I'm just experimenting. I hate the word "blog" and am fascinated with how the net seems to nurture *everyone's* vanity.
dedicated to Evil Stormbringer and Wheeloffire
Published on January 17, 2007 By Philocthetes In Off-Topic
Evil did me right by starting his own thread on the "what's a thief" question. But a few posts later in that Grammar nazi sprawl thread, QuietlyObserving says "If we are to be a society founded on the Rule of Law, it would be prudent to maintain a healthy respect for language and the meaning of words, lest we slip into a dictatorship of unelected Judges."

This gives me a painfully beautiful opportunity to start a sister thread to Evil's, and ask you all to sink your fangs, fingers, etc., into the basic question "How does a law rule without a human to interpret and/or execute it?"

That's my latest hasty attempt at a longstanding interest in the gov't-of-law-and-not-men notion that's very popular here in the US. I've also known a few linguists and flirted with other philosphies enough to be taken aback by anyone who has too much certainty about the meaning of a particular word or phrase.

Unless you're a minor with parents who don't want you seeing PG-13 movies (I know we have some sharp youth out there, just want to respect your folks), I suggest finding and playing fword.wav before you finish a reply here.
Comments (Page 3)
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on Jan 18, 2007
Laws ar
But are laws in themselves moral? Is the death penalty not immoral, regardless of what the crime entailed? Understandably, there needs to be a set of laws in place to provide consistency in the chaos and to keep our emotions from ruling our actions.
My question in all of this would be, would we need rules of law if we lived our lives upholding true morality? To me the basic moral foundation would be simply the old "do unto others" saying. You shouldn't steal, you shouldn't lie, and you shouldn't kill. These three alone, if lived by, would raise us to a level as a civilization far higher than we already are.


The death penalty is not a law, it is a penalty for breaking the law prohibiting murder.

In answer to your question. We would still need the concept of the rule of law in order to make people apprehensive about breaking the "basic moral foundation" of "do unto others."
If you as a society decide that your statement of law will be "do unto others, no lying, no stealing and no killing" then you still need to impress upon people that there will be a societal response to breaking that simple law. If there is no societal response, there will be less compulsion to obey your simple law.
Stating that such society is governed by the "rule of law" would be another way of iterating "follow the 'do unto others' creed that we have declared as our law, because we are prepared to ensure that failing to do so is punishable"
If we stated that the sole law is "do unto others" and then failed to mention that we are governed by the rule of law, we rely solely on whatever good will is inherent in individuals, and regardless of what we might wish to be true, societies that do not enforce thier laws end up with more people breaking them than societies that do.
on Jan 18, 2007
i said it above but i will make it more clear here


law=normalty for the sociaty=what the majority in the sociaty agree it is


also

the big astronamy question is


if the universe is everything, and the universe is expanding, what is the universe expanding into.
on Jan 18, 2007
We would still need the concept of the rule of law in order to make people apprehensive about breaking the "basic moral foundation" of "do unto others."


Yes, I understand this. However my question was more 'philosophical' in nature in the sense that I was implying that we as individuals wouldn't need to be 'reminded' if we truly enlightened ourselves and crawled out from our primitive mindset regarding our neighbors. I realize that this implies that we would be living in a perfect world and unfortunately this is not the case.
I was trying to stir up the mix in that way and not touch on our present reality. To add to this 'daydreaming' thought, if there is life out there, and they've been watching us as a whole, do you really think they would 'allow' us access to the wonders of the universe when we can't even manage our own backyard without destroying it? Here we are, all set to try and get back to the Moon (so that we may mine her, profit of course drives all)and we haven't even taken care of our own pollution problems. I know if I was part of a superior civilization and was observing 'us' I would do everything in my power to thwart our plans... for we are undeserving of such knowledge and technology, as we prove daily.
on Jan 18, 2007
Ahh... i give up with this statement, ists and isms are bad things regardless of your disposition.
on Jan 18, 2007
Ahh... i give up with this statement, ists and isms are bad things regardless of your disposition.


What happened TGE? Burn yourself out on the constitution thread?
on Jan 18, 2007
Yes...   
Plus, thers so much to read... again.
on Jan 18, 2007
Ahh... i give up with this statement, ists and isms are bad things regardless of your disposition.


Ahh, you're just being a contrarian
on Jan 18, 2007
Let me add ians in there too   
on Jan 18, 2007
Would that include Altarians as well?

They can really be irritating.
on Jan 18, 2007
because energy does not exist without time.


How so?

Energy is the capacity for doing work.

Doing the actual work may require time, but the capacity itself would not rely on time.



You have to decide what you believe happens when time is removed.

What makes sense to me is that by all definitions, matter, light and energy no longer exist! Just emply blackness - well light matter and enegy would still exist but not in any tangible way, if your outside of time, from that perspective, energy, matter and light would not exist.
on Jan 18, 2007
Actual matter cant be created or destoryed, not energy

So technically the universe wasnt created, its always been there
on Jan 18, 2007
if the universe is everything, and the universe is expanding, what is the universe expanding into.


I would argue that the universe itself isn't expanding. It is infinite. It's just that all the matter/energy/stuff inside it is moving outwards through space. That space is itself part of the universe, and is infinitely big.

Actual matter cant be created or destoryed, not energy


Matter AND Energy cannot be destroyed. They are in fact different forms of the same thing, and can be changed into each other in accordance with Einstein's' formula: E=mc^2

(E is engery, m is mass)
on Jan 18, 2007
i think that at the time of the big bang is when energy was transformed into matter

also what we call the universe may not be the universe but just a group of galaxies in side of the universe
on Jan 18, 2007
The most approve theory of the 'big bang' is that the whole entire universe was squezed into one little tiny molecule. And as to how it got out of there is widely argued.
on Jan 18, 2007
that may be true

but remember that light is energy and matter at the same time

so without matter there is no light

one other thing to consider

genesis agrees with the big bang theory
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