{"id":1274,"date":"2013-08-04T12:59:36","date_gmt":"2013-08-04T17:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/?p=1274"},"modified":"2013-08-04T12:59:36","modified_gmt":"2013-08-04T17:59:36","slug":"prosecute-the-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/2013\/08\/04\/prosecute-the-child\/","title":{"rendered":"Prosecute the Child"},"content":{"rendered":"

From January 1, 2013 to June 9, 2013, 11 children were killed by other children aged 3-6<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here’s the situation. \u00a0An adult leaves a loaded firearm on the kitchen table and tells a 4-year-old “Do not touch”. \u00a0Say that the adult left the firearm with the safety off or it doesn’t have a safety (Yes, there are many guns produced today that do not have a safety.) \u00a0The kid picks up the gun and pulls the trigger accidentally killing or maiming their little sister or themselves.<\/p>\n

Before you say that this unrealistic, let me say that this happened to me. \u00a0I was eight or nine and my father handed me a gun. \u00a0Now my dad is not unfamiliar with firearms. \u00a0He has his concealed carry license. \u00a0He’s has a dealer’s license. \u00a0He was \u00a0champion skeet shooter as \u00a0teenager. \u00a0His father was a champion skeet shooter. \u00a0He was in the US Marine Corps. \u00a0There is no period of time in his life where he was not around firearms.<\/p>\n

But this one time, he handed me a gun. \u00a0I pulled the trigger and put \u00a0bullet through the ceiling about six inches from his head. \u00a0These events do happen, even to the most careful of firearm owners.<\/p>\n

In all of these incidents, whom should we prosecute. \u00a0Should we prosecute the child, perhaps try them as an adult for murder? \u00a0Or should we prosecute the parent for a variety of crimes including child endangerment?<\/p>\n

According to Christianity, we should prosecute the child. \u00a0Not only that, but we should try the child as an adult and put them in the Guantanamo Bay where they can be tortured for for their entire lives for their crime.<\/p>\n

Obviously, that is a stupid and immoral act.<\/p>\n

Can an innocent child, even one told not to do something, make effective judgments on things like that? \u00a0As a parent, I’ve got to say no. \u00a0Just watching my own child, the understanding of cause and effect doesn’t become real for them (in the abstract thinking that we’re talking about here) until about 4 or 5. \u00a0Even then, that cause and effect thinking isn’t the first thing that they do when confronted with new situations.<\/p>\n

Children… innocents… have to be cared for. \u00a0They just aren’t sophisticated enough to deal with the kinds of things that technology can provide. \u00a0Our evolution hasn’t caught up with our technology (and probably never will).<\/p>\n

The same thing happened in the Bible. \u00a0Adam and Eve, created completely innocent, were told not to do something by an authority figure. \u00a0Another authority figure told them to do that thing. \u00a0How are they to judge this? \u00a0They can’t. \u00a0They are 4-year-olds.<\/p>\n

According to the story, god put \u00a0loaded gun on the table, told them not to touch it, then punished them with eternal torture and death… and all their descendants forever and ever, when they did it.<\/p>\n

Here, in the US, we prosecute parents (sometimes) for stuff like this… not the children. \u00a0And that’s as it should be. \u00a0The parents screwed up, big time.<\/p>\n

I think that the same assumption must be made about the Biblical stories of Adam and Eve. \u00a0The parent, god, screwed up, big time. \u00a0But instead of accepting them blame, he transferred the blame to the children.<\/p>\n

When the US Justice system is more moral than one’s religion… one really should examine one’s religion very carefully.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From January 1, 2013 to June 9, 2013, 11 children were killed by other children aged 3-6. Here’s the situation.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[127,35],"tags":[512,513,514],"class_list":["post-1274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","category-religion","tag-adam-and-eve","tag-bible-stories","tag-place-the-blame"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/smilodonsretreat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}