Editor's Notes

The following section will be much clearer and much more meaningful if you first read the pages titled:  The Three Basic Religious Assumptions . 

The following section is taken directly from the text of    

 written by R Robin Cote’.   The dialog you are invited to read is between a psychologist, Dr. Bernstein, and a reporter, Stoney.

The bold and the colored formatting has been added by the editor so you may skim the content to get the essence of the meaning.

Stoney:   Please give us an example of something where the actual consequences differ significantly among the three religious assumptions.

Dr. Bernstein:   Capital punishment is an easy area to see where the assumptions make a significant difference.   When you look closely at this issue, you’ll find objective reality, pure fantasy, and personal religious beliefs are all scrambled together.

Stoney:   So, you’re saying capital punishment isn’t what most people believe that it is? 

Dr. Bernstein:   That’s correct.   Three entirely different views show up when capital punishment is viewed from the perspectives of Christian one-life-ism, atheism, and reincarnation.   Because the three assumptions are mutually exclusive, only one of them can be Earth-plane reality because the other two contain major fantasy illusions.

Stoney:   So how do these assumptions relate to capital punishment?

Dr. Bernstein:   Our American society says, if you have committed a very serious crime such as murder, we are going to kill you as punishment.   The promoters of capital punishment believe that preventing a criminal from committing a similar offence at some time in the future is not enough.   They believe that the offender must be punished for his crime and that death of the physical body is punishment.   It assumes that death is the end of life.   It also assumes that capital punishment is required as an example to prevent others from committing similar offenses.  

Stoney:   Does that really prevent others from committing similar crimes?

Dr. Bernstein:   The evidence seems to indicate that, while some people are, indeed, stopped by fear of punishment, many are not, and some are even inspired by and welcome the punishment.  

Stoney:   Well, everyone has to acknowledge that capital punishment puts an end of life.

Dr. Bernstein:   Not true!  You just stated the core assumption which is the heart of this entire controversy.   Does capital punishment actually put an end to life?   Is what you just said a statement of reality or is it a belief about reality?

Stoney:   What do you mean?   What’s the difference?

Dr. Bernstein:   What something appears to be and what it actually is are often two distinctly different things.   To Galileo’s inquisitors, the earth appeared to be flat.   To Louis Pasteur’s detractors, a germ-laden operating knife appeared to be clean.   To a hungry native, cutting down the rain forest to graze cattle appears to be a good idea.

        Capital punishment appears to be the end of life, and for the physical body, yes, it certainly is, but when you  look at the assumptions we make about what the physical body is some startling findings come to light.

Stoney:   We know physical human bodies are made of earth matter.

Dr. Bernstein:   Yes, but who and what are you?   If I kill your physical body, did I kill you?   Are you your physical body?   Are you only your physical body?   Are you your physical body plus something else?   Are you something else that merely inhabits a physical body?   These are questions that no Earth-bound human being can answer with absolute provable certainty.

Stoney:   So are you saying that capital punishment kills the physical body, but, from the broader, philosophical perspective, we have no idea what physical death really means?

Dr. Bernstein:   Precisely!   In the context that we refer to as the greater reality of life, humans have no scientifically provable facts regarding what the physical body really is.   Everything is based on one or another of the three assumptions we’ve been talking about.

        In the Atheist assumption, the criminal is assumed to be only his body.   At death he ceases to exist.   If this assumption is correct, executing the body does indeed produce a significant consequence.

        In the Christian one-life-ism assumption, humans have only one Earth life and after death, go to heaven or hell forever.   The criminal is assumed to be his body, which, at death, is somehow magically transformed into what is called a soul.   If, after his crime and before his death, he prays to God for forgiveness, he (as a soul after death) goes to heaven forever to be with Jesus and all the most holy and saintly.

Stoney:   So you are saying that an axe murderer goes to heaven, if, just before death, he says,  “Dear God, please forgive me.”   And you ‘re saying that he’ll be there in the same place with those who lived saintly lives like Mother Teresa?”

Dr. Bernstein:   I am not saying that.   I am merely reporting the Christian assumption which says that.

Stoney:    What happens if the axe murderer just say, “God, please forgive me” and he’s not really repentant of his behavior?

Dr. Bernstein:  You’ll have to ask God for the answer to that question.   Christian doctrine says the sinner must be repentant, but the unanswered question is where do you draw the line between true, deep repentance at one end of the pole and just saying the words on the other.

      If the criminal doesn’t ask God for forgiveness, he goes to hell forever.   In light of the criminal’s choice to ask for forgiveness, execution of the physical body is almost irrelevant.   In fact, capital punishment could be considered a great blessing.

Stoney:   A blessing?   You’ve got to be kidding!

