Moral and Legal values

Our moral knowledge and societal values are taught in very much the same way as we are taught math or English. A set of rules is set down which are meant to apply to certain situations in real life. To act in any way not stipulated in the rules is equivalent to immoral behavior. Life situations are rarely so easily distinguishable. The vast arena of Human interaction is played out in the gray areas. Christians are forgiven for their transgressions against their own rules. If this were not the case, none would reach their heavenly reward. I cannot think of any person known to me of legal age who has not committed a crime. I doubt if there is such a person. Most transgressions of the law are minor, though transgressions nonetheless. With the myriad of laws that have been enacted, it would simply be too burdensome to obey them all. Fortunately, while laws are written to be black and white, their enforcement is very much in the gray. Yet, we still act as if there were absolutes of right and wrong and as if their parameters were clearly defined. While it is easy to discern the parameters of a geometric problem, the Human condition is astronomically more complex. While there are thousands of federal laws to govern our behavior, hundreds more are signed into law every year. One might expect that with so many laws covering the Human experience that each year would see a reduction in the number of laws enacted as the gray areas of Human activity are slowly covered. In fact, the opposite is closer to the truth. More laws are enacted every year because growth of change in the Human condition is expanding the gray areas of Human experience faster than legislatures can fill them in. There is a term in law called the loophole. Stated simply, a loophole is that circumstance or set of circumstances the lawmakers failed to recognize when writing a law that would allow someone to act in some way the law was designed to prevent. Loopholes regularly put felons back on the street. It is an act of pure optimism to think any legislative body could put together a simple set of rules governing the behavior of its citizens by using language to describe them. But like the search for truth, we try to get as close as we can, recognizing that the language we use as the principle tool is flawed and our efforts are expected to achieve only partial success.