death penalty?

Question

atheists, do you believe in the death penalty?

Iana s you read my mind!! lmao

Answer 1

Good question. I'd like to know how they will answer.

Answer 2

Oh, I don't... it sounds bad. What we need to do is change the name, see?... to put it in the proper perspective.

Well shall call it 'Retroactive Birth Control'. The theory is based on the premise that if a guy does something so horrible that he would deserve the death penalty, his mother would wish he had never been born. So... the justice system would simply be carrying out the mother's wishes... retroactively.

Ideally, the 'birth control' would be carried out by giving his mother some kind of pill... but since technology is not presently capable of implementing such an ideal, more mundane methods must be employed until technology is up to the task. Lethal injection... firing squad... hanging... nibbled to death by ducks... poked with sharp sticks...

Certain things need to be fixed, though... for example the quality of the evidence... before such a penalty could be invoked. The current standard is 'beyond a reasonable doubt'... but the fact that many innocents are convicted under that standard should tell us that it is inadequate. The standard for retroactive birth control should be 'beyond ANY doubt'. And... when such a penalty is imposed (under those standards), it should be carried out immediately... and witnesed by the people who imposed the penalty.

Answer 3

It is a tough issue.

Morally, a life should not be taken unless it must - to save other lives. This usually doesn't apply in regard to the death penalty.

It is also a very costly procedure, and I think I read that imprisoning the person for life in a solitary cell would be cheaper.

If it is to occur, there MUST be witnesses and hard evidence of the murder, because nothing is worse than killing an innocent person.

Ultimately I guess I don't think the death penalty is a good thing.

Answer 4

I bet most atheists will say YES....

I'm a Christian, and I don't believe in the death penalty... mainly because we all sin, and some of us do worse crimes than others. I believe that each and everyone of us deserve a chance for forgiveness,

I as a Christian believe that God is the only TRUE JUDGE, and he has the last word on your soul, so I'd rather let God do the punishment because he owns the soul that's within each and everyone of us, what he does with it is his business....

Answer 5

~No, I do not believe in the death penalty and I am always amused when I hear "christians" say that they are against abortion because it kills a baby but they support capital punishment. The last time I checked, one of the ten commandments is "Thou Shall Not Kill." I have never heard that the commandment was amended to "Thou Shall Not Kill Fetuses but It's Okay to Kill Adults."

It is the hypocrisy of the christian myths and morals (as well as many others) that gave birth to atheism.

I am against capital punishment but because there have been too many cases where someone has been put to death by our legal system and later proven to be innocent.

Answer 6

Which is more cruel, lethal injection or living in prison, dying of an early death after possibly being beaten & raped by other inmates, living every day in fear.

Keeping a person caged up like an animal is kind of sick, don't you think?

Of course, we would need to be absolutely 100% certain the person was guilty of the crime, then in cases where the inmate brutally tortured and killed a person, the person's relatives could decide if he/she should live or die. Or they could put the inmate in a room and the relatives (or their representatives) could kill the inmate like the inmate killed their loved one.

Think about it, if the person has tortured, sexually abused and murdered your little girl, wouldn't you want them dead?

If Jeffrey Dahmer had drugged, killed and eaten your son, would you want to pay taxes to support him in jail for another 50 or so years?

So let the families of the victims decide.

But I don't see what it has to do with religion or lack therof.

Answer 7

I'm not atheist, but i believe that the death penalty is needed and should be applied more often. Such as child molesters should get an automatic death sentence, and it should also be on the table for rape cases as well. Niether of those can be justified in any way,and hence more severe punishments should be applied.

Oh ya none of that lethal injection crap, it's far to humane for the scum that are getting it. Try a blood eagle or some good old hangings.

Answer 8

In theory, it's a good idea (for murder). I'm for capital punishment, except in cases where the criminal obviously wanted martyrdom.

In practice it doesn't work so well. Look at the USA case of a few years ago where 10 out of 29 people on death row had their convictions overturned because the evidence that had them sentenced was so flimsy it could be picked apart by students who happened to be doing a course on it. Also in the USA, the process of appeal means that not only is executing people more costly than locking them up for the rest of their natural lives, but many of them die of old age in prison anyway.

If capital punishment is introduced I think steps should be taken to avoid such situations.

Answer 9

I have been charged three times with something i didn't do at all.and convicted anyway .minor things. but still i wasnt guilty.so i have changed my mind about killing someone for a crime when a lot of people are supposedly proven guilty and on death row and then DNA tests prove they were Innocent.it happens to often.its a judge are a jury saying that there guilty and were humans that are not perfect and i used to think yes kill those people who kill. and if i knew that for sure they were guilty then yes kill them. but to many are being proven innocent thru dna tests. so mistakes have been made and innocent people were put to death in the past.

Answer 10

No.

I think it is wrong to take another person's life when you do not need to. This applies to the state as well as to the individual.


Secondly there have been too many cases of wrongful conviction. It is bad enough that someone has wrongfully been incarcerated, but at least they can be set free. What will you do when you discover a person put to death was innocent? How will you return life to that person?

Answer 11

I'm agnostic, but I'll throw in. I do not believe in the death penalty. I do not believe I have the right to sentence someone to death, and governments derive their rights from my rights. If I cannot legally murder, it then follows that a government may not legally murder either.