Sure, it’s broadly (if vaguely) accepted that people who do bad things should be repaid in kind, but really, not only does that never happen in the real world, but talk like this is so superficial, and gives little consideration to circumstance. “Bad people” either have something seriously wrong with them, i.e., they’re missing the “empathy gene,” they theyselves were severely mistreated/abused or they’ve been swept up into some radical ideaology which twists their consciences inside out, and they may actually believe they’re doing good or what is necessary. In other words, ANY ONE OF US would be just like them had we, like them, through the ACCIDENTS of when and where to and to whom we were born, done the same!

And then on top of this, what is really achieved by getting an eye for an eye. Surely not your eye back, but just another person half blind, and not to mention, the fact that now you, too, have blinded someone!

I’ve actually written an entire book on this topic–”Hell? No! Why You Can Be Certain There’s No Such Place As Hell,” (for anyone interested, you can get a free ecopy of my book at my website: http://www.thereisnohell.com), but if I may, I’d like to add one more point–that Jesus, in his original, core message, rejected this entire notion of “justice.”

He only saw this as an endless cycle of human pain. Since we’re all susceptible to doing bad things and having them done to us, his answer was to repent and forgive. To opt out completely from the notion that we have to get back at people for what they’ve done.