Essay Sample on Gushee's Strongest Argument

Human life is sacred, and God's given. Every person in the world, no matter how evil they may be, or how severe effects their actions may cause to others, God's remains the ultimate judge, the determinant of right and wrong, and the punishment that a person deserves. Torture is one of the numerous forms of retributions that people purport would cause a change of heart and make a person reveal whatever they may be hiding. Torture is a heinous act that needs condemning at all levels of society. Gushee challenges those supporting tortures with counter-arguments as to why the actions are wrong and morally incorrect. He touches on severe torture consequences not only to the person being tortured but also to the perpetrators. Amongst all the opinions, his strongest argument is the effect of torture through violation of the dignity of humanity.

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Criminal or no criminal, human life is precious. The forms of torture, such as maiming, physical inflicted, and emotional inflicted pain, is a violation of the will of God on humanity. By causing physical and psychological torture to a person, the perpetrator directly role-plays God. At that particular moment, he assumes that he has the right to injure the criminal to get the information that they badly need. However, there are other ways of extracting information from the individual, besides causing physical or emotional harm. The act of torture lowers the dignity of the criminal as well as the perpetrator (Gushee 3). It instills hard feelings and affects the perpetrator emotionally the same way as it affects the criminal. As a result, the perpetrator develops traits such as hot-temper and lack of compassion.

Gushee argues that human life is God-given. According to his argument, every part of the human body is proof of the might and handiwork of God. Physical or emotional pain inflicted in a person through torture goes against the will of God when He was creating human beings. Attacking a fellow human being is wrongdoing. Despite the person having committed a crime, torturing the person is equally doing the same thing as they did. Both the inflictor and the inflicted are similarly wrong. The investigators ought to use other means to obtain formation from the person without causing harm (Gushee 3).

The use of torture to extort information from criminals is not a sign of might. It shows that a nation is too weak to use other measures to acquire the information. Torture, as an interrogation technique, is not always effective in countering activities such as terrorism. It leads to hatred and grudges amongst nations (Turner 60). One of the reasons why torture through physical and emotional pressure may not be the effect is due to the tense situation of the person being tortured. Under extreme pressure, a person may say anything just to avoid the painful ordeal. Interrogators who have used torture to acquire information at some point states that the victims may pretend to cooperate only to lead the investigators into deep ends. Therefore, Gushee's argument stating ineffectiveness in torture to acquire information is correct.

Torture makes people tough and rigid. Prisoners of war find torture as a way of proving to the investigators that they are sturdy and can hold for long without breaking. The struggles between the investigators and the person being tortured can result in the death of the prisoner. The primary goal of capturing the prisoner alive was to gather the information that would help in farther investigation. However, torture can result in the death of the prisoner and bring the whole study to a standstill. The investigators, in this case, fail both in performing their primary duty of gathering critical information as well as preserving life (Turner 65).

Everybody in life, in one way or another, pays for the evils that they commit. The legal system is there to ensure that the people found guilty in the society pay for their wrongdoing by being incarcerated. Incarceration can enhance a change of heart in an individual. Instead of torturing a prisoner, the best way is to prosecute the person and keep him behind bars. While in prison, they may develop a change of heart and cooperate at personal will. There are various ways of handling a prisoner besides torturing. Neuroscience studies indicate that people working at their own will are essential in investigation compared to those tortured. The physical and emotional pain inflicted through torture interferes with the regular operation of the brain and mood of the person, thus affecting their cognitive functionality. As a result, any information obtained from a person under such a condition will be highly inaccurate.

The physical and psychological torture advanced to prisoners is not always genuine. Gushee acknowledges that a nation cannot be allowed and trusted to perform enhanced interrogation to prisoners. Some of the investigators use this as an opportunity to extend personal motives such as grudges or avenge the loss of a loved one. The act of revenging an act of torture extended to an American by a terrorist shows that there is no difference between the civilized Americans and the terrorists. Showing the terrorist compassion and love amidst sorrow and grief over their actions is the best punishment that they can get.

Conclusively, Gushee offers five main concerns and arguments over the use of torture to gather intelligence from prisoners. The most outstanding case is that life is sacred, and God is the giver of life. Additionally, God is the supreme judge for the good and evil of humanity. No human being has the right and power to inflict physical or psychological torture on another in the name of gathering information. Torture, in intelligent gathering, is not effective as it does not help in gathering accurate information.