| Demosthenes |
2010-06-24 02:51 AM |
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Moreover, like most young animals(yes humans are animals Demosthenes, as much as you may want to detach yourself from the human condition)
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I don't understand where this is coming from. I believe I have been one of the most assiduous advocates of this idea in the history of Zelaron.
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Originally Posted by S2 AM
(Post 688784)
I forgot to explicitly say this in my last post, and you didn't seem to reason it yourself. It's not so much the punishment, as it is the threat of punishment. If that kid in wal-mart were mouthing off and bitching about a toy they want, then they see another kid getting spanked nearby for the same thing, they may at least think twice. The argument is flawed, however, due to the fact that most kids are not logically developed at such an age. Moreover, like most young animals(yes humans are animals Demosthenes, as much as you may want to detach yourself from the human condition), they respond to physical discipline long before they learn underlying reasons for the things they should not do.
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A strong case can, and has been made that the death penalty is impotent as a deterrent, though I have no intention of making this case here.
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You should try enrolling in a statistics class and learning about type I and type II errors - if you haven't already. Fact: any decision is always made with a certain degree of uncertainty. As for the small uncertainties of our judicial system being monstrosities I must disagree. The holocaust was a monstrosity, these errors are just general uncertainty in a given system. It is regrettable, but really nothing more. Judges try to reduce the severity of a type I error by varying degree of punishment. As I've said, people are only sentenced to the death penalty when there is an indubitable amount of evidence against them. The layman would call it 100% certain, or "beyond a reasonable doubt." The statistician would say that one is 99.9999% sure. You really should try googling some of the cases and seeing for yourself, I'm sure you wouldn't feel any remorse for the 'victim.' [To clarify, when I say victim I don't mean the victim in the case, but instead I am sarcastically referring to the person on trial, whom I take to understand you see as being 'victimized' by society when they are sentenced to the death penalty]
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Again, you are free to partake in all the lexical masturbation you want. Whether or not I know the difference between alpha and beta error (I do) or have taken a statistics class (I have) is irrelevant. The point is, when you are dealing with someone's life, uncertainty is unacceptable. Even one innocent man's death by this method is unacceptable. But when the uncertainty is as high as the statistic presented in my last post suggests, I don't see how anyone but a sociopath can argue in favor of the death penalty. |
