The Human emphasis on justice

[Laurens]

I was thinking the other day about one thing that many religions share in common, and that is a universal form of justice. Whether it is punishing bad people by sending them to hell, or the notion of karma and rebirth.

Clearly there is something psychologically pleasing about the idea of justice. None of us like it when bad things happen to good people, or good things happen to bad people. We want everything to wind up fair and square in the end.

My question is why...? Why is it so displeasing for us to think that some people will never face justice for their actions?

 

[Master_Ghost_Knight]

I'm not be correct on this, I am just guessing, and I am sure that there are valid scientific reasons for this out there.
But I think this is related to self preservation. If we harm or penalize people for their negative actions, they will be less likely to do them again, also other people watching someone get penalized for bad actions will also be less likely to perform them. So by punishing people that do bad things, you are sort of manipulating these psychological responses so that other people will be less likely to perform those bad actions against you or against people you care.
So this feeling of lack of justice maybe a psychological response that pressures you to retaliate and take advantage of this psychological conditioning.

 

[forgotten observer]

I'm not be correct on this, I am just guessing, and I am sure that there are valid scientific reasons for this out there.
But I think this is related to self preservation. If we harm or penalize people for their negative actions, they will be less likely to do them again, also other people watching someone get penalized for bad actions will also be less likely to perform them. So by punishing people that do bad things, you are sort of manipulating these psychological responses so that other people will be less likely to perform those bad actions against you or against people you care.
So this feeling of lack of justice maybe a psychological response that pressures you to retaliate and take advantage of this psychological conditioning.

I tend to agree, I think positive and negative reinforcement are inherent in behaviour learning, which I feel is just part of human psychology, also I feel that justice is perhaps necessary in laws, because many people require deterrents to prevent them committing crimes. Perhaps the idea of heaven and hell are frequent in surviving religions because they survived by natural selection, this may seem odd, but when you think about it, if a religion offers no punishment or reward, what reason have people to retain it? I think they also have many other survival mechanisms, for example like indoctrination and severe punishment for apostasy. It's also possible that whoever formulated religions may have intelligently designed the concepts of heaven and hell, to ensure that people are trapped in them, it is thought that religions, such as the egyptian mythos, were designed in order to control society, this is especially true in theocracies.

 

[Vivre]

Why is it so displeasing for us to think that some people will never face justice for their actions?

Because 'we' are being cheated, even on our cost, while 'we' [agreed to] stand tall for our actions and [would] take responsibility.

Equality and fairness aren't given and therefore artificially granted by justice, [as substitute for our impulsive selfdefence].

The inner need for harmony is disturbed if we have to pay for a disadvantage turned against us, ... and even more while having no more means to take revenge (counter action).

It's not by chance that wars of hatred between human groups are transmitted over generations.

Justice is a belief system of hope to buy obedience. Justice doesn't exist and can't work out / equate an 'unfair' loss.