Should we establish laws preventing people from committing crimes?
2007-11-27 07:33:24 · 11 answers · asked by Eleventy 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Sweet suzy, so it is more important to stop evil, even when it detracts from free will?
2007-11-27 07:37:57 · update #1
We can do both.
Establishing laws never prevents people from having free will. At best, they only put out deterrents to bad choices, but anybody at any time can choose to steal, perjure, or kill despite the law.
Free will isn't the license to do anything we want. It's the ability to make choices for ourselves. If I decide to rob a bank, there is nothing to stop me. The thought of the punishment I will get if caught via the law might give me pause, but it doesn't prevent me from choosing.
I guess I'm saying that we really can't prevent evil. We can only try to deter it by making its consequences clear and quick. Laws are a good -- or at least expedient -- way to do that.
2007-11-28 01:07:28 · answer #1 · answered by Acorn 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nice question! In a religious sense (from a God's POV) I think preserving free will is more important. But from a humanistic POV I can see where you would want to stop evil.
However, "evil" is so loosely defined here on earth that preventing people from doing it is nearly impossible. We say killing is "evil" yet we have wars and abortions (yea we get around abortion by saying that 'it' is just a lump of cells). Who get to determine the gray areas? Would there be gray areas or is it all black and white?
How would you prevent people from committing crimes? That is Orwellian ideology if you think you can know when someone is going to commit a crime. Could not good come out of crimes? Could not one crime stop another crime? If someone killed my parents so that they left me a large sum of money which kept me out of debt, then isnt that better than me getting so broke that I have to steal and maybe kill just to survive? Is some crime truly crime? In early cultures, prostitution was seen as a neccessity and not as a hindrance.
I say preserve free will. Let me do what I want and dont keep me from making my own decisions.
EDIT: The law does not prevent evil. It merely defines evil and allows judges to dispense punishment. The law shows what is bad and without it then nothing would be evil. How could you say that killing is evil without a law stating that killing is evil? There were "lawless" societies in the past where "evil" ran rampant, but we only know that "evil" was rampant because we have the laws to define the actions of the lawless as "evil".
2007-11-27 15:46:25 · answer #2 · answered by MrMyers 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The only way to prevent a crime from being performed is to see into the future. This is not possible. Therefore your question is nonsensical since you cannot prevent a crime before it happens. If someone is making threats thats a different story. You can stop them. But there is no way to know if a crime is going to be committed before it happens.
Free will exists because thats in our constitution. Freedom of thought, expression, assembly, religion, the press are all expressions of free will. What does that have to do with crime?
2007-11-27 15:43:12 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
God could have easily created a garden in Eden with no forbidden fruit. Why did God put the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the center of the Garden of Eden? Why did God allow Lucifer to tempt Eve? It was because agency (or "free will" if you prefer) is more important than preventing evil. Preventing free will is slavery, and is evil.
2007-11-27 16:04:54 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The basic principle of free will is that it is universal. If someone murders a person they are taking away another persons free will. Thus free will is not free for all. There have to be restrictions so that everyone has an equal amount of freedom.
2007-11-27 15:40:39 · answer #5 · answered by Vuk Bronkovic 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There has to be a balance. One cannot have free will to hurt or exploit others, because it imposes on that person's free will. Evil is only relative to an objective.
2007-11-27 15:44:21 · answer #6 · answered by ruondafloyet 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Laws help prevent evil, and hopefully give incentives to sway decisions toward the positive, or good, whatever that is. Free will can't be eliminated by man, in my opinion, but can be influenced.
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High 5?
2007-11-27 15:42:17 · answer #7 · answered by super Bobo 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Preventing evil of course, but that must be Satan talking.
2007-11-27 15:39:13 · answer #8 · answered by Meat Bot 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Even if there are laws prohibiting things people will break them nevertheless, but law is intended to punish people that breaks it.
2007-11-27 15:37:19 · answer #9 · answered by Michael 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i can't remember who said this but it's a great quote: "Those who would give up liberty for security deserve neither"
2007-11-27 15:38:41 · answer #10 · answered by Tommy 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