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03-28-04
I dislike the death penalty because it is absolute and final, and therefore merciless.
However, I don't think it is sadistic. I can see why its supporters consider it 'just,' if the offender is a murderer for example, but that is dependent on one's view of justice. I don't believe in the barbarous notion of 'an eye for an eye,' but if someone does, then for them it is about justice.
'If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning, concerning matterof fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames: for it contains nothing but sophistry and illusion.'
'The heart of man is made to reconcile the most glaring contradictions.'
David Hume |