{Capital Punishment [continued]}[31st March 1987]

[Redbook3:84-85][19870331:1825h]{Capital Punishment [continued]}[31^st March 1987]

19870331.1825

[continued]

Funnily enough, this* is one area where the Circles – or what we might here call the doctrine of Unity** and Separation – does not give satisfyingly clear answers. One of the curious and alarming paradoxes (to our eyes) of the dual Spiritual-Material nature of Reality (a doctrine which is no longer accepted, of course, by many nowadays, and is even rejected by some Churchmen), is that while torture, for example, is a manifestation of extreme Separation, and [is] evil – Death is not***. Death releases the Spirit, which returns with the Soul to God. In practical terms, this is a dangerous doctrine for public consumption, but I do not think that it can be avoided. Death seems to be a neutral act or event: the evil (or otherwise) lies in the motivation, in the question: Is it (i.e. the motivation) of**** the Separation? Or does it tend towards God? (This may be how we distinguish torture from surgery, and can judge vivisection.)

*[See last previous entry]

**(or Union – see p204) <0419>

***Torture, of course, although an action, implies a state of mind; death does not. Actions in themselves are not evil. <930331> [Death itself, in itself, is of course not even an action, merely an event; but it seems that death here is used both in that sense and as an action, the infliction of death, i.e. killing.]

****[i.e. from, belonging to.]

[continues]

[PostedBlogger01012016]