Do not judge, and you will not be judged.
2002-08-20 || 9:25 p.m.

Today I want to talk about something that really bugs me and that is capital punishment. There's been an incident in the UK in the past two weeks that has brought all the usual pro-capital punishment supporters crawling out of the woodwork spouting their usual ridiculous views.

There's lots of reasons why it bugs me but lets start with logic, which is as good a place to start as any. Anne Widdecombe - Tory MP - justifies capital punishment thus: what is the problem of taking a few guilty lives if it means saving innocent lives?

Fair enough you may think. But actually think about what she has just said. For a start I'm going to take this premise as meaning a guilty life=a murderer. I am assuming that Ms Widdecombe is not advocating capital punishment for anything other than murder although I could, of course, be wrong here. Right, so we assume she means murder. Guilty of murder. ok, how is an innocent life saved? presumably the guilty life has taken an innocent life anyway. Poor logic. Maybe she means we save future innocent lives from the same fate at the same hands. Well, presumably without capital punishment, the guilty party will be locked up, so lives saved there then. Or maybe she means by example. There is a big problem here. There is no proof whatsoever that capital punishment works as a deterrent. None.

So falls down on logic then.

Lets look at it morally then. Is it moral, in any circumstances, to sit in judgement and take a life. I would say not. I would say two wrongs do not make a right - they make two wrongs. I would say there are better ways to deal with wrongs than commit more wrongs.

Maybe then we could turn to religion for guidance and here it gets really hilarious. In my experience a great deal of capital punishment supporters are Christians. I have no clue why this should be but it seems that Christian often equals conservative although really I would find that anathema to the true message of Christianity. Well, of course if you use the Old Testament you will find plenty to back up your point of view. Eye for Eye etc. But should we be using 3000 year old literary texts as a basis for our criminal treatment system? And if my memory serves me right I do believe in the New Testament, in the sermon on the mount, Jesus gives slightly different advice: 'love your enemies and pray for your persecutors'. or 'for if you forgive others the wrongs tbey have done, your heavenly father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive the wrongs that you have done.' Mmm. Jesus as a supporter of capital punishment? It seems not.

So you will not find me joining the 'hang 'em' brigade under any circumstances. It is always wrong to take a life under any circumstances - it is barbaric and uncivilised and I find no justification whatsoever for it.

This got me thinking about something else. I have faith in nothing but I have a strong belief in reincarnation - not an unshakeable belief mind, just a strong one. That could lead you to assume that I would therefore think life cheap. After all, we'll come back won't we, so what does it matter if we hang a guilty offender and anyway it could be their karma couldn't it? Well, bullshit. I think that a belief in reincarnation is like having one piece of a many thousand piece jigsaw. I have ideas where it fits in but I truly don't know. What I do think tho' is that we will be held responsible for what we do by someone one day: that someone being ourselves. No God sitting in judgement, but our own best critic, ourself. No life is cheap or disposable regardless of whether we come back again because this life is unique.

And always remember that for every bad deed someone does, they do a good one too. No-one is all bad. No-one. It doesn't mean we should let people ride roughshod over others, merely that we should always remain positive about the good in humans and aware that a positive action brings about positive results whereas a negative one brings negative.

Or something like that anyway.