To some people I guess it makes perfect sense, feels perfectly alright: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Wikipedia tells us that the phrase expresses a principle of retributive justice also known as lex talionis (Latin: "law of retaliation"). The basis of this principle is proportionate punishment, sometimes expressed by the idiom "let the punishment fit the crime."
Which brings us to the death penalty.
Which brings us to Saddam Hussein.
Videos of Saddam Hussein's hanging are all over the Internet. In Iraq and throughout the Middle East there is outrage in many quarters. If a man is to be executed, some have said, he should at least be executed in dignity.
Others say that execution, the death penalty, should not be used at all, ever.
What do you think?
Thanksgiving has passed, but the time for Gratitude has not. As I mentioned here last week, gratitude is the most powerful force in the universe. It is the single most effective means of using the Power of Personal Creation (what some have called the Law of Attraction). Therefore, move into gratitude at the slightest opportunity - and certainly at the slightest provocation.
Some people believe that human beings are individuated aspects of The Divine. Others believe that we were created by God, but we are not Divinity Itself. The question makes for some interesting theological discussion.
As I made note
of above, this is Thanksgiving Week in the United States, where I am
writing this, and where Thanksgiving Day is one of the biggest family
holidays of the year. But I have an idea about this holiday that is
different from most Americans. I think that the holiday should be
abolished.
I find it interesting that among the questions I am asked the most are questions on abortion. I think that people really want to know what God thinks about this issue, so that they can settle all this for themselves once and for all.
The first thing I want you to know is that God makes no judgment about these (or any other) behaviors.
There is, therefore, also no punishment. So anyone looking for a God of judgment, condemnation and punishment is going to be very disappointed in the God who talked with me. The second thing I want to say is that all behaviors are classified by us as “good” or “bad” depending upon who and what we are trying to be. That is, every value judgment we here on Earth make is based on a value system which is constructed around our own personal goals. This system has nothing to do with whether a thing is “right” or “wrong”, “good” or “bad” objectively, but only subjectively.
Let me give you some examples.
In the days immediately following 9-11 I begged God to give me some answers. Why was the world this way? What had we come to? What would it take to get us to stop all this? What is the missing information? I reasoned that there must be something we do not understand...the understanding of which would change everything. What is it? What could it be?
Nothing has impressed me more, or impacted me more, in the entire body of work known as the With God books than the Three Core Concepts of Holistic Living given to us in CwG-Book 1 :
1. Awareness
2. Honesty
3. Responsibility
God told me that if I lived my entire life with these concepts as my guidelines, all of the "dramas" of my life would be over. Now you must remember that when I was receiving the material in CwG, Book 1, that is where I was. I was in the midst of a great drama. I thought my life was over. I was 49, going on 50, and thought that I had nothing to show for my life, had achieved nothing, accomplished nothing, contributed nothing, acquired nothing (that I could seem to hold onto, at any rate), and, as far as I was concerned, that I WAS nothing.
Question: I've read your explanation about why one
does not get what one asks for-and correct me if i am wrong-because the
universe creates for you the situation of wanting and not having.There
have been times in my life where I have visualized myself having a
desired outcome, and GETTING it. But then there have also been times in
For it is not only a matter of our intentions and choices, but of God’s. I mean, is it God’s will (even if it is not ours) that these horrible things should happen? Philosophers and theologians have been trying to answer that question from the beginning of time.
I was given an extraordinary answer to this question when I asked it in my dialogue. First, it was made clear to me that there are no victims and no villains in life.
Now that was difficult for me, because to my eyes so many of the things we have done to each other are very cruel, very horrible, and to me the people who perpetrated these heinous crimes certainly were the “villains” of our society. Still, God said in CwG, Book 2, “I have sent you nothing but angels.” And the parable of The Little Soul and the Sun in Book 1 explains how this could be true.
