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To: Notwithstanding
Here's a potential argument for the position you've been asked to support.

People form governments to protect their rights. Laws should therefore deal with violations of rights. Virtually everyone, religious or not, will agree that they do not want to be raped, robbed, murdered, assaulted, defrauded, etc. It's just and proper therefore for laws to prohibit these activities.

Most religions quite properly define these activities as sins, immoral, prohibited behavior, etc. They're accepted by the irreligious as well, making them a universal morality.

However, most religions have many other prescriptions for the behavior of their believers. Baptists, for example, don't believe in dancing. Mormons don't use coffee or tea. Orthodox Jews and Muslims don't eat pork.

Many of the religious prescriptions conflict with those of other faiths. If they are not a matter of law, then their good (or bad) consequences accrue only to the followers of the particular faith. But if they're codified in law, they infringe on the rights of others to act in ways that violate no one's rights.

An unanswerable question in an attempt to codify religious morality is "Which religion?" If Mormons are the majority, should they be able to prohibit sale of coffee and tea? If Baptists are the majority, should dancing be outlawed? Is Muslims are the majority, should all women wear burkhas?

Law is properly the province of universal morality, not religious morality. There are many good and fine things that can come from following a faith. This does not mean faith should be law.

154 posted on 02/11/2003 1:57:32 PM PST by jimt
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To: jimt
#153 and #154: Well stated.
155 posted on 02/11/2003 10:21:03 PM PST by coloradan
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