Thagrastay

Supposing that what we believe, we are, and we define ourselves and our own truths, then what need is there for Laws? If every person is a law unto themselves, are we not all justified in seeking our own paths to righteousness? Why encumber ourselves with outside, archaic, moralistic laws?

__________________
"That's it! They've got the cuffs on him, he's IN the car!"

lordjeebus

Suppose that my path to righteousness involves killing everyone else. That gets in the way of most everyone elses paths.

Without law, there would be no way to regulate the interference of others into our own lives.

raeanna74

We do not live in an utopia or it would be true that we would not need outside laws. Unfortunately there are flaws in humanity and some of us are incapable of creating our own laws that do not interfere with other's personal laws. Thus we have laws to protect us from that interferance.

__________________
"Always learn the rules so that you can break them properly." Dalai Lama
My Karma just ran over your Dogma.

iccky

In the words of George Washington "If men were all angels, government would not be necessary. But Men are not angels."

Rodney

Yeah, idealists of all types are very fond of constructing "perfect" societies that require angels to make them go. Marx's idea of communism was definitely an angel-run society; we saw what happened when mere men had a run at it. On the other end, I would suggest that some advocates of extremely pure capitalism are also engaged in angelic thinking.

I'm currently student-teaching and am learning classroom management skills. When you tell a kid to do something, the first thing that flashes through his brain is, "Do I _have_ to? What happens if I don't?" The calculations are immediate, and if he thinks it's safe he'll test the limits you set to see what he can get away with. In any situation in our society, grown men and women make the same calculation a thousand times a day -- about obeying the traffic laws, doing the taxes properly, taking a shortcut through private property, "borrowing" a pen from somebody else's desk, and so on. It's just human nature, and so far I see no angels in the building.

sexymama

Law is simply to give order. We are still called to define our own truths, imho. I believe those truths, if tuned into the universe/humanity/God/whatever you call it, should bring us to a level of performance that is better than the law. (Example, the law does not state that I must support my church, but I do. The law does not say to donate food to the poor, but I do, etc.)

__________________
If you can go deeply into lovemaking, the ego disappears. That is the beauty of lovemaking, that it is another source of a glimpse of god

It's not about being perfect; it's about developing some skill at managing imperfection.