(November 29, 2013 at 6:18 pm)CapnAwesome Wrote: The obvious difference is that Jews today are not stoning people to death.
Not today, yes, but they used to; stoning is in the Torah.
"If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city." - Deuteronomy 22:23-24
"The adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death." - Leviticus, 20:10
The Quran abrogated the stoning law with no more than a 100 lashes.
(November 27, 2013 at 4:23 pm)WesOlsen Wrote: You proudly pronounce that lashing is a legitemate form of punishment whereas stoning is something that you'd prefer to distance yourself from. Both are barbaric.
What would be a non-barbaric punishment for a crime, then? Besides, "barbaric" is subjective, to some degree.
Lashing is probably less barbaric than the CIA's abusive torture techniques (which most people don't even know anything about):
http://www.salon.com/2007/06/21/cia_sere/
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/02/g...doing.html
(November 27, 2013 at 6:10 pm)Fidel_Castronaut Wrote: It's difficult to imagine how one can reform the process of stoning/lashing someone for a crime.
Islam does allow you to reform (right after committing a crime) - and thereby avoid the stoning/lashing punishments entirely - which is simply by repenting, making an intent never to return to that sin, and that you never reveal your sin to anyone. If a Muslim who committed adultery does those three things and if there are no witnesses against him (there has to be at least 4) and if no one can present a strong evidence for his crime to a judge, then he cannot be punished even if he is guilty.
There is much more flexibility in the Islamic penal system than that which you can learn about by reading the article below:
Reflections on the Islamic Penal Law (by Faysal Burhan)
