If something is illegal, does that mean it's wrong? Why or Why not?

The definition of whats legal is determined by Governmental mandates and practices, which are imposed upon the populace to govern the repression of malfeasance and aberrant behavior, by instituting its values as the social norm.
I prefer to go by the other set of values instituted over a given populace of enormous propotions as well as smaller clan-like societies, which would be moral laws. These are similar to the legislative values instituted above, and are concordantly chosen by a group and conscripted by those few to guide all; It is in fact based on the values that all good people share ( killing is bad, sharing is good, don't lie, help the weak, etc..) and bad people don't. The advantage of moral laws versus government laws, are that personal agendas don't have a fraction of the influence upon the former as opposed to the latter ( like Gay marriage, and stem cell research)
who is to say that people of the same sex are not allowed to be married just because it is popular opinion at the time and they don't want to rock the boat.
morally based laws might be like this. Since it is the wishe of those 2 individuals (men/women) to spend the rest of their life together, there is nothing that says they can't get married.
in any event I think i have rambled on enough. blah

I couldn't have said that better. I concur whole-heartedly.

I'm not entirely sure. If you are doing something like stealing something, you have to be poor or homeless or something to that nature. Otherwise, no.

In terms of doing something that can harms others, such as rape, murder, maim, pedophilia, etc.. then yes, what is illegal is wrong, but in terms of social issues such as abortion, gay marriage, stem cell research, or even political issues, then no.. because in those instances, you will see that these decisions are influenced by their own personal or religious beliefs. You'll also see that those who pushed to make these things illegal, were doing so in an attempt to oppress others for their differences.

Laws change all the time. Look at the laws of nature, humans were not born with wings, yet we fly. (Sure this is a slightly absurd example, but it is going to show exactly what I mean in a second.)
Humans break the law all the time because of our nature, infact one of the reasons we have laws are to prevent ourselves from taking advantage of others (from innate human greed.)

But just because we say something is illegal doesn't always mean it is bad. Looking again at the nature case. If humans were never to fly, everytime we tried it something disasterous would happen, or we would never have had the ability to design a machine that could fly. But yet we did, and so we have defied nature's rules and can now fly.
So if we equate this to say euthenasia or abortion... Killing is wrong but in these cases letting live could also be wrong or just as bad. (Such as a patient who only has pain and complete degeneration of their body to look forward to until a slow demise by suffocation. Or a mother who would die of medical complications if they attempted to carry the child to term.)

Using Copywrited material in Flash is illegal, but people do it and they make profits off of them.

It depends on what it is.

I.E. You've killed a man. That's illegal, but here's the thing...You killed him in order to stop him from setting off a bomb in a crowded area, and you have proof of it. The action was still illegal but it was the right thing to do.

sometimes to be right you have to do wrong, thats basically what everyones sayinf

I remember watching L.A Confidential, and this topic reminded me of some line that Dudley smith told to ed exley.


Here are the quotes.

"Captain Dudley Smith: Would you be willing to plant corroborative evidence on a suspect you knew to be guilty, in order to ensure an indictment?

Ed Exley: Dudley, we've been over this.

Captain Dudley Smith: Yes or no, Edmund?

Ed Exley: No!

Captain Dudley Smith: Would you be willing to beat a confession out of a suspect you knew to be guilty?

Ed Exley: No.

Captain Dudley Smith: Would you be willing to shoot a hardened criminal in the back, in order to offset the chance that some... lawyer...

Ed Exley: No.

I think that this all the more reaffirms my stance on this.

If something is illegal, it IS wrong. Doing it just isent right, and shouldent be tolrated.

However, if something thats done is done wrong, but to stop something worse from happning, people should look the other way. It doesent justify it, not one bit. If someone kills someone else who would have otherwise have killed sevral more people, however right it may seem, is still a crime. People however still would concider that person a hero anyway, beceause he stopped future death.

If a homeless man or women, steals food or money from people, even if the only reason is to prolong their own life, its still wrong. But is for the most part ignored, as people turn the other cheak to people in need, beceause there stopping hunger from killing those souls.

These crimes can be compared to some guy shooting a bar, for the blood lust, or some pickpocket, working tword his new plasma screen, crimes crime, laws, law, justice is justice, sin is sin.

THAT is the realistic way of looking at it, if everyone is equal then why shouldent every crime of the same kind be equal? Shure we can make reasons to justify it, but the above fact still stands.


However, I for think I would much rather the dillisonal world, where crime is based on the motive behind it, that I do.

I don't claim to be a realist.
Heh. Who else agrees?

i'm with u