God Arises
Religion and Society
~ 390 ~
the basis of human values. Scholars are agreed that
this discovery of values is not possible by purely
rational methods, and constitutionalists have not
even found the correct structure within which to
frame the laws they propose. They may be agreed
that there are certain fundamental values which
they feel it would be desirable to incorporate in the
law, yet, try as they may to do so, they find that
while some values may be maintained, there are
always others which elude them. It is rather like a
man trying to weigh five frogs up with five others.
He gathers five frogs on one end of the scale. Then
he turns his attention to the other five. In the
meantime the first five jump off. And so it has
happened with all our efforts to frame a perfect set
of laws. The establishment of one set of laws has led
to the forfeit of others. There is no end in sight to
our predicament. The only ‘solution’ that western
civilization has found, says, W. Friedmann, is to
“keep wavering from one extreme to the other.”
2
One latter-day extreme which we have reached is
the sanctioning or repeal of laws according to
whether they find favour with the public or not.
Some laws, in spite of being ethically and
