Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Who Creates Laws?

While atheistic worldviews tend to hold the belief that laws have evolved/been created by societies over time, theistic worldviews see most laws as evidence of a universal "moral code" inscribed in every individual by God. For instance, in how many cultures of the world is it legal to steal and murder? These are universally recognized acts of injustice. But, the question I would like to ask people who believe the principle of law is an evolving product of society, is, who defines this idea of "injustice/justice?" If laws are evolving with society, why have these principle laws remained more or less the same throughout human history? If our definition of justice, freedom, and love are products of our society, why has the way in which humanity defines these virtues remained the same throughout all cultures in human history? The only logical conclusion I see is that these laws have been placed within the fiber of man's being by a Creator.
Secondly, if man's character is essentially good, and society is the source of the world's evil, does it not follow that, if we eliminated all social constructs, like, laws, man should then produce only good fruits? If man is good and society is evil, shouldn't a lawless, shapeless society be the best one? Yet history has proven time and time again that both individuals and groups of people without laws resort to some of the most evil behavior humanity has seen! Lawlessness produces chaos, not order. Thus, we must conclude that mankind is fallen (essentially bad without guidance) and needs the order of law, which testifies to the inscription of the tendency toward basic law in man's nature.

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