Dr. Bernstein:   Well, just look at the Christian beliefs, and then you tell me.   If the Christian assumption is correct, by the death of the physical body, every criminal who has sincerely asked for God’s forgiveness is ushered directly into an eternal heaven of bliss and joy without having to endure any more of the pain and suffering of Earth life.   For a condemned human facing life in a miserable prison under the constant control of guards, and often at the mercy of sadistic, fellow prisoners, an immediate ride directly to heaven really is a great blessing.

Stoney:   So, instead of receiving a terrible punishment, the criminal is actually being given a wonderful gift.

Dr. Bernstein:   Yup!   If the Christians are right, he sure is.

Stoney:   So are you saying that an axe murderer, a terrorist, and even a man who has raped and then murdered dozens of women and children can get into heaven if, at any time before death, he, with sincerity, simply says, “Dear God, I’m sorry I did those bad things.   Please forgive me.”

Dr. Bernstein:   I am not saying that.   I am merely reporting what’s in Christian theology.

Stoney:   And are you are saying that the saintly person who commits a serious sin just before death gets shipped off to hell forever if he forgets to ask forgiveness?

Dr. Bernstein:   Again, I am not saying that.   I am merely reporting another of the Christian assumptions.

Stoney:   What about those who sincerely repent their sins, but aren’t sprinkled with or dunked in water and blessed by a church holy man?

Dr. Bernstein:   They can easily get baptized prior to their execution.

Stoney:   What if they miss the baptism?

Dr. Bernstein:   Then they’re off with the billions of other humans who are excluded from Christian heaven.

Stoney:   Where do they go?

Dr. Bernstein:   Nobody seems to know.

Stoney:   And why do all those people get excluded from heaven?”

Dr. Bernstein:  Because they are still condemned by the sin of Eve who ate that "fruit" from the forbidden tree.

Stoney:   Am I missing something here?   Is this reality?

Dr. Bernstein:   Don’t look at me.   I didn’t write the rules.   I’m just telling you what the Christian church doctrine says.

Stoney:   “OK.  What about the reincarnation assumption?”

Dr. Bernstein:   “In the Reincarnation assumption, the criminal is assumed to be an eternal soul temporarily living in a physical body.   At death, he sheds that body as simply as you take off your clothes.   Execution is merely a ticket to a different dimension of reality.   By being executed, the criminal is simply freed of his ties to this life and is later reborn into another life.”

       What level or degree of consequence he brings to that next life from his crime is another unknown.   Some theories say he will reap the karmic consequences of his actions.   If the karmic assumption is correct, execution of the body merely shifts the time and place of retribution.

       Others say no consequences follow the body’s demise.   If this is correct, the criminal simply gets a free ticket out of a bad situation.   Thus, if the reincarnation assumption is correct, execution of the physical body produces either a very positive or a completely neutral consequence.

Stoney:   So unless atheism is the correct assumption, capital punishment is a weird joke on those who believe in it?

Dr. Bernstein:   Yes, a blatantly-obvious, weird joke, sitting right under everyone’s noses, and yet, the bureaucrats don’t see it.   Considering the significance of the consequences involved, it’s amazing that nobody bothers to examine the issue and find out as much as possible about what they’re actually doing.

      I have one more point to share with you relative to capital punishment, and that deals with correcting mistakes.   Suppose you apply the death penalty and later find you’ve made a mistake, how easy is it to correct your mistake?

Stoney:   It’s literally impossible to correct.

Dr. Bernstein:   And are there readily available alternatives that would be equally as effective at preventing the offender from repeating his offense behavior?

Stoney:   Yes, of course there are!   Life in prison is the obvious alternative.

Dr. Bernstein:   And is this form of future crime prevention more easily reversible, if it is later determined that the convicted person is actually innocent?

Stoney:   Infinitely more.

Dr. Bernstein:   So, is capital punishment forward-looking, crime prevention or backward-looking punishment?

Stoney:   Isn’t there some famous quote somewhere about the name of something describing what it stands for?   Following that standard, committing a socially sanctioned murder could be labeled simply as revenge?

Dr. Bernstein:   Now do you see how assumptions change the meaning of an action?

Stoney:   Assumptions obviously do make a big difference.

Dr. Bernstein:   And we make hundreds of assumptions every day.   Most, obviously, are less dramatic than capital punishment.

Stoney:   Are there other areas of life which give us very different perspectives when viewed from each of these three assumptions?

Dr. Bernstein:   Yes, the abortion controversy is by far the most divisive.   It also has the greatest number of irreversible, far-reaching consequences.

Stoney:   Then I’d like to see abortion viewed in light of these three assumptions...

(If this essay contains errors or omissions, please let us know so that we can make corrections.)

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Let's turn our attention now to 

the second of our two examples:

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