Corporal Punishments: Religious viewsA Christian perspective
Many followers of Christianity have contradicting views on capital punishment, so Christianity as a whole supports both sides of the argument. Christian churches have accepted and enforced capital punishment for much of their history. As well as accepting that it is useful in society, many Christians support capital punishment as it is written in the bible. Under Genesis 9:6 it states that 'whoever sheds the blood of a man, by man shall his blood be shed'. Also in the Old Testament, it states that other crimes such as magic, blasphemy and adultery are morally punishable by the death penalty. However some Christians argue that only God can create and destroy life and object the death penalty because of one of the Ten Commandments is 'Thou shalt not kill'; if one disobeys these commandments then you have sinned and will go to hell and there are no exceptions. There are also core Christian beliefs such as compassion and forgiveness which Christians base their morals on. Therefore, Christian's have conflicting opinions on capital punishment. A Hindu perspective As far as the Hindu history has been recorded, this religion forbids the act of capital punishment. Ahimsa is one of the main beliefs of Hindu which is the spiritual belief of non-violence and respect for all living things. Hindu's believe that in order to save your won soul, one must save all other souls. Also, Hindu's would oppose the death penalty they believe that the soul cannot be killed since death is only limited to the body. Therefore, the use of capital punishment is thought of as useless in a Hindu perspective since killing the criminal would only dispose of their body, and their soul would, depending on their karma, be transported to a new 'vessel' which may take the shape of any living thing. Capital punishment would lower the number of capital criminals alive but their execution would only transport their soul to be reborn in a new vessel, and one can assume the criminal has bad karmakarma. Although Hindu's would appear not to support the death penalty, India still enforces capital punishment despite the fact that the main faith of Hinduism states that capital punishment goes against Ahimsa and is morally wrong. However, the Indian Supreme Court has ruled that capital punishment shold only be used in the rarest of circumstances. To conclude, Hindu's would most likely not support the death penalty. |