Ethics (Religion)

by David Turell , Tuesday, October 14, 2008, 01:37 (5883 days ago) @ dhw

There are seven states that apply the death penalty for consensual sexual acts between adults of the same sex, and capital offences in Iran include "cursing the Prophet", adultery and drinking alcohol. 
 
These are moral judgment acts, made criminal by theocracies. - 
> All of this seems to me to raise two wider questions. Firstly, where should one draw the line between individual freedom and society's right to protect itself? God doesn't provide the answer, since different believers hear different messages. Can anyone come up with a formula? - The Torah and the New Testament both have an answer about God and about a formula. God provides the Ten Commandments for Christian and Jew, and both the Torah and the NT teach equivalently "do unto others." There is always a tension between a smoothly running society and individual rights. In the most advanced governments there is a definite separation of church and state, and safeguards follow democratic discussion. - > But what punishment fits what crime? And is justice only about punishment? - Again democratic discussion decides upon penalties that fit the acts against the state. Justice is also about rehabilitation, but Pedophiliacs have close to a 100% recidivism rate, and generally cannot be rehabbed. Life imprisonment for one act is fine and for repeated acts, death; perfectly reasonable. This shows society has to go crime by crime.