Comments | tylinhae: The Nature of Forgiveness

tylinhae

The Nature of Forgiveness

Nov 30, 2008 02:45

It isn't at all an uncommon thing that as I lie awake at night struggling to sleep, I find myself wondering about things. Often they're idle little things. Some times I hit on something a bit more interesting. This particular morning I find myself wondering about human nature ( Read more... )

Comments 12

jaerik November 30 2008, 23:08:57 UTC

It's ironic, but I would forgive them, if not purely because knowing they deserved punishment and that I chose not to, would probably result in the worst punishment of all for them.

cjdesi December 1 2008, 02:24:33 UTC

Pondering the situation like this, I would have to say I would forgive them. A person CAN change, and people can become truly repentant for past transgressions. I would find it difficult to ever be able to let go of all my hatred for this person, but I would hope I have the capacity to forgive them.

But one can never predict how they would react if they had the means to carry out punishment. He might be begging for forgivness at my feet, but if I am weilding a loaded gun, who is to say for certain?

wintersillusion December 1 2008, 05:36:08 UTC

I think he'd have to be pretty stupid to come begging at your feet while you're wielding a loaded gun... in which case I say, natural selection. ^.-

wintersillusion December 1 2008, 05:43:29 UTC

This is a very very difficult question. Many times in my life I've run into situations that I'd had the occasion to think upon in the past and thought I would react one way when I really ended up reacting another way. Case in point, I always thought girls who let guys beat them because they loved them were stupid and I never understood where their logic came from. Then, my first "boyfriend" used to push me when we fought and I would just push him back. My best friend yelled at me constantly that I was letting him behave in a way he shouldn't have. I was a stupid girl who thought I needed to stay with him because he loved me. After that, now I understand a bit more why someone would do something like that but with the distance from me and this relationship, I'm once again wondering how anyone could be that stupid and why I ever put up with that. I don't care if I was a teenager, being a teenager doesn't mean I have to be stupid, right ( ... )

aranka December 1 2008, 05:51:13 UTC

You've covered everything but the circumstances and that would be for me the deciding factor. There are some things in life that are entirely unforgivable, but I'm no absolutist so . . . Well here. A few months back this guy broke into my car. Not a huge crime of the level you're talking about but he doesn't think I know it, and he did it to try to scare me. But - and this is where the circumstances get crazy - a huge portion of why he, a normally reasonable person, thought that this course of action was correct was because he happens to know this guy who . . . happens to be a sociopath. And it sounds cliche but the sociopath convinced him for some reason that he should do this. So as for the guy who did it, he fucked up hardcore. Even with the clear involvement of a sociopath its still a hugely stupid and irrational move on his part and he . . . well he owes me and the state money because it was a criminal act. But at the same time, he wouldn't have come to this conclusion on his own. It's not like he's rotted to his core . . . I'm ( ... )

tylinhae December 1 2008, 06:53:44 UTC

Ah, but that's the ultimate point of the question. Is there really anything in life that is absolutely unforgivable? I'm not disagreeing with you or taking a side, it's merely something I wonder about. What makes any crime unforgivable, regardless of how horrible it would be ( ... )

aranka December 1 2008, 07:24:54 UTC

Westerners have this sort of fundamental belief that people do things because its "in their nature" rather than circumstantial and I'm of the opinion that that's not really addressing the whole picture. I'm not really prepared to issue any overarching statements on human decision making, but I do largely think that "morality" is a social construct and the use of laws is . . . a Qin invention that got waaaaay out of hand. So in that sense I don't believe in either damnation or redemption in any sense. That said, there are certain people way out in the extremes that deserve the worst and ironically, I don't think Hitler was among them. Hitler again was one of those who screwed up fantastically and is responsible for the deaths of billions all over the world but even he was circumstantially motivated. There's no real excuse for the vast extremity of his actions, but its not like he was doing it because he thought it was funny which . . . some people do ( ... )

tylinhae December 1 2008, 08:13:57 UTC

Well, this is not a case of God versus Man. I'm not speaking of redemption in the sense that Charleton Heston will pop out and declare "THOU SHALT BE SAAAAVED." It's not a question of "Will god forgive me, so I can go to heaven?" I mean redemption in the sense that "can bad deeds be 'balanced' by good deeds?"

I like to pick on Hitler because he's such an easy example. He has been molded posthumously into a sort of stereotype for the concept of "Evil" and that makes him a handy point of reference. Hitler chose a path of genocide because he felt he was doing good for all mankind. If you share his beliefs, he's a hero. If you do not, he's a villain. Realistically that is very circumstantial and in this case the morality of it has been determined by the winners. I'm sure if you asked a Jewish person if Hitler deserved to die, they would feel quite certain that he should die and burn in hell or otherwise suffer vast eternal torment for the crimes he committed, which is why it's important that we look at this situation from a victim's ( ... )

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