There is a long-standing debate over the extent to which secular laws should conform to religious laws. I’d like to share a few thoughts on this issue. It’s not exactly light summer reading, but it’s useful for gaining clarity.
Believers and religious leaders believe that secular laws should be in harmony with religious laws, since God gave them for that very purpose. Secular leaders, in turn, should ensure their enforcement so that society’s intellectual and moral standards do not decline. Atheists, of course, believe the opposite; after all, since they have no connection to God, why would they want to follow religious laws? The situation is further complicated by the fact that religions within a given country can be diverse, with differing rules—so which one should be given preference? Logically, it would be the majority, but the majority changes from time to time, and those in the minority experience the implementation of the majority’s decision as a restriction on their civil liberties.
Religious laws—in smaller, more closed communities—have evolved into customary law, where people are reprimanded if they do not live according to them. At the same time, this customary law is often formal, lacking a lived foundation; people appear to follow it outwardly but not among themselves, and this outward compliance breeds hypocrisy. Another common argument is that religious laws are outdated, that time has rendered them obsolete, and that not even believers adhere to them. Yet, if they were to be elevated to the status of law, noncompliance would have to be sanctioned.
In modern countries, religious and secular life have long been secularized, which (also) means that religious rules do not dictate, for example, the making of laws. I would like to point out that this is not the case, for example, in Islamic culture! Different religious cultures tolerate the disregard of religious rules to varying degrees.
No one has yet been able to determine what the ideal state would be, but there are a few arguments worth considering.
- Religious laws stem from the idea pattern of the higher spiritual realms. In other words, they show how one should live in order to ascend to higher spheres. Since people do not understand the interconnections of religious laws, religious leaders have transformed them into commandments for their followers. This is why there are as many rules as there are religious cultures.
- God has not made any law mandatory; everyone is free to choose whether to obey them or not, but must reckon with the consequences. These consequences are either otherworldly—and thus, for example, do not even exist for atheists (as they cannot be proven)—or the experience of these consequences (e.g., illness, death) is explained away by attributing them to other causes (that is, they deny the reality of these consequences).
- A secular way of life must allow everyone to decide freely how they wish to live and what rules they will follow.
- Secular laws must enable people to gain insights into the workings of creation from their own experiences, regardless of what they believe.
- Society must remain functional; therefore, gross deviations from generally accepted norms must be prohibited so that the functioning of a given culture does not descend into chaos.
- Institutionally permitting significant deviations from certain religious rules could lead to the downfall of an entire culture—and indeed, of human civilization itself.
Secular laws should be formulated with all of this in mind.
In summary:
- Religious laws are ideal models (descriptions of the ideal state),
- adherence to them is voluntary,
- they serve the purpose of leaving the earthly plane of existence, and are mandatory for those who intend to enter higher realms.
- secular laws are based on realistic behavioral patterns (which the majority of people in a given era are capable of following),
- compliance with them is mandatory,
- they ensure earthly experience,
- they were created for those who cannot or do not wish to leave the earthly plane.
*
The governance of a country contains
strict adherence to the rules;
the winning of wars entails
cunningly circumventing the rules.
But the realm below the heavens can be only attained
through the realization of service having gained.
This is the law beneath the heavens.
How do I know these items?
Behold: the more things are forbidden,
the more people will be ridden.
The louder the noise of arms,
the more complete the mars.
The more people evolve smart mind,
the more useless things they mastermind.
The more the laws dictate,
the more thieves and robbers raid.
Therefore, the wise ruler's action
is governing through non-action.
If he has created inner quietude,
the people will be peaceful attitude.
If he does not make a fuss with rules,
the people prosper of their own tools.
If he keeps his desireless position,
the people remain in natural condition.
(Lao Tzu: Tao Te King; 57, translated by Rhasoda May)
Margaret Rhasoda Varga
guru of UCCM
Budapest, Hungary
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