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Thought Provoking Questions

Good thought provoking questions tend to put forth a certain viewpoint, even if only because they inherently challenge the accepted ones. They don't require you to agree with that viewpoint though. A question is just a question. We will have different answers, but I won't have any here. These are just for the purpose of provoking thought.

1. If it is wrong for me to steal from my neighbor Joe in order to send my kids to school, or to paint a picture, or to subsidize my tobacco crop, how can it be right for me to do it using the government as my agent? If enough of us vote to take Joe's money for something we want to do, does this "mob rule" make it okay? Is it okay for any purpose, or does it only become okay if it is a "good" purpose? If so, who decides what a "good" purpose is?

2. Given that Hitler was elected to parliament, and that the ancient Greek parliament was much more representative than what we have today, yet still voted to kill Socrates for teaching the wrong things, is Democracy the best we can do? If the people vote to violate their own rights and those of others, is that okay, just because the majority wants it that way? (Side note: How did a constitutional republic come to call itself a democracy just because it votes for it's leaders?)

3. If 10 million want a given party or person in power, but can never have any representation because only Democrats and Republicans will be elected by the other 90 million voters, why should they feel that this is a representative government? Wouldn't a system that allowed them to send their own representatives to congress be more fair? Isn't there a way to devise a system which allows any million voters that agree to have representation?

4. If animals cannot be treated cruelly, and the laws are recognizing that more and more, do they have "rights" as children do? If they are they dependent but with basic rights, as children are, do those who choose to "own" them, owe them proper food and medical care and should they be prosecuted if they fail to provide it? Should owners also be forced to care for pets for life, with no option to have them killed when they become inconvenient?

5. If a moral rule like, "don't steal," can lead to immoral action, as in not stealing to feed your child when that is the only option, is it possible that we need a new way to look at our defining of morality? Is morality
 
something that can be permanently codified in words, or should we use words only to point at what is beyond the definitions, and alter our definitions as often as we come to understand new things about the world and our role in it?

6. When holy books tell us to kill people for working on the wrong day (Exodus 31:15), or saying the wrong words (Leviticus 24:17) or because they are homosexual (Leviticus 20:13), and millions of people believe these are the words of God, is it possible that religions inherently breed violence, or do they only do so if people really take their religions seriously? And if people would condemn a man or woman who preached these things, why do they worship gods who say them? Religion gives us some of the most thought provoking questions.

999 Ideas | Thought Provoking Questions