Ravi Zacharias Quotes

This proverb operates with the force of law and in a sense is the doctrine of contributory negligence. I have a right to compensation for damage you have done me unless I have done something which impinges on your rights. If your camel destroys my crops, my rights have been violated, but if had used your camel without your permission, and he got out of control. I right is cancelled out. In a larger sense, this principle is used globally in international disputes. The Israeli right to live in peace has been, in the view of some Arabs, “cancelled out” by the fact that the Israelis have taken others land.

Note that the two do NOT ALWAYS coincide. There are those who argue that law should be respected, right or wrong. There are also those who argue that law should be respected, only when it is in the right. Note also that “respect” and “obedience” are two different things. Some people argue that law and the courts and government must have respect. Others that they are only due obedience but not necessarily respect when they are in the wrong. Still others, like Thoreau, that obedience even is not required when the law is wrong. There are those who take this to the degree that obedience to a “wrong” law is wrong and there is a DUTY to disobey a wrong law. However, a more nuanced view does not treat all laws as the same importance. I may think a particular tax is unjust and wrong, but obedience does not necessarily have moral consequences. A law that says that people with a certain religion must not be hired, however, is sufficiently immoral that I am obliged to disobey it.

Most politicians find it so in public reaction which is why they try and campaign with discussions of moral issues.