An Uncheery Subject

I had a rather interesting conversation with a friend last night and it has left me wondering about myself, human nature, the laws of God and man, and how desperation will cause you to make choices you would not normally make.

The question posed (which stemmed from us watching the evening news) was “Do you agree with torture?”

Well my first response was a great big, NO it is never ok. Now although most countries will not admit it, I do think that every government tortures individuals to get the information they want, and the world is a better place for it. I know it happens but I do not want to know about it.

Now it is one thing when we are talking about terrorists and countries being invaded and people being blown up, it would seem that for the greater good the information should be extracted from the individual in order to save a greater number of people. Does that give us the right to do horrible horrible things to another human? But we also brought it down to the level of would we think torture is ok if it was just the safety of our families involved.

Through the conversation I stubbornly suck to the fact that it is not ok, and I would never think it was ok under any circumstances…but here I am a day later still wondering. I hate people being hurt, and I hate the ugly side of life. I know that some people make those decisions and are ok with that, but I am just not one of those people. I do not like violence. Is it possible for me to say, it is not ok with me, but at the same time I know it happens and with that I am ok with as long as I do not know about it. I know that is rather two-faced but that is how I feel about it.