RELIGION AND SOCIETY

Religion and Society ~ 398 ~ totalitarianism left the individual helpless and suppressed with his material needs uncatered for. The new man-made laws had certainly not produced justice for all, and while the latter half of the twentieth century has seen attempts to reconcile the demands of the individual and society, this experiment likewise seems to be leading nowhere. Indeed, what man so urgently requires is not one experiment after another, but an eternal law, applicable to all peoples, all situation and valid for all times. But human reasoning, when not underpinned by religion, leads us in exactly the opposite direction. As Kohler states quite unequivocally in, The Philosophy of Law, “Here there is no eternal law. Inevitably, the very law that is suitable for our age cannot be suitable for another. All we can do is make an effort to provide every culture with a suitable legal system. Something which is beneficial for one culture might be harmful for another.” This concept takes away all stability from the philosophy of law. The idea that people must have a law which suits their own particular culture is one that leads human thought to blind relativism. Bereft