Tuesday, December 7, 2010

The Lord's Supper

This is one of the most sacred parts of the Bible. The Lord's Supper is where Jesus sits with the twelve disciples and tell them that His time with them has come to an end. He also told them that one was going to betray Him. This is the ultimate sacrifice from the Bible. Jesus Christ gave His body (human sacrifice) in order to pay the ransom for man that was placed when Adam fell in the Garden of Eden. I believe that its the ultimate form of human sacrifice in the history of mankind.

Sacrifice of Isaac

This picture depicts the Bibical story of the sacrifice of Isaac. It shows Abraham, as he is about to slay his son to sacrifice to the Lord. The angel is grabbing his sword to tell him not to, instead to go get the ram that was in the bush nearby. I really like this picture, although the scene doesn't really seem to be like it was described in the Bible, it shows the meaning of the story. Abraham was really willing to sacrifice what he asked God for in order to please him. I believe that for the Bible, it is the second best story that deals with human sacrifoce.

Capital Punishment = Human Sacrifice

Does capital punishment equal human sacrifice?

This article on capital punishment being equivalent to human sacrifice is actually very interesting. I totally agreed with the author's view point. He compares human sacrifice to the Aztecs form of human sacrifice. This is great because we've gone over the Aztecs in the course. He pointed out three major points and they are that they are both socially accepted, done ritualistically, and are governed by a prevailing power. These three facts are true. I never really looked at capital punishment as being done ritualistically. But it has been. It is definitely something that is done ritualistically in the state of Texas. If you commit murder, more than likely, you will be sentenced to death. They are both found to be acceptable in their cultures to the point that I won't necessarily say that they're norms, but they are pretty close. I liked how he started off his argument that the death penalty is a ritual. He wrote, "Ritualized Practice in order to maintain the view that human sacrifice and death penalty are used to perpetuate the current way of life, it is particularly important to retain a level of ritualized and structural practice in the method". Its pretty true. In order for capital punishment to be effective, it must be a ritual so that it can keep people from committing these serious crimes. I really enjoyed this author.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Justice vs. Capital Punishment

I really like this picture because it is so accurate when it comes to describes how the whole capital punishment thing works. Some people die innocent deaths because of capital punishment. Some people also die unjust deaths because of capital punishment. Sometimes their is an imbalance of evidence and justice. In this picture the lady is blindfolded and she allows for capital punishment to outweigh justice. I feel as though this picture is very accurate at describing how the State works sometimes.

Death Penalty

Death of an Innocent Man
This video really got to me because it confirms that I don't like the death penalty even more. The fact that society is so stuck on sacrificing one life for another is why this innocent man was killed. It is like, blood has to pay for blood and I do not agree. That is being a hypocrite. It is still killing. I just can't comprehend how this is justification to any situation.

Lynching

Lynching is a touchy subject of American history that most don't like to talk about. To some its considered a form of capital punishment, to others it is not. I do not believe that it is a form of capital punishment because of the way it was carried out. Most of the people who were sentenced to lynching were African Americans and they were not tried during the court systems. Because of this, I do not feel as though lynching was ever a form of capital punishment.