

 

[Rajni]

Not me.

 

[Antarctika]

Since the Bible says that both capital punishment is allowed and that you should not kill, should christians not pick the part they prefer?

(Which, I hope, is "You shall not kill")

 

[Skaloop]

In addition to reasons regarding the imperfect application of the death penalty, I'm against it because I see it as a less harsh sentence than prison. I'd personally take death over life in prison any day of the week.

 

[mandyangel]

I have changed my opinion on this.

I used to always support it but I can't anymore. Despite what some think, I'm always open to learning. And I have learned that my never failing pro-life stance cannot exist with also being pro-death penalty. Its hard because murder is so terrible and its always innocent that are victims. But I appose abortion in all cases because it is killing life. It can't be one way and then another. Killing life is always wrong.

 

[leftrightleftrightleft]

Do you mean capital punishment in an ideal system, or capital punishment as it is currently implemented?

My answers are yes and no respectively.

This. I didn't answer the poll.

In a really callous way I think its good because :
A) overpopulation is the source of all the world's woes
B) prisons are terribly expensive and keeping a mass murderer and pedophile clothed, warmed, showered, fed and alive is hard for me to justify especially when a government has such trouble helping the single mom pay for her kid's knee surgery.

However, in a less callous way I think its bad because:
A) our justice system in imperfect and we could kill innocent people
B) it is unlikely to lead to a reduction in crime rates