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The Politics of Death

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The Politics of Death

The death penalty has a political component. A prosecutor uses death as a way of showing the electorate that he is "tough on crime and tough on criminals." It matter not that the symbol of that toughness is a person the prosecutor knows is innocent. We want to believe that the system is fair and that our political leaders are executing hardened criminals who would otherwise pillage and rape the community. But illusion isn't truth and it feeds the culture of revenge that is based on short term thinking. Politicians looking for votes will preside over the execution showing the voters than he is tough enough to kill criminals who deserve to die. An innocent person who's death penalty should be commuted are subject to the political standing and pressures of the governor of the state. Executions that are based on a strong political influence are fundamentally wrong and it happens far to often that innocent blood becomes the price we pay for vengeance.

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Newsflash

The God who Wasn't There is a really great film that I highly recommend. I saw an early screening of it at Stanford and I loved it. It goes into the early history of Christianity to determine if the character Jesus ever actually existed. I was surprised to find that much of the Jesus story was already in fiction for hundreds of years before Jesus was supposedly born. This is a documentary of how the Jesus myth was created and how little today's Christians know about the history of their own religion. Here's a really great Trailer for the movie. (18mb Quicktime format)

Most Atheists like myself have generally believed that the story of Jesus was at least based on some real events, some popular preacher that may have really existed and was later turned into a supernatural figure by his followers. But it is becoming clear to me that Jesus is total fiction and the stories are adapted from the fiction of the time. I recommend this film to everyone. It gives you a LOT to think about.