I'VE GOT IT!

[johnpalmer]

Finally... I finally found the word I'm looking for.

Yes, laws should be based in moral principles, but laws should be based in morality, not holiness. Morality is that set of things that are right and wrong; holiness is that kind of stuff that you feel your religion commands that isn't based upon accepted ideas of right and wrong.

So, you can certainly legislate against non-consensual sex of all forms. You can't legislate against consensual sexual acts that are unholy.

You can legislate against theft and murder and so forth; you can't legislate against breaking the sabbath or eating pork.

Comments

[nsingman.livejournal.com]

Your distinctions seem a bit arbitrary, John. I've met vegetarians who would happily legislate against eating pork, for example, on the basis of no "holiness" whatsoever. Perhaps you mean that laws shouldn't be based solely on a religious prohibition? Still arbitrary, though; I see no reason why atheist prudes should be allowed to outlaw marijuana or prostitution, but religious prudes shouldn't.

The motives don't matter; the restrictive laws do.

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Well... you're right, the distinction isn't useful for answering questions, but I think it's useful for expressing the question. Even if you say the government should be allowed to legislate "morality", it clearly shouldn't be allowed to legislate holiness, because, face it, for any one religion's holiness, there's almost certainly another that proclaims the same thing unholy.

Think of it this way: I'm saying is that you, as a libertarian, think a lot more is "legislating holiness" than I would. Taxation? That's legislating the holiness of an undefinable (Well, infinitely redefinable)"common good". So, we could debate where 'morality' ends and 'holiness' begins. But, if we used that structure, at least we'd know where we disagreed, and better understand why.