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WHY SOMETIMES PUNISHMENT REINFORCEMENT IS NECESSARYMORE ON DAVID, AMNON, TAMAR AND ABSALOMIt is necessary first to define certain terms before beginning our discussion.POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT is the provision of a motivating stimulus to a person after a desired behavior is exhibited, making the behavior more likely to happen in the future because of the addition of a positive consequence.NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT is the removal of an aversion stimulus after a desired behavior is exhibited, making the behavior more likely to happen in the future because of the removal of the negative consequence.PUNISHMENT REINFORCEMENT is the provision of an aversive consequence after an undesired behavior is exhibited, making the behavior less likely to happen in the future to prevent recurrence of the adverse consequence.BF Skinner, a late 20th century psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher, argued (after experimentation on his own daughter) that positive reinforcement was the most successful in achieving desired behavior outcomes. But what kind of reinforcement does God use? Hebrews 12:5-6 states:“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor lose courage when you are punished by him. For the Lord disciplines him whom he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.”Obviously, punishment reinforcement. Why is that? Because God did not create automatons that respond mechanical to positive and negative reinforcement. We human beings will game the system to achieve the end results of positive and negative reinforcement without performing the desired behaviors. We will find a way to do what we want to do AND get the reinforcement we desire. Robert Heinlein stated this another way in his Notebooks of Lazarus Long:“If men were the automatons that behaviorists claim they are, the behaviorist psychologists could not have invented the amazing nonsense called ‘behaviorist psychology.’”We see the truth of this played out in the lives of Amnon, the eldest son of King David, and Absalom, his half-brother. Recall the story wherein Amon lusted after and eventually incestuously raped his half-sister Tamarin 2nd Samuel chapter 13. Surely this scandalous act would have been reported all throughout the royal court of King David, and David would have heard of it. And what did David do? NOTHING! There was no punishment (e.g., exile) meted out to Amnon for his heinous act (which in justice to Tamar, David’s own daughter, should have been done). So, what happened because of this? Absalom had Amnon killed and fled for three years to his grandfather at Geshur. This whole incident set up the conditions that led to Absalom’s revolt against the Throne in 2nd Samuel chapter 15, causing David to flee Jerusalem, the capital city, while Absalom had sexual congress with David’s concubines in public as a gorilla or chimpanzee would establish dominance in defeating the alpha male. As the reader will recall, Absalom ended up with three darts through his heart at the hand of Joab while he was hanging by his hair from a tree, having fled by mule from David’s eventually victorious army in the civil war. Because David did NOT use punishment reinforcement on Amnon for raping Tamar, David lost both Amnon and Absalom to death.Every time I read that Pope Francis and the rest of the liberal effeminate clerics are arguing for dialog and accompaniment, I think of this sad story of Amnon, Tamar and Absalom. Dialog and accompaniment with evil never ever work. That is why the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews quotes Proverbs 3:11-12:“My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.”I do not like punishment reinforcement, and I do ask God to spare me this. But sometimes it has been the only way that I would listen, straighten up and fly right. I have made some bad decision in life (as we all have), and sometimes God has allowed me to reap what I have sown. It is never pleasant. But invariably the alternative was far worse. David never punished his sons. As a result, he suffered that alternative inasmuch as Absalom killed Amnon for raping his sister, and Joab killed Absalom for revolting against the Throne.