The thread on Huckabee wanting to amend the Constitution to be in "God's standards" or whatever (and his subsequent comments about marriage) got me thinking--where do we get our laws? Brisket made a great point about how if we're going to make the Bible a law, it's all in or fold. "God isn't a la carte". I agree with that, and it makes Huck's statments just crazy sounding. However, what about some of our moralistic criminal laws? we don't allow murder, rape, burglary, etc. If we don't base our laws on the Bible (which we don't), where do they come from? Common sense? for the record, i'm pro-Bible but anti-government involvement. I think Huckabee is barking up the wrong tree. hell, the people cheering for him should be smart enough to realize what he is saying isn't really even possible in today's climate.
basically, we obtained the framework for our laws from the bible, the natural rights of man argument from some dudes in europe during the enlightenment and some document in england. it is my understanding that this is the framework.
Are we talking about criminal laws only, civil laws or both criminal and civil? Much of our laws, both criminal and civil come from English Common law, which is just precedent repeated over time that seems to make sense and eventually gets codified.
Keep the god of your choice at home. S/he isn't in the constitution, and has no place in the legal system. Basing a single law on a specific religious tenet is a form of theocracy, no matter how mild. The same goes for exceptions to any law.
It is absolutely absurd to say that you cannot codify moral principles from the bible into law. Every society takes their common religous foundation and codifies it in their laws, to some greater or lesser extent.
Wu "Every society takes their common religous foundation and codifies it in their laws, to some greater or lesser extent. " Excellent point that is clearly true. Yet We in USA seem to spend too much time denying it and trying to prove we didn't.
Keep the god of your choice at home. S/he isn't in the constitution, and has no place in the legal system. Basing a single law on a specific religious tenet is a form of theocracy, no matter how mild. The same goes for exceptions to any law. _________________________________________________ I guess we should throw out that "thou shall not kill" thing, that was certainly a bad idea.
To say that our laws come from the Bible is simply not true. While some of the law coincide with Biblical principle, that doesn't mean that they originated there. First of all, by saying this, you are implying that the virtues that are stated in the Bible are unique. That certainly isn't true. You are also implying that the Bible's values are original. That isn't true either. Lastly, if the the Bible was the source for our laws, that would mean that our laws should differ from non-christian cultures vastly. Which they don't.
Just because it's also in the Bible doesn't mean that's where it came from, or why it is part of our system of laws. Even if you're an atheist, you probably don't like murder, if for no other reason than you don't want someone else to be allowed to murder YOU. Making murder illegal -- how about the reason that it protects the rights of others? Same with theft laws. And rape, etc. Heck, let's look at the Supreme Document -- the Constitution. I won't plug in the whole thing, just the index. I'm not seeing much in there that has jack **** to do with the Bible. I mean, really, God took a position on the quartering of troops in homes? Or the extradition of citizens among the states? Or on the powers of the legislature?
Some have argued that gods were created to enforce law not the other way around. God created in man's image. I think the original quote is something like, "if triangles had a god, god would be three sided." The Greeks and Romans had laws before they ever knew there was a Bible. Broaden your perspective.
I think it all traces back to an insidious Iraqi plot to undermine Western civilization. An extemist terrorist, Hammurabi, determined to undermine sane society, created a code. And then there were lawyers..... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammurabi But what I really learned at the University is that most of the law in the State of Texas comes from napkins. Mostly beer soaked napkins from Scholz's. But I digress.....
