Religious Perspectives: Class discussion Continued

The third question under the Religious Perspectives heading discussed in today's class (February 2nd) focused mainly on views from Tolstoy. Tolstoy sees that you do not know what consequences your actions are going to have, therefore there is no such thing as justifiable violence. I really began to ponder over what he meant and when I had first read this I really didn't see where Tolstoy was coming from. After the discussion in class I came to the realization that I am more likely to agree with this view than I initially thought. Take for instance, had my parents been involved in some disagreement where someone else had acted out in violence towards them and killed both, I wouldn't be alive today. That would obviously have been a strong impact on my life.
As we moved on with our discussion in class the topic of means and ends was discovered. Are the means of getting to the end worth more than the end outcome? Or is the end outcome essentially more important than the means of achieving it? I also began to think about this question and came to the strong conclusion that if you as an individual, group, or nation are to practice non-violent tactics, manners, or lifestyles both the means and the end outcome is equally important. You are not setting a strong example if your building blocks are not within the same realm as the end outcome.