If you take a small, selfish group of people with narrow vision and no imagination, sure, you'll get such stupid self-destructive "rights".
But most people are not that stupid.
Why shouldn't I steal from you if I can? Well, the first thing that occurs to me is, why shouldn't someone else steal from me?
There is no answer other than "because I will work together with the other people to ensure that nobody gets away with it". This will discourage that behavior. Thus, I get to keep my property as long as we all honor that agreement to work together.
It doesn't have to be "altruism" to make sense. Duh.
A billion lawyers won't help you if society never decided to work together to prevent theft - it would just be mob rule, and I would kill you. Then your lawyers could try to harrass me for death benefits, but it probably would be a waste of time, since a society that doesn't work together to prevent theft won't give a fig for your life, either.
Perhaps I should have emphasized the "I" in "I can think of logical reasons". I thought you would be able to do it, too, but I was mistaken. You only go far enough to find some absurd "logic" to support another inane Deist claim and no further.
But let's apply some actual logic to that idea and see where it leads us. Ok, let's say God told you stealing is wrong, so you should make a law to prevent it. How are you going to make a law without cooperation? I mean a law that can be enforced, not just you spouting a bunch of rules that everyone will ignore.
You tell me that God told you we have to do it. I laugh in your face, because I know God doesn't exist.
You tell Joe Blow that God said that, and it turns out Joe Blow received different instructions from God - God told _him_ that he should steal from anyone on your side of town.
See where this is going? Enlightened self-interest will cover the creation of _ANY_ rights that improve the lot of mankind, but religious self-interest will only help those who believe as you do.
You find it much easier to believe without questioning than to think of why a thing is really better for you than another thing. |
