John Allen Muhammad execution set for tonight. Opinions ?

[Greg]

I'm referring to Hebrew.

[Greg]

And I should point out that neither 'kill' nor 'murder' are Hebrew words...so it's hard not to cheat. :-)

[davester]

Why does it matter? OK, so there's a very old book that has been translated and probably mistranslated multiple times. We don't know what the writer originally intended and we will never know. It's patently obvious that the major religions, including christianity, long ago threw aside this "commandment" so that it is utterly meaningless, the crusades and the irish troubles being just a couple of examples of the wholesale killing of innocents conducted on behalf of religion, and not to mention his piousness GW Bush's "smoke em out and kill em!" pronouncements.. Forget what the book says or what people think it says. What in your own mind is the appropriate judgement of those who kill?

[Greg]

It matters, only if you care about what it says. If it's no biggie, then it's no biggie.

That being said, "those who kill" requires clarification, as there's killing in war, killing in self-defense, killing for sports, etc. What is the question?

[RgrF]

Reddit had an interesting link from someone who says he knew him at an early age.

maybe true, maybe not

[Lux Interior]

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28151

[Pops]

I imagine I am morally opposed to the death penalty, but more significant to me is its cost. It is a financial burden on everyone and asbolutely does not deter any crime. I'm sure this guy was guilty. Probably undeniably guilty. But read just ONE account of a person on death row for years and years, or, worse, one executed... who was later exonerated, and one has to imagine that the chance of error is pretty important if it's you or your kin.