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I was not sure exactly where to put this. The question is, if you disagree with a law, why do you follow it if obeying such a law would be in fact a sin by your own moral standards.
Does the law change our conscience? When normally we'd see something as just, would we then change our conscience to believe it was wrong because the law told us we should do this?
How do you feel about this?
Never! But the consequence of breaking a law may give us pause.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mathor
Mental health laws have been taken as weapons to persecute people with by psychiatrists and family members of the victims around the globe for quite a long time.
The only laws that I can think of that would go against my conscience are the stupid sodomy laws in various states here in the U.S. If I were a gay man and lived in a state with such laws, I'd break them because I consider them unconstitutional.
Law is birthed from conscience. Conscience tells us what is good and bad. And what is good and bad is a relative matter.
Laws are good as long as they are framed in our favor. And the same laws are bad if they are not in our favor.
Its probably one of my worse personality habits, but my conscience is my absolute moral guide... if I disagree with a law, then I ignore it and break it anyway. Take speed limits for example: they are so utterly arbitrary that I have no desire to be held by them, and thus I drive at a speed that I deem safe, be it above or below the state sanctioned one.
For fun identify this quote
"The one thing that does not abide by majority rule is a person's conscience"
I believe it is a quote from Atticus in To Kill A Mockingbird.
There are laws, even in countries where we feel we have total freedom, which interfer with our own sense of morality; I can think of two, both are US examples:
1. A woman, Terry Schiavo, was in a questionable state of consciousness.
She opened her eyes and smiled when her parents visited her. After 7
years in this state; her husband petitioned to have her feeding tube
removed. By law, it was removed and reinserted twice; anyone who tried
to feed her was arrested. She died of starvation and dehydration almost 2 weeks after feeding was discontinued.
If you were the medical professionals, would you have disobeyed this law?
2. Elian Gonzalez was brought to the United States by his mother; who died
in route from Cuba. He stayed with his family in South Florida. After some
pressure from the Cuban government, claiming Elians natural father wanted
him to return; a swat team was sent into the families home where they
grabbed the hiding boy, by force, and returned him to Cuba.
If you were one of the swat team, what would your conscience dictate?
If you break the law for moral reasons that's great, but be ready to accept the consequences.
Law is made by man and the origin of it is when man wanted to etrench a system in the tribal community so that the rest got oblized to it,
Today laws are framed by people in power and they represent the people they make laws for. But this is nowhere implimented fully and in point of fact people in power can always break them thru amendments.
indeed. Martin Luther King and other such law-breakers for moral good served were imprisoned. To stand up against the law means going to prison in many cases.Quote:
Originally Posted by Hurricane
If you look at it objectively, the founding fathers of America were criminals - the signing of the Declaration of Independece constituted high treason to the Crown, the worst possible crime one can commit under British law. However, I don't think anyone on either side of the Pond would suggest (at least today) that such an action wasn't justifiable and, indeed, understandable.Quote:
Originally Posted by Mathor
Both those laws were travesties to justice. I would have disobeyed both. They can fire me, but I would have done neither.Quote:
Originally Posted by soundofmusic
Laws are consciences enforced and consciences are programs parents or elders instill in the younger and nothing more