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From: friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.religion
Subject: Re: Schools and Churches (really 'support' for areligious moral codes)
Message-ID: <766@psivax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 1-Oct-85 16:34:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: psivax.766
Posted: Tue Oct  1 16:34:35 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 7-Oct-85 03:21:56 EDT
References: <623@hou2g.UUCP> <5884@cbscc.UUCP> <1154@mhuxt.UUCP> <5906@cbscc.UUCP> <10425@ucbvax.ARPA>
Reply-To: friesen@psivax.UUCP (Stanley Friesen)
Organization: Pacesetter Systems Inc., Sylmar, CA
Lines: 28
Xref: watmath net.politics:11340 net.religion:7895
Summary: 

In article <10425@ucbvax.ARPA> mcgeer@ucbvax.UUCP (Rick McGeer) writes:
>
>	I disagree.  The primary purpose of government (I would argue the
>sole purpose, but this debate has been going on in net.politics.theory for 
>some time) is the protection of the lives and property of its citizens from
>those who would take same by force.  If government does not enact and enforce
>laws in the protection of its citizens, then it is sterile and useless, and
>should be banished.  Hence the laws are not derived from any moral or religious
>basis -- they are the very soul of the state, and failure to enact and enforce
>such laws should and will be the end of the state.
>
	Well, I think a little more is needed here. The reason for the
state in the first place, the reason humans invented this thing, is to
provide for a stable social structure within which human interactions
can procede with reasonable amicability. Thus what the laws do best,
what they are really designed to do, is to restrict the occurance of
antisocial behavior which would tend to destabilize society. Thus
murder is illegal not because it is immoral(tho I believe that it is),
but rather because allowing people to kill one another with impunity
would tend to produce an environment of fear in which productive
interactions are difficult. Thus laws are best justified on the basis
of *utility* not morality.
-- 

				Sarima (Stanley Friesen)

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