Paladins choice

[taltamir]

The whole "scarying people into not doing evil" efficiency is not generally agreed upon. I do not have them on hand, but I hear that studies have shown that (for example) capital punishment is NOT an effective deterrent to crime.

Torture may or may not be more efficient. Who knows?

every study I have ever read that asked prisoners what their biggest fear was and it was always "an armed victim"...

Keep in mind that different studies have different agendas to prove and lying with statistics is trivially easy.

I am just saying that the notions they have presented as the only possible argument are simply not. In this rare case I am actually arguing the point I believe in... but I'd be playing devils advocate anyways if a person refused to acknowledge the mere existence of opposing viewpoints.

They can say that I am wrong, that it doesn't work, and so on... but don't tell me "you know its evil to torture you are just making excuses to yourself despite knowing better". Torture is not universally believed to be evil, in fact, by the above examples NOT torturing under specific circumstance is evil.
I am willing to accept that I might be wrong on the issue, I am CERTAINLY willing to accept that there are other opinions on the issue which disagree with mine. please extend equal courtesy and accept that there are people who truly and honestly believe that under certain circumstances torture is good and not torturing is evil.