How do we decide what rules to live by? We're here, in the 21st century, with brains that give us capabilities far beyond those of other animals, and tools and knowhow far beyond our ancestors of even just 200 years ago. There are between 7 and 8 billion of us. We have many choices available to us. So... how should we live.
Clearly, for Christians, the Bible's an important guide. But... how much of the Bible? There are at least 7 different canons (books that are accepted as being part of the Bible) in the different branches of Christianity. Then, too, of the books we accept as canonical, how literally do we take them? All of them? The New Testament weighted more than the Old? How much should our understanding of the internal sense modify our acceptance of the literal sense?
This is going to be a big subject. Right now, it's going to be a work in progress -- a notepad of sorts. Here's one set of thoughts:
The Lord repeatedly warns the Children of Israel against situations where "everyone does what is right in his own eyes". It's pretty clear that we aren't supposed to be laws unto ourselves. See Deuteronomy 12:1-12, Jeremiah 34:8-17, Judges 17:6, and Proverbs 21:2.
