[quote=@Mammalia] I would never deny that that is the absolute best way to discourage someone from being immortal. Certainly, to convert someone to God is much better than just stopping someone from doing wrong! But we can't [i]always[/i] take the best way. I mean, if God always took the best way to save people, then nobody would ever go through hardships to be saved, because God might just show them a vision, or something that would change their mind, or whatever else. It would be awesome if we could take what we saw as the best way, and use that effectively for everyone. But the problem is that we just can't. People are different, and, therefore, they require different methods, so we should take all reasonable avenues to discourage them from immorality. God punishes immorality. We do not wish for others to be punished. If we do not wish for others to be punished, then we should discourage them from immorality in the best way we can. God uses different ways to save people, because a way that works on one person may not work on another. So to discourage someone from immorality, we must take the way that works best for them. We cannot know what way works best for someone. Therefore, we must take the best ways we know of, to discourage the most people. One possible way is to convert them to Christ. Another way is to put into effect laws that punish immorality (as proved by my previous argument). Because both of these work, then we should put both into effect, to discourage the most people. [/quote] It's our job to take the best way. And, in the end, if we can't convince someone to convert, then what is the point in punishing them anyways? If they are a lost cause, and they want to harm themselves, then why should we, as people, punish them? It's a fruitless effort. No matter how much right or wrong someone does, if they don't believe, their fate is the same.