>Society can claim that innocent teens are witches, and society can
burn them, and society can claim it was their right--but it was only their might--coupled
with a colossal ignorance. Society can claim the sun revolves around the earth, and
they can act as if that was fact--but it is not.<
Now it seems to me you have mixed up several different logical issues. First issue is rights. Does society have the right to burn people, if it chooses to? I would argue yes, since I do not believe in absolute rights. Secondly, the fact that society was under a misconception about why it burned people- is completely unrelated to the right to do it (imo). Unlike the sun revolving around the earth- which society cannot change by fiat- society can change the rights you enjoy. Rights are not fact (imo) they are metaphysical. They are belief, attitude, and exist in the whim of the time and place you live in. The earth revolving around the sun is not metaphysical. It can be measured scientifically. Many different people, of many different faiths, attitudes, beliefs, could observe this phenomena and come to a similar conclusion- because the subjectivity of it's observation is minimal. The subjectivity of the observation of "rights" I would argue is maximal. |
