What is legal and what is right? Often people will say, 'if it's legal it's right,' but when the law says it's ok to enslave someone or someone doesn't have the right to do something simply based on their race or gender legal and right clash. When discrimination is legal and the size of your wallet determines right and wrong the legal system becomes questionable. A legal system is important to ensure people act peacefully and there is no chaos. However, too often we see large scale corruption that allows the truly evil people do whatever they want while innocent people suffer the most. Most importantly, how do we determine what is right and wrong? For some they have a divine being or beings that tell them what is right or wrong. For others common sense tells them what is right and wrong.
A divine ruler giving laws to follow to someone who either claims to see him or simply hear him is quite popular around the world. For some reason ancient=right to many people so the older the texts the more right they are supposed to be. Tradition trumps common sense and just because some ancient texts says you should or shouldn't do something that is supposed to be the law of the land even if it doesn't make sense or it hurts people.
Despite there being issues with the lack of validity in the existence of their God, Jews, Christians, and Muslims insist only they have the right to say what's allowed and what's forbidden and constantly cry about how they should be exempt from any law they do not agree with. So what are their laws?
For the Jewish people there are that they must follow.
For Christianity things get a bit tricky. However, both conservative and liberal Christians can't argue with Jesus' summary of the law and most hold to the 10 commandments, everything else is subject to witch end of the spectrum you are on.
All Muslims must follow the 5 pillars of Islam
Although most people are familiar with the term Sharia Law, it is not something all Muslims follow and their are a lot of misconceptions about Sharia Law.
I grew up hearing the golden rule and always thought it was something unique to Christianity. Imagine my surprise when I discovered this concept is pretty much a universal belief found in every spiritual belief system known to man. Therefore, it truly surprises me it that we can all agree that if we don't want it done to us we should not be doing it to others, yet every second of every day someone is doing something to someone that they don't want done to them. Why? well more often than not it's because they have been taught to or in many cases the law actually commands it or the culture encourages it. Forgiveness and doing our best to help each other learn and grow from our mistakes is fundamental in just about all spiritual teachings. However, when we have judicial systems that are set up to punish people and not help them grow and an economic system that benefits high incarceration numbers, and won't allow a felon to get a job because of past mistakes, we have a problem.
One of the biggest stories for the believers in the Abrahamic religions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam is the story of the serpent in the Garden of Eden. Now, it's taught that the serpent deceived Eve and lied, but is that true? In Genisis 2:15 we learn from God that if Adam and Eve eat from the tree they will surely die. However, in Genisis 3:22 after they eat the fruit not only do they not immediately die we learn that the only way humans could live forever is if they eat from another tree called the 'tree of life'. So, even if they had never eaten the apple they would of died anyway. The serpent is made out to be a liar, but was he? In Genisis 3:1-5 the serpent simply states we will not immediately die and that we will be equal to God because we will also know right from wrong. Upon eating from the tree we did not die and according to God the only way we could live forever is if we were allowed to eat from the other tree. Therefore, if we never ate the apple we would never of known right from wrong without being told. We would only know right and wrong by what God told us and unless he eventually let us eat from the tree of life we would of still died. So, one can easily conclude that it wasn't eating the fruit that put us on a collision course with death. God set it up that way. It was always supposed to be blind obedience to his will or death. When you look at what God wants and what he promises for the afterlife, it's either blind loyalty and 24/7 worshiping him and telling him how awesome he is or eternally burning. Another issue is if we are truly equal to God in determining right from wrong, why do we need someone who is ok with slavery and genocide telling us what is right and wrong?
How we deal with people that break the law varies about as widely as what we consider is legal and illegal. Throughout history and even today dealing with troublemakers has varied greatly. For some a very strict law and even stricter and extremely harsh punishments were required to keep the peace. For others a more laxed law and even more laxed punishment was all they needed to keep the peace. So, who is right, how do we determine what should be legal and how do we punish law breakers? Ideally, one would expect a wide range of individuals that evenly represent people of all walks of life coming together and agreeing on what should be legal and how to effectively enforce these laws and what to do when people choose to break them. Naturally, that has proven to be nearly impossible. Although some like the United States (Global Peace Index #121)have failed miserably, others like Iceland #1 & New Zealand #2 have found a way to be the most peaceful nations on earth. So, what's the big difference and what must change in order to obtain a more peaceful country? Let's begin by exploring what is working.
Naturally, places like Iceland and New Zealand being small and isolated tend to have a more close nit family oriented community. If your stealing or killing chances are it's going to be a familiar person. Yes, its easy to keep the peace in a small family oriented community that is isolated from other countries compared to a large non-family oriented community surrounded by other countries, but here in America we have close communities that are violent and not so close communities that are non-violent so there must be more to a peaceful community than size and a family atmosphere. This brings us to the fact that the five Nordic countries – Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland –have consistently been in the top ten and have even taken the top 3 for many years in a row. So, what is it about these countries that set them apart from the rest of the world. More importantly how are these countries happier than the United States?
In order to truly answer that question we must look at how they are set up compared to us so we can see why they are not just happy but peaceful while we can't seem to agree that staying 6 feet apart and wearing a mask is the right thing to do to prevent spreading unwanted germs.
Now, One of the 1st things that tends to come up is always Tax's. Yes, they pay higher taxes, however there is much to discuss when it comes to return on your investment. I'll give you a hint. The happier people get more bang for their buck, and the why is exactly why we need to get into the fun and wild world of Taxes.
Now, before I loose you there is another major difference that really hits home for anyone that has had or knows someone who's had an unpleasant interaction with a law enforcement officer. Also, there is something to be said about the vast differences in how our military are instructed to interact with civilians and enemy combatants compared to the Police!
Theoretically lady justice is always fair and impartial. However, as most people that have actually dealt with the court systems will tell you she is anything but fair and impartial. Judges are supposed to be the most trusted people in our judicial system however, from bribes to personal and religious bias many of our court systems are nothing more than a joke. The more money you have and the more influential you are the less likely you will be at actually getting in trouble, or going to court at all.
Exactly who goes to jail and who doesn't is determined by our court system. However, many people don't actually know how our jail system works. Most would be shocked to know just how many innocent people are in jail right now. No, not the wrongly accused ones, the ones that haven't even seen their day in court yet. Innocent till proven guilty right, well why are innocent people in jail?
