Utopia Book 3

• The Senate decides the law
• No one is distinguished
• They are very open to different religions
• When an authority advises a person to choose death and the person agrees, they receive and honorable death. However, if they should choose death without the authority's approval then their body is thrown in a ditch without an honorable funeral.
• Polygamy and divorces are not allowed except in the case of adultery and perverseness. Then the victim can remarry but the adulterer cannot.
• The sick are kept isolated and comfortable
• Girls have to be 18 and men have to be 22 before they are allowed to marry.
• A bride and groom have to see each other naked before they get married.

The senate deciding the law is the way it should be, you do not want the entire village or city deciding, then everything would be greatly distorted. The fact that they do not have any one person appearing better than anyone else is excellent; no one wants to feel like they are not good enough. The fact that all religions are accepted is amazing, different beliefs often cause controversy. The whole ordeal with honorable and non-honorable deaths is a little strange, it seems to me that if a person commits suicide without authority figures okay then it is bad, but how does that work. In the Catholic Church suicide is a selfish sin, no matter what, so why is it okay in Utopia if a priest tells you you can commit suicide. I agree with the fact that polygamy and adultery are frowned upon, and remarriage after being cheated on is okay. I really think they have that one down. Keeping the sick away from the healthy is smart, and then the illness does not spread to the rest of the village. For women to wait until they are 18 to get married is the smartest thing I have ever heard. Girls are not prepared to make the decision of long-term commitment any earlier than that. Men being 22 is even smarter; man's maturity level compared to woman's is far lower. However, the seeing of your soon to be spouse naked before the wedding is a little hard for me to grasp. I understand the no surprised there. Although some religions forbid that and if the society if fully accepting of the different religions should they not also be accepting of the rules that are put down by those religions. It is just a little too hypocritical for me.