I was reading one of LICC‘s Word for the Week emails and in passing it said this:
[P]erhaps surprisingly, negative commands give more freedom than positive ones.
I thought it was an interesting point. Which does indeed give more freedom? I’d not really thought of that before…
If there are 1000 options of what to do, then 1 “Do” is more restrictive than 998 “Do not”s.
So even if a religion’s teachings were full of “Do not”s it wouldn’t mean it was more restrictive than if if had lots of “Do”s.
It would mean though that it was more open to interpretation and debate.
Perhaps religions that have lots of “Do”s are more limiting, but offer more comfort of there only being one “right” way.
What would you prefer:
- A system where everything is forbidden and just a selection of things are permitted, or
- A system where everything is permitted and just a selection of things are forbidden?
Although personal preference isn’t a factor in determining the truth, is it?