Quote:
Originally Posted by Peter_
My stance is towards it being an archaic law introduced purely for people to go to church, we live in a modern society with modern needs and the is no need for a shops to open later and shut earlier of a Sunday, they could easily open 9am to 6pm without any issue.
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Your argument that something must change because it is 'old' and society is 'modern' is a fallacy. There is no logical reason why something must change just because it has been that way for a long time.
The fact that shops open for more than essential purposes for any time at all on a Sunday is precisely the issue because it increases the number of people who have to work on a Sunday and erodes the seven-day cycle our society has been built around for many centuries.
I'm also a bit sad at your somewhat prejudiced implication that the seven-day cycle's association with 'church' in some way makes it less valid. The fact is, it works. The French revolutionaries tried to decimalise the calendar in the late 18th century and eventually had to give it up (ironically, after an old fashioned dozen years). The seven-day cycle persists because it's a good one that is attuned in some way to a basic human rhythm.
That may be God-given, as the Bible claims, or if you like it could be a natural thing that the Bible simply sought to offer an explanation for (I'm with the former idea personally, but hey ho
). Either way, the seven-day week is discussed in some of the oldest texts in the entire book, which gives the lie to any historically illiterate notion that it is some sort of medieval English invention designed to force people to go to church. It has been around in one form or another for millennia.
I think our put-upon descendants will not forgive us if we give it up.