Jottings on science, religion, technology, pop culture and faith from the Antipodes.

Faith & Religion

After Abu Ghraib, psychologist asks: Is it our nature to torture?

A sobering opinion piece on torture and the process of developing torturers at: After Abu Ghraib, psychologist asks: Is it our nature to torture?.

Philip G. Zimbardo says in it,

I condemn all uses of torture, not only because of the suffering and moral degradation it causes, but also because it represents a corruption of the creative mind in the service of evil.

Human beings are creative – it seems to be part of our nature and possibly, some argue, a product of being image-bearers of a creative God. Not only does torture corrupt that creativity within the torturer but it ultimately dehumanizes all parties involved. Expressing our human creativity serving evil strips us of our very humanity that creativity is part of.