Who might you find in the lowest circles of hell?

I liked my answer to this Quora question so much that I had to put it here on my blog as well. I also used it to answer the question, “Why is murder a crime?” N.B. I do not believe in hell.

Murderers, particularly mass murderers, must occupy the very lowest circle. This sounds like a boring answer. Let me try to make it a little less so. I think many people do not understand what a horrific crime murder is. This is a shame. So let me explain it.

Frankly, the crime of murder makes all others pale in comparison. The trouble in understanding this is that murder is more “metaphysical” and so its evil, more difficult to comprehend. When a person is dead, nothing else happens to him qua person. Thus the crime of murder seems to have a short shelf life. It takes ten minutes to sharpen the knife, a minute to confront the victim and do the deed, a few hours for the body to be discovered, a year or two for the survivors to grieve, and then life goes on. For the murder victims themselves, many of them, the terror and pain last for only moments; is it really so bad?

But, no. That’s not how it is. If you think this way, you probably also don’t understand the economic concept of opportunity cost. The evil of murder lies not in the pain of dying and grieving, but in the enormousness of what it deliberately prevents: an entire life.

If you (wrongheadedly) think of life materialistically, as collecting stuff, then consider that murder involves not only robbing a person of all of his current possessions, it also involves robbing him of all possessions he would ever earn and enjoy in the future. The murderer as it were leaves you utterly naked for eternity. He’s stolen your car, your house, your computer, your devices, your toys, your clothes–and everything you would have had in the future, too. That’s a lot of stuff!

If you think of a life as a series of experiences, many of which are worthwhile in themselves–“peak experiences” and all–then consider that murder involves robbing a person of all the experiences he would have in the future. The murderer as it were locks you in a plain, windowless room forever. All chance at experiencing books, movies, relationships, food, etc., all gone.

If you think of a life as “love,” as a collection of meaningful relationships, then consider that murder involves abruptly breaking every single one of those relationships, between parent and child, sibling and sibling, friend and friend, husband and wife. All of them, all at once, never to return. The murderer as it were restrains you from all future dates, outings, time with children and parents, all of it. He has stolen your power to enjoy your parents, your husband or wife, your children, your friends–everyone you know, everyone you will know, everyone you might otherwise have brought into the world. That is truly an incredible loss.

If you think of life as service, as helping others, then consider that murder involves preventing you from helping anyone else, ever again, in any way whatsoever. The poor, sick, ignorant, and powerless, whoever you might have helped, will not be helped, at least not by you. The murderer as it were ties your hands and makes you watch helplessly as others try to shift for themselves even when they simply don’t know how.

If you think of life as the pursuit of meaningful goals, then consider that murder permanently and irrevocably removes a person’s ability to achieve anything whatsoever. The murderer as it were chains you to a wall with everything you might want to do far out of reach. The murderer makes every one of your dreams permanently, irrevocably impossible. Imagine how outrageous it would be for someone to come to your dream job and then physically restrain you for five minutes from doing that job. Then imagine someone doing that for the rest of your life. That’s what murder does.

There are, of course, some other truly horrific crimes, such as abuse and torture. But murder is worse than abuse. Many abused people go on to live good lives and give life to others. In the end, they would rather have been abused than murdered. Murder is also worse than torture. Think of the war heroes who were tortured even for years, who later went on to have happy families and achieve great things. In the end, they would rather have been tortured than murdered.

Stalin, being responsible for more deaths than any single individual in history, would have to be at the bottom. Hitler would be very close to the bottom as well. Just try to think of everything that these monsters robbed from the world. It’s inconceivable.


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Please do dive in (politely). I want your reactions!

4 responses to “Who might you find in the lowest circles of hell?”

  1. PokerDad

    Enjoyed the read. Without question, these were two of the worst people to ever walk the planet. Worse then them were the ideas they stood behind, and I believe ideas rob us far more than any mass murderer could ever.

    Could your arguments be made against birth control as well? After all, a life prevented is the ultimate opportunity cost is it not?

    1. Thanks!

      There are obviously deep issues here. Are we preventing life by abstaining from as much sex as possible? All fertile women must be pregnant at all times!

      Actually, I’m sure this argument was partly inspired by my reading of the philosophical literature about abortion.

  2. Stephen Gilbert

    If we accept your argument, it follows that murder is not actually the worst crime. Worse would be to imprison a person for the rest of their life, combined with constant torture. Murder takes away a potential lifetime and replaces it with nothing. The above crime still kills the potential possessions, experiences, relationships and service of a life and replaces it with something far worse than oblivion.

    1. I stand corrected. I think that is a worse crime!

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