Why do some feel the need to legislate their morality on others?

Question

Take gay marriage for example, I understand that you find homosexuality abhorrent, but why should your moral views have any bearing on the actions of others?

How would you feel if a large group of Muslims and Jews started to lobby to ban the sale of pork?

What ever happend to the concept of personal liberty?

Lynchburger-
Apparently I need to clarify this concept of liberty for people like you; if it is not harming you or others then it is none of your business

Answer 1

Murder is a moral question, Yes? Strike it from the books then?

Edit:

Your question asked whether legislation could be based on moral principles. My question of whether the immoral act of murder should be regulated by the law is fair in that context, and you have elected not to respond to it. As you wish. Please note I am not specifically addressing your example of homosexuality but the broader idea that a moral concept can easily produce a legislative act. Indeed, no law can be written which does not involve moral thinking. The real question is this: Whose moral theory will be used to make the laws? We all agree, I hope, that murder is so abhorrent there should be no dissent about that. Yet we cannot agree even on that. Is abortion murder? If so, it should be outlawed. But why outlaw murder at all? Because it does obvious harm? According to who? The perpetrator often thinks he or she is justified, that some good they are doing outweighs the harm to the victim. As a society we respond to the killer by saying, no, your judgment of right and wrong is deeply flawed. Ah, but that is itself a moral judgment, a rule for discerning what is right and what is wrong. It is based on the value we place on human life, and we safeguard that value with appropriate legal protections. By the same token, many of us take the position that homosexuality does create harm, though in less obvious ways than murder. That is a moral judgment, and in a free society, we are free to make it. Would you support a law preventing me from speaking negatively about homosexuality? I think you might. I know there are those who definitely would. Happily, the law arbitrates between us and sets a moral limit on both of us, but even so, it does that with it’s own particular view of morality, of what is right and wrong, as it must. The degree to which we share in that morality is the degree to which we are at peace with the law. Without that peacekeeping function, and the moral framework behind it, there could be no personal liberty.

Answer 2

Yeah i ask myself neocons why do you care with regard to the soldier and not the veteran the fetus yet not the already in thsi international newborn i stumble on it hypocritical how they perceive as professional-life yet they might gladly watch hundreds of thousands on welfare die from a loss of nutrition because of the fact they're 'freeloaders' additionally, if our u . s . have been a christian u . s . we'd be a theocracy ideal now and thankfully we at the instant are not. You conservatives would desire to discover ways to flow forward and get your head out of the sand and comprehend the previous is previous and our ethical standards are ever constantly changing additionally morals are merely human beings's evaluations not actuality so which you may make it unlawful to kill somebody sure each physique is conscious it rather is incorrect to kill yet making it unlawful to have intercourse with yet another guy? How are 2 person men in the mattress room having consensual intercourse going to deliver this u . s . to hell? in case you conservatives desire to restoration marriage then flow after gimmicky interest shows like the Bachelor, human beings having 12 right this moment marriages, cheating on your important different and dumb mtv shows like jersey shore.

Answer 3

you know with out a doubt that the people that began this great nation where Christians. Christians where the people that fought and died for freedom so all the citizens of
the United States of America could be free. Now hear is the problem the non Christians want their way to have power over the Christians. That is not freedom, as a citizen of the USA I have the right to disagree with homosexuality I have the right to teach my children that it is un-Godly. do you have the right to force me to accept it? If you do then am I a free person?

Answer 4

Morality has always been legislated. There are laws against murder, stealing, perjury and many others. Whats wrong with these moral laws?

Your personal lifestyle and what happens in your bedroom should stay private and not be laid out in the public eye, I don't care whether you are heterosexual or homosexual.

Answer 5

I agree with you on that. People should be free to make up their own minds on these issues.

However, to answer your question, you should be aware that some Christians actually think that their "loving" God will punish this country if it allows gay marriage. They want to legislate morality out of fear of what their God will do otherwise.

Answer 6

It seems to me that all laws legislate morality. Why forbid something if there's nothing wrong with it? And why demand something unless it's right?

Answer 7

Liberty goes to the wind when people are convinced of their own god-backed righteousness.

Some people believe that liberty only exists for people that believe like they do, and it's been that way since time.

It's called "ego-centrism".

Unfortunately, due to relativity, and humankind's innate sense of stubbornness and stupidity, this will never change.

Answer 8

Legislating morality is the new Crusades that if successful will usher in another dark ages.

Answer 9

It went out in the 1980s when Reagan invited Falwell and Robertson to the table.

Answer 10

Beause they think we are too stupid to figure out morality for ourselves.
"The last time we mixed politics with religion, people got burned at the stake"