Ep. 376 Adam Terrell Interviews Bob Murphy About Christianity and Private Law
Back in April 2024, Adam Terrell of the Theocracy podcast posted his discussion with Bob about the intersection of his Christian beliefs and writings on privately produced law.
Mentioned in the Episode and Other Links of Interest:
- The Theocracy podcast.
- Bob’s article on law without the State.
- Adam Terrell’s book on Public Stoning.
- Help support the Bob Murphy Show.
About the author, Robert
Christian and economist, Chief Economist at infineo, and Senior Fellow with the Mises Institute.
East Germany. The Trabant. Famously, the worst car ever.
Hi Bob
As usual I enjoyed the podcast. This topic particularly as it combines two loves of mine – economics and the Bible (and especially second temple period and subsequent tort law)
Your economics however is a bit stronger than your ancient middle eastern jurisprudence and biblical stories.
Happy to speak on the topic. You know where to find me.
Can you give me a hint?
Can’t say I was convinced that we need to bring back caning, stoning, slavery, and community executions, but it was an interesting episode all the same.
With community executions in particular, the threat of a mob mentality weighs way more heavy for me than any conceivable advantage. Maybe it would be better to have some kind of mechanized setup where jurors sit in their own private booth in which they can see the accused, and the execution only occurs if every juror decides to throw the switch, knowing the consequence. The requirement for a unanimous decision means that if the execution takes place, each juror has publicly endorsed it, but if the execution fails, each juror’s decision remains private, which leaves them to judge according to their conscience rather than social pressure.