If you could make just one law that everyone obeyed...what would it be?

[TheOne]

Be... excellent... to each other. And...


PARTY ON DUDES!!

[Vasti]

To illegalize lying in politics and commercials

[Deleted]

I would ban religions or wars, altough denying other would take other in same.

[Belisarius565]

Treated right involved some kind of common sense, I fail to see how that is so hard to grasp. Ask yourself these questions:
- Should I make sure my child is well fed and is being given a diverse nutrition?
- Should I make sure my child does his homework?
- Should I physically abuse my child?
- Should I sexually abuse my child?
- Should I make my child a part of my agenda in order to punish my spouse?

If you do not know the answer to these questions, then I'm afraid you should not have a child. This is what I mean by treated right.

Now let me ask you this. Do we agree that a child, which is being treated badly by its parents, has a greater risk of becoming a burden to society? This is the basis of my argument.

To my knowledge you cannot be punished as a parent if your child ends up becoming a criminal. We agree that a human being is shaped by many factors. But I'll argue that one of the greatest factors are its parents. Please note that I also wrote: "(Obviously there are exceptions to this)" which I assume you can see is linked to the fact that it not necessarily is the fault of the parent that the child becomes a criminal. Jeffrey Dahmer is one of these examples.

My law would simply say that if you do not raise your child properly, you face the death penalty. If your child becomes a thief then you've obviously failed your job as a parent. No child deserves a childhood where your parents don't care about you.
In the most extreme cases we've got John Wayne Gacy Jr. and Ted Bundy as the examples of what happens when a child is not treated right.

I hope my post enlightens my point (:


If you're being a good parent, then what is there to be afraid of?

Being treated right is still very subjective. Some children get better educations if they are home-schooled, if treated right means, they "have to go to school" then I guess the parents deserve to die because their children were better educated at home then at school.

Some people would say treated right would mean, getting an allowance every week for chores they do around the house, other parents would disagree.

I am not debating that parents should or should not treat their kids right, they should, but through a law, it is very hard to get everything put down in it. The worst thing people can do, is not be for each other and their kids.

Parents do their best, and a kid wants this magazine but can't pay for it, so they steal, and the child is a "thief" I guess the parents should be put to death right?

The problem with parents not caring about their kids comes from them being selfish human beings, who need to be selfless to their spouse and their children.

"If you're being a good parent, then what is there to be afraid of?"

If your child does a crime, even being a good parent, then its the parents fault, that they would be killed. So it doesn't matter what they do. Lets say a child steals a dvd, so his parents get killed, then because the parents were "horrible" I suppose the grandparents should be killed for not being good parents to their children, that were bad parents to their kid. Then the kid who had stolen the dvd, his siblings have no parents anymore anyway.

[Grizzly Willy]

We were talking about a law that everyone magically obeyed, no matter what, which in itself already throws all realism out of the window. Hence banning all religion, as opposed to banning practicing religion, would not supress beliefs, but erase them. This would set the base to global development that would lead to moral, cultural and intellectual homogenization, and ultimately unification, of the entire human race.

But people still discriminate based on other factors. Science can still be twisted to suit the beliefs of the ignorant.

[Deleted]

We were talking about a law that everyone magically obeyed, no matter what, which in itself already throws all realism out of the window. Hence banning all religion, as opposed to banning practicing religion, would not supress beliefs, but erase them. This would set the base to global development that would lead to moral, cultural and intellectual homogenization, and ultimately unification, of the entire human race.

Oh, is that why UK, for example, doesn't want the EU to be more united? Because of religion? Who knew, I thought it was because of economy, poverty, greed, selfishness etc.

But you're right, most wars were carried because of religions, right. I mean when Hitler and Stalin... wait, no, that was racism and despotism. Ok, maybe in WW1 when Austro-Hungary attacked... wait, no, that was because of a wish for land and greed. Ok, ok, the crusades, the knights templar attacked in the name of religion... if you exclude the piles of gold and the power they got of course.

