On Justice and Natural Law

For those of you that have been with us since the beginning understand the stand off there has been regarding right and wrong. Its something I think about constantly, probably too much. Recently I've found that right and wrong don't matter too much if no one is willing to claim the latter. I'd obviously rather be right than wrong, but am more than willing to admit that I might be wrong at any given time. So who then is to decide right or wrong? People are flawed, who are we to decide? Everyone who makes a decision of right or wrong is in some way slightly biased. Whether there is a past experience that sways them one way, or an interest in the outcome of the future that persuades them towards the other. So we can not entirely rely on people, regardless of how benevolent the intention.

Intention
now theres a topic for a different blog.
back to the topic at hand.

If we cannot rely on people to interpret right and wrong what then can we rely on? It seems to be my experience that there is a natural law about the universe. This is the cause and affect relationship between anything and everything in the universe. When it rains, we get wet. When we are hungry, we eat. Where there is fire, there is heat. These are very simple examples of the cause and affect relationship in the world. This natural law can be expanded into every human decision, relationship, and responsibility.

Lets take responsibility, for example, It is my responsibility to put gas in my car. I don't have to put gas in my car, but there will come a time when my car runs out of gas and needs to be replenished. Its my car, its my responsibility to fill the gas tank. Cause and affect, natural law.

This is a relatively simple idea to wrap your mind around. But think about this, natural law is only applicable to self; not to society. So to take a more extreme example, such as murder, if I were to kill someone, they would be dead. Cause and affect. However, the death of that person does not necessarily reflect how wrong it was for me to have murdered them. Hence the need for justice. Justice picks up where natural law leaves off. So yes, I murdered someone, but the just law states that there is consequence other than the natural law affect. In some societies I might receive the death penalty, in others life imprisonment, and in some just a few years behind bars-depending on the lawyer.

So there is natural law, that reflects action and consequence in regard to self; and justice which reflects action and consequence in regard to community. So this is a very rigid way of living, by the book, pharasiacal, clearly defined.

The problem with this is it doesn't allow much room for development, or for experiment. There is no grace. But heres the thing about grace: grace must be administered in a particular fashion such that it promotes the development, not the detriment, of the person receiving it. So how then can this happen?

For grace to be administered, the person needs to accept responsibility for the wrong they have done, and be entirely willing to serve the sentence for that crime. In regards to the murder case, for me to receive grace, I must first take full responsibility for the murder of that person, and be willing to carry out whatever punishment I deserve. It is only then that grace would be beneficial, after I have learned it is wrong to kill, I have developed. To administer grace before hand would only promote murder.

There are currently some institutions in place like this today within our prison systems. Ideas like getting out with good behavior and things of that nature. But in general, people aren't willing to fess up to the dirty deed done. Yes I can see how I played a part in killing that man, but he harassed me all my life, he deserved it, I did the world a favor, its not MY fault. Sure it is, I aimed and fired on my own free will. The problem with people today is that they are much more interested in placing the greater blame on someone else. I may have done something to add to the situation, but they did much worse. Sorry, doesn't work that way.

People today tend more to walk around and complain how the world is affecting them, as if it wasn't their fault for the situation they are in. What good is this going to do? Its only going to cause a lazy, noisy America where nothing of importance ever gets done. Instead, we should walk around boasting about how we affect the world. Take responsibility for the wrongs you have done, no matter how small. Learn from them, develop. Then affect the world with those lessons, teach others. Make an impact.

more to come