Would you, as an atheist, support it? As for me, I would not, for the following reasons:
1) Alternatives exist, namely, prison, and in that respect, "Death by Prison" seems a completely humane alternative.
2) Death is cruel; telling someone that "on such and such" a day "at such and such" a time, you will cease to exist seems, to me, cruel.
3) Innocent people, of course, are going to get executed -- "improbable, but not impossible."
4) Free will seems illusory at best; Stephen Hawking likens the brain to a computer, wetware, and if so, an absolute moral accountability seems at least somewhat illusory.
5) The families of the condemned suffer, as do the families of the victims, as death sentences in the United States and Japan often take many years to carry out.
Thoughts?
1) Alternatives exist, namely, prison, and in that respect, "Death by Prison" seems a completely humane alternative.
2) Death is cruel; telling someone that "on such and such" a day "at such and such" a time, you will cease to exist seems, to me, cruel.
3) Innocent people, of course, are going to get executed -- "improbable, but not impossible."
4) Free will seems illusory at best; Stephen Hawking likens the brain to a computer, wetware, and if so, an absolute moral accountability seems at least somewhat illusory.
5) The families of the condemned suffer, as do the families of the victims, as death sentences in the United States and Japan often take many years to carry out.
Thoughts?