christianity and the death penalty. - Help.com

The Bentley case highlights the reasons why there should not be any death penalty… however i think it is obvious that Bentley was never guilty but he was old enough to be tried and found guilty and because it was a police officer who was killed someone had to “pay”.

It’s not normal for people to kill other people….so there has to be a reason why they did it…. therefore can you punish someone for doing something that they may not have done if they had not experienced the thing that made them do it…abuse, mental illness etc.

plenty of people with no reason whatsoever kill people.
and plenty of other people who have been abused etc, dont kill people.
you cant use that as an excuse for murder.

It was a very interesting case… full of flaws and so very obviously he was punished because someone had to be punished not because he was guilty… but that is the problem with imposing a death penatly…. this case was so very obviously flawed but it’s not always like that.

I knew a guy in law school who cracked me up.

He was a this huge East Indian fundamentalist Christian

He supported the death penalty, enjoyed shooting .45 calibre automatics, and was against abortion.

Religion is such a waste of time because it consists of so many rules and exceptions: don’t kill… except for war, or if they killed or… etc.

It’s best just to focus on behaviour. Does killing people convicted of murder reduce murders? The proof is out there. Places with death penalty have more murders. I actually think that makes sense… in places where people don’t value life, where they label people as worthless because of a crime (and there are plenty of wrongful convictions)… those are the places people lash out with violence. It’s a lack of mutual respect.

It’s not an excuse for murder… The Bentley case was a clear example of why imposing the death penatly is dangerous.

and there are a ton of other cases which give examples of why the death penalty should be enforced.

I don’t think my religion states anywhere that i can kill if it is justified by “war”. Thou shalt not kill. It doesn’tsay Thou shall not kill unless you wear a uniform and do it for a living.

So where do you draw the line… you have a couple of drinks you get behind the wheel of the car and you knock a person down who dies…. does that mean you should die as a punishment?

how does god justify his killings then?

Anonymous wrote:
So where do you draw the line… you have a couple of drinks you get behind the wheel of the car and you knock a person down who dies…. does that mean you should die as a punishment?

the line is already drawn, all you need do is look at the cases of a state which imposes the death penalty already.

Answer a question with a question…. deflection…. doesn’t strenghten the arguement for the death penatly and doesn’t weaken the argument for religion.

which question did i answer with a question, exactly?
from what i can see i answered a statement with a further question, and a question with a statement.

The statement was followed by a question…. does that mean you die as a punishment?

this

courtybubble wrote:
how does god justify his killings then?

refers to this

Anonymous wrote:
I don’t think my religion states anywhere that i can kill if it is justified by “war”. Thou shalt not kill. It doesn’tsay Thou shall not kill unless you wear a uniform and do it for a living.

this:

courtybubble wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
So where do you draw the line… you have a couple of drinks you get behind the wheel of the car and you knock a person down who dies…. does that mean you should die as a punishment?

the line is already drawn, all you need do is look at the cases of a state which imposes the death penalty already.

refers to what is quoted in the reply.

Yes and in those states the crime of “murder” has not been reduced because the punishment is death…. so kind of proves it doesn’t stop murder.

The Bentley case was the one that was referred to in the op…. because it is very clearly and has been proven beyond doubt that it was a miscarriage of justice… you can’t bring him back…. if “christian” values had been followed “Thou shalt not kill” then he wouldn’t have been put to death.

God didn’t kill the police officer in this case… God didn’t kill Bentley…. So how do you decide that God has to justify those kilings?

i never said it prevented murder. it merely stops my tax dollars having to keep evil, muderous people in relative comfort for the rest of their lives, with the chance of parole and statistical chance of reoffending being in the high 90’s.

you dont understand what the god comment refers to, so nevermind that one i guess.

im fairly sure ive read in the bible “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” too. your bible seems to contradict itself fairly often.