Welcome to the blog for Prof. John Talbird's English 101 class. The purpose of this site is two-fold: 1) to continue the conversations we start in class (or to start conversations before we get to class) and 2) to practice our writing/reading on a weekly basis in an informal forum.
Thursday, November 26, 2015
The death of innocents
I find it weird how Supreme Court Judge Scalia is Catholic but has such views about the death penalty. You would expect someone who is religious to have more compassion and not be so cold hearted.
I think it can go either way. It is common for people to use religion as a way to justify criminal acts and persuade others that something is right when it is not. Just like in the movie "Dead Man Walking" when the man and sister helen kept going back and forth with bible quotes. His interpretation said the death penalty is justified. Her interpretation said the death penalty is against God's wishes. It all depends on her own private agenda and how she can sway her own religion to make her believe her actions are right. At least that is my opinion.
I think this is a good point, Nathania. Like Sister Helen writes, reading is like a prism, not a mirror--i.e. that our interpretation of a text depends upon a lot of things, most specifically our point of view. So it's actually not that surprising that Sister Helen and Justice Scalia can have such different views of the scriptures.
I think it can go either way. It is common for people to use religion as a way to justify criminal acts and persuade others that something is right when it is not. Just like in the movie "Dead Man Walking" when the man and sister helen kept going back and forth with bible quotes. His interpretation said the death penalty is justified. Her interpretation said the death penalty is against God's wishes. It all depends on her own private agenda and how she can sway her own religion to make her believe her actions are right. At least that is my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI think this is a good point, Nathania. Like Sister Helen writes, reading is like a prism, not a mirror--i.e. that our interpretation of a text depends upon a lot of things, most specifically our point of view. So it's actually not that surprising that Sister Helen and Justice Scalia can have such different views of the scriptures.
ReplyDelete