Is killing people really that bad?

Question

If you believe in Christianity or Islam, then you all live on forever, so if someone kills someone you love, aren't they just them a favour?

*** So most of you think that KILLING is bad...because things like the fifth commandment say so?
So if an evil dictator is killed, is that still bad because the bible says it is, or is it just our conditioning?
***

Janine: "killing people is bad for the killer."

Some people might argue, that it's not entirely "good" for the victim...

Answer 1

no

Answer 2

Forget the religion bit because most people in the UK have no real active religion. The question is difficult to answer but a good one, individual criminal killers should be executed both as a punishment, deterrent and to minimise cost of imprisonment.

Cost must be considered, Blair is starving the NHS of cash and many people are dying because drugs/treatment cannot be funded. Street crime is at an all time frightening high because the police have to restrict recruitment and face budget cuts.

Therefore Blair's policies are in effect killing people, this winter many pensioners will die due to cold weather and inadequate meals, no prisoners will have these problems.

The answer to your question is, I suppose, that while killing people may be bad if we executed more criminal killers then money would be available to help the most vulnerable in our society and normal people would feel a lot safer on our streets.

Answer 3

As has been pointed out killing someone often causes a lot of pain to their friends and relations. But this cannot be the main reason it's wrong since otherwise it wouldn't be wrong (as most people would agree it is) to kill someone who has no friends or relations. Killing someone need cause no pain to the victim since he becomes unconscious and forgets everything he experienced during life (or at least this is what most people not committed to a religion believe nowadays I guess) so that to him how long his life has been makes no difference. So why not kill him if you feel like it? Well killing most people will cause pain or other evil to someone so that we all agree on a general rule which we require everyone to follow in normal circumstances. But society can allow exceptions like self defence or (it could) to end severe pain.

Answer 4

If you work on the principle of doing the greatest good for the greatest number, then it would not have been a crime to kill Hitler in order to save the lives of ten million all over the world.
So killing can be 'constructive'. If used as punishment for murder, however, how can it work since it is after the event and hasn't saved the life of the victim but has merely satisfied the need for revenge of the victim's family ... so it is a non-constructive killing. But, of course, if you executed a Muslim terrorist for his murder of many people, then he would welcome this as an early deliverance into the next world so he might be happy about this (and you, as the victim's family would want to see him dead but not want to see him happy about it - see the conundrum?).
It's an interesting question you have posed here ... I'll be interested to read all the answers.

Answer 5

I am Christian, and I do not believe that someone would be doing me a favour by killing me, whether or not I would be going to Heaven afterwards. That is not to say though that killing is wrong 100% of the time. In my opinion, I believe that violence can be used for good. In fact, one could say that good is somewhat dependent on evil. If there were no evil in the world, good would not be able to exist in that it would have nothing to compare itself to in order to make it better than anything else. In general though, killing is wrong.

Answer 6

Good and evil is dependent on the individuals perception. The only justification of killing is survival. We live in a modern society with laws and ethics. If someone does not value their life what are you really taking from them?

There is no absolute right or wrong to killing. We kill plants and animals to feed. We kill our own kind to preserve the others. It's just a tool to survival that should be used in moderation. Kill or be killed.

Answer 7

Dear Killer -- Let me ask you this......Do you want your life cut short? Although "thou shalt not kill" is a commandant, life isn't just for the religious & whether we want to live or die goes across the board.
Life is pretty precious & becomes even more so when you think someone can take it away from you on a whim......a drive-by, etc. Most people think of the future; tomorrow I'm going to do get groceries, next week I'm going to visit Aunt Lou, etc.

And someone who kills takes it all away and what's left? Children without parents, parents without children, spouses without spouses, etc. So many holes left behind with no one to fill them.

So ya, killing is really that bad. Even tho the soul lives on you're killing the body which can no longer enjoy what life here on earth has to offer.

Answer 8

Killing someone is bad, since you only can go to heaven if you are a believer and you cannot know for sure if someone is a believer. Say for a while they stopped believing and you kill them, then they are supposedly sent to hell without having a chance to becoming a believer again.

The bible says you should not kill, but in the old testament it says some people should be stoned to death and others should be killed because of their sins, so it's not compleatly true that 'thou shalt not kill'.

Answer 9

Just because you live on forever doesn't mean you wanna die in a painful and tragic way. It still affects the victim's family and friends while they're still living on Earth. If killing was all it took to have eternal life, then suicide would be a-okay. People should refrain from approaching life in such a frivolous manner.

Answer 10

No because a killer has cut their victims physical life short. They go forever in spirit then longing to be back on the earth plain because they feel like they haven't achieved what they were put here for.

Answer 11

This is such a difficult question to answer because there are so many exceptions and rules...and...:S
Ok, let me try and take a stab at this...lol, no pun intended :P
Killing, whether it's a human being or an animal, means taking the life of another living creature. Let us not look at religion, but simply at the physical, face value aspects of this situation...We have no right to take something that does not belong to us...especially something that we cannot replace as it was...we like to have the right to our things...similarly we can assume that others do too...so it is wrong to take another's life...
Now, the term, 'bad' is subjectively evaluative, in the sense that, as said in Hamlet, (i think :P), "for there is nothing that is good or bad, but thinking makes it so"...meaning to each person, good or bad is relative to his/her own life. So, to a murderer, sure, killng might be good...lol, but the rest of the world might think it is bad lol
Thanks for this question! but my brain hurts lol :P