Not nearly enough; the death penalty is a joke in most states (such as my state of Colorado) these days.
This still leaves massive injustice, not only for what evil we affected here,
This is the historic norm, is it not?
but in God's realm it effects eternity, and has eternal ramifications.
I have no belief in such things.
Then there is the problem of having no proven transcendent moral standard common to atheists, outside their own varied moral reasoning.
No man is an island...even atheists such as myself are enormously influenced by the society the grow up in and (if they're philosophically adventurous enough) those whose writings influence them. My default position on most things is the writings of Robert A. Heinlein. From my point of view, he just makes sense. That's not to say I consider his writings to be the Gospel, but they have influenced me.
As for a transcendent moral standard...as far as I know there's no such thing. Some (most) may claim they have access to it, but of course there's the problem of the guy down the block who says he has the Real Truth (you heathen!). To quote Heinlein: "One man's religion is another man's belly laugh".
See the "Argument from inconsistent revelations" for more on this.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argument_from_inconsistent_revelations
And on that note, I'm going to have to call it a day. Fun thread!
This is the historic norm, is it not?
But not in God's economy, as it takes everything into account, and judges righteousness according to light and ability, etc., and nothing his hidden, even if you disagree with the eternal aspect and the severity from what we see .
No man is an island...even atheists such as myself are enormously influenced by the society the grow up in
We all are somewhat eclectic to some degree, but as with the Constitution, the Bible is the standard, and even the kind of reasoning its sanctions, and while there can be disagreement to varying degrees, as with the Constitution,yet there is a supreme standard to interpret.
In contrast, for the atheist nothing is binding, and all conclusions potentially are viable. Even related to the billboard issue, a few uphold free exercise of religion, others think the children of evang. Christians should be dealt with like as with children of drug addicts. And few would sanction Christian based morality as opposed to atheistic ethos being installed today in schools.