Being Stoned

One of the arguments for religion, for belief in God and all the rest of it, is that without religion we would have no guiding principles for discerning right from wrong, that godlessness would mean that ‘everything would be permitted’. But even in a theocratic society, some confusion seems to be unavoidable. For instance, note the ambiguity, the lack of consistency, in present-day Iran. According to a recent report, “Under Iran's strict penal code, men convicted of adultery should be buried up to their waists and women up to their chests for stoning. The stones used should not be large enough to kill the person immediately.”

But another report from only a year ago says, “Under the punishment of stoning, a male convict is buried up to his waist with his hands tied behind his back, while a female offender is buried up to her neck with her hands also buried.”

As you can see, it is clear and certain what is done with male adulterers. And although I might be accused of splitting hairs and finding problems when there really aren’t any, my question is whether burying a woman up to her chest before stoning her to death is really quite the same thing as burying her up to her neck. In the latter case her hands are also buried (the ultimate defenseless female), but being buried only up to her chest would leave her shoulders and perhaps even her arms and hands free. Such a liberalization of procedure might lead to her raising her arms in a last minute appeal to a Higher Authority in the sky, and such a pleading gesture might be somewhat discomforting, even embarrassing, to at least some of the stone-throwers all set to hurl their righteous rocks at her, the abomination that is their target. On the other hand---and here I come to a final ambiguity as I try to be as thoughtful and exacting as possible---if she tries to protect her face and skull with her hands and forearms, would the brief additional suffering-time extending her ordeal give increased pleasure to God (aka Allah, Yahweh, Zeus, Atman, Holy Ghost, etc.), or would it be merely a Divine Annoyance, an irritating pause between His Wrath and His Holy Justice? A puzzling question worth our brooding over, it seems to me. Let us pray.