In truth, very few wars were in the name of religion. Religion was used as a motive, but the true motives were greed, need for power and wealth. So even if you removed religion... well North Korea doesn't seem really nice and willing to enlighten and become united with the rest of the world... unless the rest of the world is under them. Neither did USSR.

Yes, religion has some bad parts, but to say that religion is the factor that stops unification of the human race is ignorant.

---------- Post added 2013-03-18 at 02:49 PM ----------

Funny. I never talk about religion until you try to force it on everyone.

And I never talk about religion until someone tries to force their atheist thinking on everyone.

[Exeris]

If you can't afford kids, pull out.

That solves about 80% of society's ills.

I had a few ideas but this trumps them so badly.

[Maxilian]

That's easy... Everyone have to obey what I say.... now i can create as many laws as i want :P

[Ratyrel]

"Respect one another."

[Exeris]

To illegalize lying in politics and commercials

Don't forget news channels, with the effect they have on people(in some cases bordering on brainwashing) it's mind bogeling that it's allowed.

[Deleted]

No corruption.
that right there would solve all the world's problems.

[Deleted]

"Show appropriate respect to other human beings".

It's a tad of a cheap shot, since that would pretty much cover all the positives of most other suggestions. Overly aggressive persuation of personal ideologies (religion or lack thereof, politics etc) would stop. Offensive humor would become a non-issue, since those of us with a particular brand of humor would respect that not everyone feels the same and not push it in their faces (and vice versa, etc). People would still be able to discuss and debate, but heated arguments would stop until everyone cooled down instead of turning into a dogfight. And so on, and so forth.

Basically, everything would be pretty much fine. So... yeah. Kind of a cheap shot to pull when talking hypothetics like this. :P

---------- Post added 2013-03-18 at 04:05 PM ----------

then what will atheists do? If they can't boast their egos by talking about how much the hate religion every 5sec, they'll go made within a week!

Bunching together different disconnected behaviours under an ideological label is always dumb, whether it be calling all christians pedophiles, all atheists anti-theistic loudmouths, or just about anything else.

Many of us don't represent /r/atheism. Many of us have our worldview and accept that not everyone shares it as long as they accept ours, much like you do. But going out of your way to insult entire groups just because of a few loudmouths is not going to help either one of us get what we wish for. That's an individual responsibility, not something that has to do with whether and/or in what you believe. Waiting for someone else to throw the first stone so you can claim "they started" when you act the same way, like Orbitus and Snowraven seem to take pride in doing, is not a good solution either.

Respect takes everyone a long, long way.

[Elegiac]

Probably pay your goddamn fair share of taxes (I.e. a progressive structure). Oh look, revenue crisis solved.

[Libram]

Better internet for rural areas. Low latency, 20mbps down, and 15mbps up at the very least. No mid tier dial up pretending to be DSL. >: (

[AeneasBK]

Love others as you love yourself.

[Maxilian]

All non-Catholics commit suicide. The planet will be a little less cramped now.

When an ateist say something like what you say he sounds a little... weird and intolerant, but when a catholic (religion person) say that sounds ironic :P

---------- Post added 2013-03-18 at 08:56 AM ----------

Love others as you love yourself.

I don't think that will really work..., you know... there are many people that hate themself..., i would go with "Don't do to others what you don't want to be done to you"

[Lodreh]

Be kind to your fellow man... think of others before yourself... don't be a douche... failure to comply should be punishable with swift execution.

[Maxilian]

Be kind to your fellow man... think of others before yourself... don't be a douche... failure to comply should be punishable with swift execution.

Martian teacher: Childs, that's how the human race become extinct...

[Keyblader]

No flip flops or sandals, unless you are at the beach or pool, so gross.

[cubby]

Ez-mode answer. Kant's categorical imperative: Only do to others what you would have them do to you. End of thread, end of woes.