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Originally Posted by stingc
China executes so many people because damn near everything carries the death penalty over there.
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There are 68 offences that are punishable by death. Not exactly "damn near everything", but certainly a lot more than most other countries.
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Considering how minor many of the offenses are (in our eyes), and how large China's population is, the numbers are actually very small.
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When you oppose the death penalty on moral grounds, a single killing is too much.
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Think about the numbers of people who sell drugs (they include nicotine too I think) or make porn in western world. That's a lot more than a few thousand/year. I'm certainly not advocating following China's example though!
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China prescribes the death penalty for some 68 offences, including some 28 non-violent crimes such as; political crimes, bigamy, bribery, cigarette smuggling, corruption, disturbing the peace, drug-related crimes, economic crimes, financial fraud, forgery, grave-digging theft, pimping, publication of pornographic material, robbing of petrol, sale of counterfeit money, sale of false birth certificates and sterility certificates, sale of false invoices, sale of pelts of pandas, selling harmful foodstuffs, tax fraud, tax evasion, theft of antiques, theft of cows camels or horses, trafficking in national treasures, as well as internet hacking and cyber crimes. China metes out the death penalty to anyone convicted of trafficking 50 grams (1.764 ounces) or more of heroin.
REF:
http://www.angelfire.com/stars/dorina/dpchina.html
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Well, my understanding of Judeo-Christian values is that it is ok to kill in self-defense or as punishment for extreme sins. At least the old testament is like that. In fact, it gets pretty brutal in parts. Then Jesus came along and said to forgive everybody. I've hardly ever met anybody who truly follows this though. People always make exceptions, and everyone's ideas on what's acceptable and what isn't differ quite a bit (as you're seeing in this thread).
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Most certainly. The differences between the Old Testament and the New Testament are pretty profound really.
Mr Mephisto