Legislating Morality

[rjh4 is back]

I think that when people say that (and I do say that on occasion), it is usually in response to something like abortion, where there is a grey and ill defined area of contention. It is probably an inaccurate use of the word morality.

I've used that phrase when I actually mean, 'you can't legislate your dogmatic beliefs.'

Paul, I don’t understand how the level of belief in an issue would suddenly make the argument reasonable. On both sides of most issues there are ranges for how people believe about the issue, e.g., dogmatically for the issue, moderately for the issue, moderately against the issue, and dogmatically against the issue. One side wins in congress and a law is passed. No matter which side prevails in the law making, isn’t someone’s dogmatic belief being legislated?

Abortion is a good one although there are so many other facets to it.

Let's consider the so-called "Drug Wars." This is an attempt to legislate "morality" by criminalizing behavior. It has not worked and a case could be made that it has backfired. It's been illegal for a long time but people still do it with no noticeable effect of what are in many states Draconian laws.

People are now seizing the opportunity to vote for marijuana when they get the chance and the state of Californian is realizing that it could use the revenue generated by taxing pot. Oddly, this was the primary rationale for the repeal of Prohibition, another attempt to legislate "morality."

Perhaps, rjh, I could suggest an amendment to your OP.

You can not successfully legislate morality.

I agree with you on your conclusion that you cannot successfully legislate morality at least in the sense that no matter what the laws prohibit I think you could find someone who goes against it. Laws against murder, slavery, stealing, blackmail, etc. are also attempts to legislate “morality” by criminalizing behavior but people still do these things.

Maybe the more appropriate statement would be, "**** theocracy."

What does theocracy have to do with anything in this thread? Don’t atheists have morals that they desire to legislate also (see my comment to Min)?