The goal of this blog is to use the elements of thought and apply them to classwork and readings in order to get a better understanding of the system of law as it relates to society.
During the first class, we were given an exercise to do relating to an excerpt from the bible. One of the topics that we covered which I found interesting related to beliefs trumping morals. For example, the ten commandments of Christianity clearly state that murder is wrong. In this case, the belief that homosexuality is a sin lead to many people dying because of their sexual orientation. To relate this to present times, murder is still against the law, but there are still people in our society that are allowed to kill. Some examples of these people are the military and the state, such as the CIA or the FBI. Very rarely are these groups reprimanded for killing. One example that I can think of is military brutality overseas being leaked to the public. The general population was shocked and sickened by the terrible treatment of Iraqi citizens and soldiers. In order for the military to keep its dignity and to make it seem that this type of treatment was not commonplace, they imposed punishments for the American soldiers that the public knew were involved. The military/state did this in order to maintain our trust in them, our respect for them, and to ensure that we would still obey them. As long as we still trust, respect and obey them, they will still make the laws and have control.
