Arkansas Set To Execute 8 Inmates over 10 Day Period in April

Baptismal certificate. From what I can see in the New Testament, baptism is required for a person to be a Christian.

But we've established you were a believer before your studies of scripture.
Everything else on top of that core belief is the bric-a-brac of your particular sect of Christianity.
How can you be so sure you chose the right one?

Yeah, but you treat your "paperwork" the same way a shitty driver treats a driver's license.

.

Years of studying the scriptures

And no, I said I was "on the fence" before my studies of the scriptures.

In case you didn't know "on the fence" normally indicates doubts and/or ambivalence regarding something. Or being of two minds.

Where would you put it on a 1 to 10 spectrum?
(With 10 being absolute belief)

4-6 depending on the times and situation. It varied some over the course of time.

Do you think if you hadn't studied scripture you'd be on the same place on the scale now, or maybe even lower?

Possibly.

Okay then, now...

Did you study any other religions besides Christianity?

Yes.

To the same level as Christianity?

No.

So, what, you kinda skimmed it?

Were you wearing athletic socks as you studied them to a lesser level?

The fourth one lurched on his gurney last night... The whole thing is tasteless. This goes beyond, deserving. If we sentence them to life in prison, it is not out of punishment or respect for the victim(s), it is because these entities have been deemed as dangerous. If they truly cared about justice for the victims there would payback. A little revenge doesn't go very far. If Arkansas executes them, they are trying to sweep their mistakes under the earth. They created these monsters; they need to accept responsibility. Maybe we should build the wall at the Mason Dixon line.

Williams had been sentenced to life in prison.

He escaped and killed two more people.

The state of Arkansas (nor any other state) forces people to commit murder.

Now there was an idiot.

On a tangent to the life in prison thing, turns out very few countries besides ours do that. Norway has a twenty years max sentencing for any crime.

And again, they're one of those countries whose re-conviction rate hangs in the high teens, so...

Turns outs when someone knows prison isn't the end of the road for them, they want to get better and not return. Who knew?

You might be right. But from a moral and justice standpoint I can never endorse not sending someone to prison for life for capital murder.

Given that prison is a career ender for anyone not in the wealthiest ten percent of our society, we may as well do away with life sentences here.

Same diff.

Which probably works a lot better when your criminal justice system actually tries to rehabilitate people.

Maybe they do "want to get better" but in a high percentage of the cases (here in the US - I can't speak for Norway) once you have a felony conviction on your record you will never get a decent paying job. You basically have a scarlet letter that never goes away. And with the internet your criminal history is a matter of public record accessed within mere seconds - the "zero defect" attitude will ensure that you have a tough time making it on the outside.

True - when your criminal justice system is a self sustaining industry that needs repeat business to prosper, the last thing you need is to lose customers!

You actually believe that?

It's no surprise that you don't.

I don't believe legislators pass laws regarding criminal penalties for the purpose of filling up prisons.

Prisons are costly, the jobs there poorly looked upon and generally unpopular in the communities where they are located (the not in my backyard thing).

Thus legislators gain little or nothing by voting to have them built or voting on the penalties that put people there.

Dayton, if I showed you ironclad proof (you can make up in your head whatever that would be) that the Bible stories were fictions written by men, would you still be a God believer?

(This does loop back into the topic, trust me)

No.

By the same token.

If I could show you the same level of proof would you become a "God believer"?

If not, why not.

So, Bible = God?
No Deism?

Yep.
It'd have to be damned good proof though, given what CGI is capable of these days.