Here's something I've been toying around with for a while. In a new story I've started I wanted to create a society at its worst in order to make their redemption more meaningful. I looked at the world in the days of Noah, Sodom and Gomorrah and some passages in the Book of Judges for inspiration.

I wanted to create a culture in which every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Murder and violence is not only legal but socially acceptable. For all practical purposes, the institution of the family doesn't exist. Marriage is unheard of and when a couple is "unfortunate" enough to have a child, that child becomes property of the state. The government does everything it's not supposed to do and nothing that it is supposed to do.

When I write, I like to come up with a concept and then create various scenarios that work out of that. So, I'm curious (1. What do you think of the idea? (2. What do you think are some of the implications and possibilities of such a society?



God Bless,
Josh

In a society with absolutely no rules, anything can happen. But most often the things that are done will be evil, and sometimes unthinkable. It will be chaos (if you have ever watched the movie "The Dark Knight", Heath Ledger's Joker is an excellent example of this). I think it is a very interesting idea, but one that would take some careful thought and discretion to do well. I agree that a society on the brink of complete evil is a much more moving subject for redemption; and as far as possibilities go, they are endless. You said there is a government, have they completely taken over industry? What about euthanasia? In a world without morals, the government would be very interested in eugenics and willing to eliminate any non-contributing members of society. Just a few thoughts; good luck, I think you have a good idea.

Thanks! Yeah, the government does completely control industry. They basically raise children beginning at birth and then assign them a career when they come of age.

That sounds like an evil culture alright. Do you think adding human sacrifices to demons would make it any worse?

That's a really intriguing idea, and one that would be neat to play around with!
The only thing that I thought of is that God does provide everybody with a measure of common grace. Since we are made in His image, there are some "laws" that are common to all men, even if they aren't included in a land's written laws. Are these people's consciences totally dead, so that they just don't care? Or are they in rebellion against God?

Good point, Inesdar. I definitely agree with you.

It sounds rather like a dystopia, it would be interesting, but as illustrated by today's world, it's rather hard to make a society change its way when the way they are going is glamorized by celebrities and such.

Varon touched on something that got me thinking...perhaps the movie/film industry could be really big in your world? I don't know what your technology level would be at in this world but I know in our world what superstar actors/actresses do is glamorized by their fans and highly publicized in the media, etc. So perhaps a society where people like these are revered/admired thus meaning that when they mess up or completely ruin their lives, society sees it as OK, thus preventing it from comitting moral suicide and keeping the situation dragging along? I'm not sure if that made sense...ask me to explain again if needed.

Just one last idea...perhaps the government has some sort of very effective propoganda, effectively condoning and advertising all the evil that goes on, thus making it acceptable and also prolonging the time before the society commits moral suicide. Just a thought.

OK, about the society...it's definitely an interesting idea. Various asundry people have brought up in this thread the common grace/land-law idea, which is definitely true...God did give us at least a measure of common grace...obviously, as our society is not at this point (yet ). But here's the thing: this is a fantasy story. I'm not sure how you're engineering it, but when there was the Fall, or something like that, maybe God completely cursed mankind, not even leaving them with common grace, or, a lot less than what 'we' were left with. I know that sounds a bit cheesy, but, like I said, this is fantasy, and it's not Earth.

But this brings up the question of how these people will be redeemed. Will a Saviour come and save some of them, and then they will continue His work throughout the world? Obviously the worse you make a society the harder it gets to redeem them, at least through human terms. God can do it.

Or maybe there never was a fall...maybe these people were always evil, and need to be brought in to the Creator for the first time, not as returning rebels but as first-time comers. Of course, this brings the complication of how they were created evil in the first place...you can't have Satan twist them into evil beings because that meant they must have been good at some time or another. And you can't have Satan 'create' them, per se, because that's putting Satan on a level with God...Satan can't create things. OK, maybe this last paragraph was a stupid idea...but I'd like to play with it some.

eruheran

I'm not sure if you would want to write a whole book about that unless there was some sort of redemption to be found. If it was just a cautionary tale it might work better as a short story.

That said, there are SO many possibilities to that idea. You could add demons, turn the movie industry into like a drug. And I'd say you'd have to make the culture more evil than what you've described. Because we already have cultures like that on earth. And I'm not sure if there would be government or not.

There might just be a lot of gangs running around, that kind of warfare, drug lords, and anarchy. Looting all the time, etc...

It's my opinion that if we ever come to that point, and God takes away all of his presence...the human race will tear itself apart like that.

Basically anything anyone says is okay is okay, so I'm just wondering how a government functions at all?

It reminds me of the Oath by Peretti. The whole "if sin be master, serve it well" deal.

I'm guessing the government would be dictatorial, VERY corrupt, yet still functioning because there's that desire for power in every human...

eruheran

If everyone does whatever they want, what purpose would a government serve? The most common reasons to have a government would fall apart.

Hmm... I've been doing a series by TrueU called Does God Exist?, and they talked about how it is impossible to live with no standard. Think of Animal Farm: some form of government would probably show up, in a pyramid form.

I think a government would show up, as Shawn said. After all--every human really longs for some sort of control or power over others. Granted, there would be a lot of disloyalty to whoever the top dog was but I think some sort of government would still function. Add to that a human's love of money and soldiers could be kept in order just by paying them large amounts. Which would end up with some sort of martial law government...

eruheran

I like that idea.
Kenton D. Long

Sounds a lot like Soviet Russia.

Okay, before the Flood, everyone did what was right in his own eyes, and after the Flood, God wanted to make sure that would not totally happen again, so He instituted the Death Penalty. (See Genesis 9:5-7.) In doing so, He instituted our modern idea of government; that the government's primary function is to punish wrongdoers. (See Romans 13:3-4.) So, before the Flood, the governors probably just tried to make people do what they wanted, and did not punish people for murder and other crimes. Before God set up the Death Penalty, the only punishment for murder was revenge, from a friend of the murdered person.
So before the Flood it was probably like, "You killed my brother now I'm gonna kill you."
"Well now you killed my friend for killing your brother so now I'm gonna kill you." See how that could descend into chaos very quickly? So when the government punishes lawbreakers, we have good order, and chaos does not descend.
(However, when the government does not obey God's command, chaos does descend...)

If you want to explore the idea of where a government would fit into this picture further, try reading Frank Peretti's "Nightmare Academy". It goes into a lot of what would happen if you remove right and wrong from the picture.