St. Paul and I Agree...
Taxation is not theft: "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves." -- Romans 13 The key idea implicit here, and the one that turned me on the subject of whether or not taxation is theft, is that "every soul" owes obedience to the "governing authorities." Now, if that is a debt I truly owe , then, when those authorities levy the taxes they need to do the job of governing, I owe them those taxes, and attempts to collect them certainly do not constitute acts of theft. And obviously it doesn't matter at all, from this point of view, whether or not I "signed" any sort of "social contract." (In fact, the history of political thought since the Reformation can be read as an attempt to find a secular rep...
I'm confused, is this: (a) a bum circle, (b) a poor excuse for a bonfire party, (c) a view from Zuccotti Park, or (c), all of the above? Or, is there a deeper philosophical point that you're trying to drive home?
ReplyDeleteDarn it, I want answers!!! ;)
Burn barrel. Just thought the flames looked cool.
ReplyDeleteAh, yes! I agree. I do a lot of camping in the summertime, and I often like to watch the campfire flames do their dance. While I don't have any pictures of flames, I do have a ton of photos of that big, burning ball in the sky. When I was at sea I would always take pictures of the sunset in order to attempt to catch the green flash in a photo. While I never caught it, I do have a ton of pictures of beautiful ocean sunsets.
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