From Adam S. Miller and his book ‘Original Grace’: (Continuing from Logic of Justice IV )
Sin is self-inflicted suffering. As a result, sinful actions always result in unnecessary suffering. In other words, our moral choices always have natural consequences in the material order of things. But, I’m arguing, these natural consequences are dictated by the material order of things. The suffering that follows from sin is a material fact, not a moral imperative. In this respect, a kind of “punishment” for sins is naturally built into the material order such that there’s always a “punishment that is affixed . . . in opposition to the happiness which is affixed to answer the ends of the atonement” (2 Nephi 2:10). But, again, this suffering is a natural, self-inflicted consequence of sin, not a moral obligation, required by justice. The moral order never demands punishment as an ethical obligation to return evil for evil. The obligation imposed by the moral order—by the logic of justice—as to respond to all suffering, whatever the cause, with whatever good is needed.
Is there, then, no part for punishment or play in the execution of justice? If punishment is a moral imperative to return evil for evil, the answer is no. There’s no such thing as a moral imperative to do evil. But if punishment is instead a moral imperative to return evil for evil, the answer is no. There’s no such thing as a moral imperative to do evil. But if punishment is instead a moral imperative to return good for evil by helping people to learn discipline and take responsibility for the natural consequences or their actions, then the answer is yes. In the latter case,”punishment” is clearly a good that is needed—a grace that is required regardless of what someone deserved—for an evil to be imposed. This kind of punishment can then be good—even if different choices with different consequences in a different world have allowed, instead for something better, or even what’s best.
This, then, is my hypothesis: It is never morally legitimate to use God’s law to judge what someone deserves. Rather, God’s law can only be used to judge what good someone needs. ~Adam S. Miller, Original Grace (BYU Maxwell Institute, Deseret Book, 2022) 40-41. . . . For the first post of this series click . . . “Logic”.
