"Whatever deviates from the plain path of duty, or contradicts received opinions, seems to imply strength of will, or a strength of understanding, which seizes forcibly on the attention. Whether it is fortitude or cowardice, or both, there is a strong propensity in the human mind, if its suspicions are once raised, to know the worst. .... When once the fairy dream in which we have lulled our senses or imagination is disturbed, we ...
"The state exists simply to promote and protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life. A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden -- that is what the state is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time.” -- C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 4:8.
Even when the Constitution flatly forbids doing something – for example, prohibiting the free exercise of religion, or abridging freedom of speech or press – courts often weigh competing considerations to decide whether the “something” may be done, pleading that the meaning of the prohibition isn’t clear.
The same people often assert both of the following propositions:
#1: I may have intercourse with anyone at any time whenever I feel desire, because I am only a body.
#2: It doesn’t matter whether I am having intercourse with the opposite sex, the same sex, or Martians, because I am not defined by my body.
We don’t often stop believing in God, then start looking for new sins to commit. We become attached to sins we don’t want to give up, then start looking for reasons not to believe in God.
Most Americans say that “private” moral character doesn’t affect fitness for public office. Yet though many will vote for an adulterer, far fewer will vote for a wife-beater.
What this shows is that they do think moral character affects fitness for public office. They merely don’t consider marriage vows important enough.
Rules are necessarily biased; bias is in the nature of a rule. The rules of baseball are tilted in favor of skill, because skillful competition is what baseball is about; the rules of education, in favor of knowledge, because the extension of knowledge is what education is about. Rules can and should be fair. But the notion that fairness means neutrality is a fallacy.