What gives a human being the right to kill another?
The Philippines has just abolished the Death sentence.
In Malaysia, they found that there was a man who has been waiting 22 years for his death sentence to be carried out.
In UK, it is considered inhumane to keep a death row prisoner waiting for more than 5 years for execution.
I wonder what the prisoners themselves think - is every postponement of execution a blessing? Is every day of that 22 years a prayer answered? Can it be possible that 'life' still has meaning, is still precious to them? Do they wake up in the morning grateful to have one more day, one more chance to listen to birds sing, to maybe do some good in whatever limited way they can?
Or are they merely evil abominations that should be put out of their misery as soon as possible?
Why is ok for one human being to declare death upon another anyway?
On one hand, I see doctors, researchers, firemen, rescue workers, doing everything they can to save lives. And for the ones that man cannot save , we say it is God's will, the Soul's own agenda. Fate. Destiny.
Fine, I can accept that.
But I cannot accept man saying "You die!"
Who are we to do that? Sure, we can try to impersonalise it by saying it is "justice taking its course" - but who decides what is just? Who are the judges? Are they not man? With human emotions, prejudices, fears and frailties?
I can understand that a man who has brought harm to society should be locked away to prevent further harm from being done. I agree that crime should be punished. I also agree that we will eventually, one way or another, in this lifetime or the next, pay the price for the harm that we have done.
But death? I think only God should have that call.
In Malaysia, they found that there was a man who has been waiting 22 years for his death sentence to be carried out.
In UK, it is considered inhumane to keep a death row prisoner waiting for more than 5 years for execution.
I wonder what the prisoners themselves think - is every postponement of execution a blessing? Is every day of that 22 years a prayer answered? Can it be possible that 'life' still has meaning, is still precious to them? Do they wake up in the morning grateful to have one more day, one more chance to listen to birds sing, to maybe do some good in whatever limited way they can?
Or are they merely evil abominations that should be put out of their misery as soon as possible?
Why is ok for one human being to declare death upon another anyway?
On one hand, I see doctors, researchers, firemen, rescue workers, doing everything they can to save lives. And for the ones that man cannot save , we say it is God's will, the Soul's own agenda. Fate. Destiny.
Fine, I can accept that.
But I cannot accept man saying "You die!"
Who are we to do that? Sure, we can try to impersonalise it by saying it is "justice taking its course" - but who decides what is just? Who are the judges? Are they not man? With human emotions, prejudices, fears and frailties?
I can understand that a man who has brought harm to society should be locked away to prevent further harm from being done. I agree that crime should be punished. I also agree that we will eventually, one way or another, in this lifetime or the next, pay the price for the harm that we have done.
But death? I think only God should have that call.
posted by 95% The Advertising Academy at 3:43 PM
12 Comments:
i think the answer is simple...
everyone wants to be god... maybe not everyone, atleast those people.
not everyone want to be god. Only those with power and authority wants to be god.
and some wanted to have that power so much and luv it when they have it..
I remember in the movie "Schindler's List", this is what Schindler told the German general, Amon:
"They don't fear us because we have the power to kill, they fear us because we have the power to kill arbitrarily. A man commits a crime, he should know better. We have him killed, we feel pretty good about it. Or we kill him ourselves and we feel even better. That's not power, though, that's justice. That's different than power. Power is when we have every justification to kill -- and we don't. That's power. That's what the emperors had. A man stole something, he's brought in before the emperor, he throws himself down on the floor, he begs for mercy, he knows he's going to die... and the emperor pardons him. This worthless man. He lets him go. That's power. That's power."
After Amon listen to the words, the next scene we saw Amon did pardon a stable boy who din do his job well, then he pardoned a worker who was unable to remove the stain from his bathtub.
Then he looked at his own face in the mirror. A while later, he took out his rifle and shot the worker he just pardoned...
Seems like in the real world, the ability to take away one's life is more tempting than the ability to forgive another...
i read the paper today and i come across this.. d/l over here
http://danlim.twofishy.net/18/download.htm
Hey, Danny Lim is my brother in law. And my husband is so proud, so proud of him!
its abt different point of view.
every individual hav diff point of view that they believe in.
which diff point of view can cause respect if u are able to persuade them.. but on the other hand.. diff point of view can cause conflict.. til the end.. ppl cld not let go in wat they believe in.. if others point of view had conlict in wat they believe in. they will felt offended. in their life.. they cld not accept others to hav diff views on wat they believe in. which they felt offended, which cause anger. to prove they are right, they cld do more than wat we call "right", which they will do something which we call "wrong". yes, thr is no right or wrong.. its just because we hav diff point of view on certain stuff, we all judge with our view, our judgements on wat is right or wrong.
"cool"
All i can say is this:
Taking away another human being's life might bewrong and it might be right. When i say 'right', i do not mean that it's the best thing to do, i think it has to do with that person's fate. It's part of nature's course and every journey has its sacrifices. It's God's way of implementing natural elimination of mankind.
I disagree with that POV - If it is fate or karma or God's natural elimination, it will happen naturally - a car crash, illness, an earthquake, a stone falling on the person's head, whatever. God is Almighty, and I believe His will will be done, no matter what.
But when man decides to impose man's will to take away another human's life - it no longer becomes an act of God. It is entirely an act of man. And that I think is wrong.
How many of us mortals can say we know, and we understand what God's will is? To the extent that we can rationalise and make it ok to intentionally kill another human being.
I agree with Schindler - power is when you have justification to kill, and you don't.
To me, this is not only about power. It is about faith in God, faith in humanity.
at times like these, i envy at those cats that just lay by the sun and lounging away without worries.
damn you ikko( my cat)! lets trade lives for a week!
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