“Sister Helen Prejean maintains that the death penalty is a violation of human dignity and is contrary to the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, ‘who taught us to not to return hate for hate and evil for evil’.”
First, let me say that I am not a religious person, so please forgive me if I make any mistakes. I think that the death penalty should not be implemented in the United States. Not only is it very costly, but it is not right for the state to end anyone’s life. It seems weird to me that religious people would be more likely to support the death penalty because the scriptural passage mentioned above says not to return hate for hate. Capital punishment is exactly that; what can be more hateful that killing another human being??? I understand that people would like to get revenge, but nothing can be done to change the past.
Deductive argument:
Capital punishment is an act that returns hate for hate, i.e. killing a killer.
Jesus of Nazareth taught us that the return of hate for hate and evil for evil is wrong.
Therefore, capital punishment is wrong.
I agree with what you say JLynnR. I'm not much of a religious person either but I believe taking another life does not make us any better than the person we decide to kill or not. Who are we to judge the crime as moral or immoral therefore i would agree to ban the death penalty. I agree that capital punishment is wrong because killing them is not going to help a person change. Instead your giving them no chance to change and learn from their mistakes.
ReplyDeleteI’m not a religious person myself, but ending a human life is just simply wrong. No good arises from such an act. Perhaps the crime that was committed was horrific, but isn’t killing a human just as horrific? Nothing positive can be taken from this. Sure, it might give those close to the victim some kind of peace for a while, but the thought of getting rid of a life does not bring peace in my eyes, nor will it bring back the victim. We cannot rewrite the past, but rather learn from it and show others how to act as human beings and learn from it. Therefore, I believe strongly that the death penalty should be banned.
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