Capital Punishment is no longer practised in our society.Explain what differing Christian attitudes might be to Capital Punishment.

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Capital Punishment is no longer practised in our society.Explain what differing Christian attitudes might be to Capital Punishment.

Capital punishment was abolished in our society in 1969 but had been banned in Britain since 1965. There are many forms of punishment with four main aims; to gain retribution, to prevent the crime happening again, to act as a deterrent to others and as a way to reform the offender. Capital Punishment is the ultimate punishment for a crime. It ends the offender's life and they can no longer be a danger to others. Yet it is to argue whether or not this is a suitable form of punishment.

Not all Christians are against Capital punishment as there are many arguments in favour of Capital Punishment that they regard to be good reasons to use the death penalty as a form of punishment for someone's crimes.

The death penalty acts as a method of retribution. If you commit an awful crime, some Christians would believe you deserve a punishment that gives retribution to the crime you committed. Capital Punishment shows that society will not tolerate such crimes. Those who believe this could back up this belief with quotes from the bible such as

"Man was made like God, so whoever murders a man will himself be killed by his fellow-man."

(Genesis 9:6)

With this quote from the bible, they could say it is saying that whoever kills another human will in return be killed by a fellow man, as man is like God and only God has the right to kill a man, but if we are made like God we too have that right.
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Although this is a strong argument, there is an opposing argument which states, if murder is wrong, why is execution right? Execution is the same as murder as it is ending some ones life prematurely so by using the death penalty as a method of punishment we are in return committing the same crime and therefore it should only be right if we are punished in the same way. Not all Christians would take the words from the story of Noah as a command to execute murderers. Some take it to mean that God's justice will in the ...

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