Likewise, the decision to forgive earthly sins based on repentance and acceptance of Christ is also a matter for God's infinite wisdom and not man's fallible intellectual powers.
In all likelihood, there are explanations besides genuine remorse for one's sins that explain the unusually high religious conversion rates observed in prisons generally, and among those sentenced to life terms and to death, in particular. For one thing, all of us have a psychological need to think of ourselves as being good people. In then outside world, so called illicit pleasures and impulses that conflict with religious morality are a powerful temptation to stray from the moral path. Without immoral temptation, after all, there would be no motivation to sin in the first place. Even the natural impulse ton think of one's self as a good person is less powerful to many people than the draw of criminal activity. Once confined to a solitary cell without any opportunity to derive pleasure from sinful behavior, there is practically nothing to compete with the natural desire to think of one's self as a good person. In that respect, religious conversion in prison, especially on
In ordinary life, religious morality and acceptance of Christ requires the believer to conform his behavior to his religious beliefs, at least that is the case when none's religious beliefs are sincere, because repentance that is insincere or proffered in conjunction with continuation of sinful conduct is meaningless in the eyes of God. Sincerity is no longer necessary on death row, because there is no longer any opportunity to participate in any sinful conduct.
For another thing, remorse with or without religious conversion on death row is likely to be insincere, because it is difficult to know whether that remorse was really motivated by sincere empathy for the victim or simply by the regret over having been caught, prosecuted, convicted, and condemned to death. In many cases, even inmates who may believe that they are genuinely remorseful do not realize how much their own predicament, rather than genuine remorse for their victims, is the basis for their motivation.
Ultimately, religious convictions are only relevant on earth to the extent they guide our moral conduct and treatment of our fellow man. Religious conversion on death row after the fact is likely insincere. To whatever extent it may be sincere is only knowable and only relevant to God after the lawful execution of penal law.
Death Rituals of Different Cultures and Countries Death Rituals of different Cultures/Countries As the globe is full of numerous civilizations and cultures in a very diverse manner, similarly, their rituals, traditions and ceremonies related to life and death are also different from one another. The people belonging to these cultures have their own sets of beliefs that are witnessed through the ways they celebrate their occasions, festivals and even the death rituals
Freud makes it clear in one of his letters that he is atheist, though he denies attacking Christianity directly, but as a default to attacking Judaism, which was his faith of birth. It can be called an attack on religion only in so far as any scientific investigation of religious belief presupposes disbelief. Neither in my private life nor in my writings have I ever made a secret of my
William James, complete religious experience is far more than simply a theoretical, or abstract living-in -- the moment feeling. For him, religion has to be lived and experienced in a wholesome, holistic manner. It has to be conscious and permeate man's entire being. James described this in the following way: If religion be a function by which either God's cause or man's cause is to be really advanced, then he who
Rousseau and Tolstoy A Comparison of Rousseau's Confessions and Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilych Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions opens more brazenly than the other Confessions of antiquity (those belonging to Augustine); the latter were zealously religious in nature and humbling in tone; the former were proud in tone and primarily secular. If Rousseau's Confessions can be called a celebration of a life burnished in the fires of the Romantic/Enlightenment era, Tolstoy's Death of
Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar As Minister of Law in India's first post-independence government, Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar drafted the constitution of India that provided the legal framework for the abolition of many oppressive aspects in Indian society (Beshkin pp). Ambedkar is regarded as the father of the Indian Constitution and the country's leading champion of human rights. The caste system in India is one of the world's longest surviving forms of social stratification (O'Neill
Jerusalem Located east of Jordan River, the holy city of Jerusalem and its historic sacred atmosphere rest on the hills of the City of David. Its significance has spanned centuries -- millennia, in fact. Today it is viewed as a spiritual home to Christians, Jews, Orthodox and Muslim religions. Wars have been fought over it, and God Himself has been condemned to death there by a Roman prelate and the
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