Law and Justice

"Are we not more obligated to achieve justice than to obey the law?" This quote best represented my opinion of law and justice because I believe that not all laws are justifiable. During swim season last year, my ipod and twenty dollars were stolen from me, but the girl was caught red-handed right then and there as she was stealing. I never got any money back or my ipod, yet I filed a police report. Even though this girl was a minor, I think she should have had to pay back or give back what she stole. Stealing is against the law, yet how is it justifiable at all that she didn't get any punishment for that? I know this has happened to many people at the high school and in this situation justice is not achieved. As it also said in this packet many laws are good because they protect us against wrongdoing, but laws also make people do things they don't want to and protect some people but not others. However, I think that both laws and justice are a need in the world because a world without laws would turn to chaos and a world without justice would not be worth living in.

Intelligent Design

The definition of intelligent design is certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection. The intelligent design theory is not just based on faith. It can be found in Plato's and Aristotle's teachings. The debate between the two sides is that people don't want any aspect of religion taught in biology class. I don't see the problem with it being taught in science classes because most schools teach evolution in only a few days and the intelligent design part does not particularly have to have anything said about God. I think that Matzke is correct with his view on teaching in schools. To require students to understand something but there is a difference about learning and believing and that the students should retain complete freedom of conscience. I think that students should be taught both because they need to be taught everything that is available for them to learn. It will prepare them for something that may possibly come out in science in the future.

Should Promoting Democracy Abroad Be a Top U.S. Priority?

I agree with both Siegle and Wittes. Siegle makes a good point in that democracies tend not to fight one another and are friendly, politically and economically. Also, if the ultimate goal of the government is to provide safety for citizens and high standards of living, it is in the best interest for countries to be democratic. In the most democratized countries, they promote their government by providing every aspect of their institutions(freedom, civil workers, etc.). An example in the packet was that in one country, they got more free press, and it cut down the amount of graft (corrupt policemen) because it was exposed publicly. Siegle argues that democratized countries have developed faster than those that are not, and there are facts to prove it as in the last sentence. However, in some instances the US has not insisted on democracy and it is a good thing. Because of the politics of oil, we have not forced democracy on the Arab countries. The Western economies would be severely damaged because they might cut off our oil. Hardly anybody would be able to drive because of the explosive gas prices. Even though it is proven that countries with high levels of democracy in all aspects have higher growth rates, many countries that aren't democratic want to stay the way they are. Otherwise, we will have to pay the consequences. That is why we must pick our fights wisely on which countries to press our democratic ways on.