Christmas lecture, 2008
Theme: Death Note
Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note.
Note: The speech in italics is Light =]
Perhaps it is ironic that I celebrate Christmas, Light-kun, especially this year, as it is the celebration of God being embodied as a man, and Kira believes himself to be a God. But he is no where near close to being quite the man Jesus was, as Jesus sought to bring about happiness, rather than destroy it. Jesus embraced, helped and forgave wrongdoers who could justify their actions, and those who couldn't were left to the Laws of Man. He also stressed quite clearly in the bible that we should all 'give unto Caesar what is Caesar's, and give unto God what is God's'.
I do not understand.
In this context, Jesus does not speak of the man who is Caesar, but rather he refers to the government, and the government is the law of the land. He encourages following the rules that the state has set, if only because God has allowed it to be. And if you do not follow the rules of the state, it is only fair to face due punishment that is also determined by the same men that have put down the rules. In Christianity, laws of God and laws of man are very different, and this is one of the main reasons that Capital Punishment is no longer legal in the European Union: "All life is sacred, and only God has rights to take it away". Seeing as the law of the land is not a Godly law it shouldn't, technically, be punishable by death.
I do not see where you are going with this Ryuzaki.
Light-kun, do you not understand? The law of the land is a set of rules determined by man: people like me (and I do not mean that lightly. My word may as well be the word of law). This means there are loopholes, as no one is perfect. There are ways around the law; exceptions due to circumstance. The law of God, on the other hand, is opposite and is something no mortal should go against. Betraying the ultimate being (your creator) is only punishable by death because going against that what made you is basically signing your own death warrant.
Usually governments ask the public what to do with punishment, as it is of general benefit to them, and governments can do very little on their own as they are merely elected officials. But there are still places that ignore that and turn to their holy scriptures, such as in Islamic countries. Do you know the difference between Muslim and Islamic countries, Light-kun?
I have put little thought into the matter, Ryuzaki.
Oh? Well, I shall tell you. Muslim countries and where the population is primarily Muslim – I presume you may have guessed that. But Islamic countries are where anyone who enters has to abide by the Islamic holy laws: the shar'iah. The shar'iah is both the law of the land and the law of God...or Allah, and this is where instead of consulting the public, they consult the Qur'an. They ask their ancient scriptures to guide them, even though these texts are over a thousand years old.
Very few religions do this anymore and you can imagine what it'd be like if they did: it'd be exactly as it is now with Kira killing anyone left and right. 'You betrayed whichever God we believe in, so you must die'.
I believe, as you know, in the 'an eye for an eye' section of the bible, but only in cases of murder, or torture – particularly extended torture, and I do no particularly like that the European Unions have banned capital punishment, even for this. I do think murderers or torturers deserve death because they are robbing others of the most important rights the victims have of being human, and following the 'eye for an eye', 'once is once' logic, they are, in effect, taking them away from themselves. This turns them into monsters; animals, and no one has any problem in 'putting down' dangerous beasts.
With other cases, justice aims to inflict upon the guilty what the guilty inflicted upon the victims in a different form: such as prolonged imprisonment or hard manual labour. There are certain points of view I do in fact share with Kira, but very few, as you can imagine. One is that certain criminals cannot be forgiven, and that life should mean life, and not merely twenty-five years. But Kira is also inflicting his curse upon petty criminals such as thieves and white-collar criminals who do not actually deserve death.
Do you have a point in all this?
Yes, I do. What I am saying is that the law of the land is far different from the law of God, or whatever almighty being you may or may not believe in, and what Kira is doing is going against that and bringing the law of the land up to divine level in a vain attempt to become divine being himself. This, in effect, is going against the law of God itself by merging it with the law of man: an occurrence which He and His son worked hard to keep separate. Kira made both laws one and the same, not just here in Japan, but worldwide.
Now, let's say I believed in all this: I could not just accuse Kira of being the most disgusting, evil mass-murderer the world has ever seen, but I could also accuse him of blasphemy and of ultimate betrayal to God. If I were feeling particularly malicious, I could even say that Kira is, by clashing both laws into one, ignoring God's word, and seeing as it was God word that brought us all into being, one could say that in refusing to obey it, Kira may in fact be slowly picking apart the threads that holds our universe together. God's voice made everything, and proving Him wrong could result in the end of all we know. Cheerful thought, isn't it? Merry Christmas, Light-kun. 3
Author's Note: I wrote this on Christmas Eve last year xD Thought it was about time I should post it.