Capital Punishment Debate

The debate over whether capital punishment is a moral or even an effective form of punishment is one that generations have discussed. The concept of Capital punishment goes back at least to the time of Moses, where Cities of Refuge were created to protect those that unintentionally killed someone from the Avenger of Blood, but it may go all the way back to the first murder– that of Able, murdered by his brother Cain.

Indeed, in that instance, God spared Cain’s life and marked him forever as a punished one and let him live. Isn’t that a good reason to accept life in prison over Capital Punishment?

The funny thing about punishment for wrongs is an escalating scale. From the gentle slap on the hand of a child telling them “no” all the way to the punishment for the most heinous crime, we use punishments as both instruction and a deterrent. The child learns that he should not touch because he does not want the punishment. Similarly, the hope that when a person is thrown in jail, the hope is that when he gets out he will be changed.

However, on this sliding scale there’s one punishment that puts the person back into the hands and judgement of his Creator– that of Capital Punishment. The ultimate deterrent, it is supposed to engender fear in the killer, or at least remove from the earth those with an absence of conscience about the value of life.

Practically, Capital Punishment frees the state from having to provide food, clothing, shelter for a person for the rest of their lives. It encourages those that have a conscience about it to refrain from committing acts that would have them be killed, and if even one life is saved because of the deterrent, then it would have been worth it.

The Debate

Amanda has started this conversation talking about why she’s anti-death penalty. I’ve accepted the debate with the following rules which we both agree to:

• We will not specifically address in our posts the comments made on each other’s posts on the topic, though we are both free to take the arguments made in comments as something to be discussed at our discretion.
• We both come from a belief in God and the Bible, therefore the topic of whether or not Capital Punishment is in the Bible is on the table.
• We will continue debate until we come to an impasse or one of us changes our minds. 🙂
• We may engage in debate in our own comments or the other’s comments, but we are not obligated to do so.