Intent?

Been a while since my last post, so I suppose it's time to once again sort through my thoughts via written language. Isn't it funny that it isn't until it's down on a paper (screen) that I can see how skewed and nuts I am.

What about intentions?

In an earthly world, all a person can care about is results, outcome. For example, I try my very best to teach my children to swim, but drown them in the process. Obviously, I will be in very much trouble for essentially killing my kids, because the result was death, aside from whatever I may have meant. However, it certainly seems that judgment based solely on results and outcome can't be the most effective method. If it were, we would have no leniency towards criminals who didn't intend for a certain outcome. For example:

I saw an episode of Law and Order a few years ago where that weird socially awkward investigator is interrogating a man suspected of murdering two women by drilling holes in their head and pouring hot water on their brains. Yes, it sounds horrific. During the process of interrogation, he gets enough information to put the man on death row. The investigator, however, knows that this man didn't intentionally kill these women; his attempt was to render them brain damaged enough that they needed him to take care of him. In a sense, the entire murder aspect of the crime, which was what would put him on death row, wasn't accurate. Despite his superior's orders, the investigator went back into the room and continued asking questions until finally the man confessed to not trying to kill the women, but trying to keep them brain damaged and alive. This was the man's intent, and because of the investigator's actions, he was sentenced to life in prison, instead of death row.

What does this mean? It means that people believe, inherently, that intent is what decides morality. The problem is, we live in a world that we can only perceive through cause and effect, so therefore to us, only cause and effect exists. And, because we see only cause and effect, we only see the effects of our actions. The intent does us little to no good, because results are what effect us. Essentially we live in a state of existence that wants desperately to be just by judging intent, but has no choice but to judge results.

What if there were a way to judge intent? Like a machine that could tell automatically whether a person intended harm or good in an action, despite what the result was? Would this be an effective way of sentencing criminals?

God sees the intent of our actions. He is not effected by the results of anything we do, and he can see the honesty or the lack thereof in everything we do. The bible says that god judges a person's heart, which we are incapable of doing. It's a good thing too; if we could judge a person by their heart, I don't know if we would use it right. Imagine trying to explain to the family whose children were just run over by a semi that it was an accident and that there will be no consequence for the driver.

As a person, not as a government official or anything, I think it's easier to just not judge people at all. BUT it's nearly impossible to not judge! Everything I do is shaped around what I think about everyone else. Sometimes it's frustrating.

~wes~